English writing lesson: Three fun ways to boost your vocabulary

Example of an acrostic poem based on a person’s name

In this blog post, we are going to talk about how to boost your vocabulary in order to write better English, which in turn will boost your professional brand.

To me, there are no hard and fast rules.

Different people have different ways of improving their vocabulary.

First of all, what is “vocabulary”?

Vocabulary is simply “a group of words used in a particular language”.

Three fun ways to boost your vocabulary

(1) Form words from a bigger word

When I was younger, one of my favourite pastimes is to form many words from a bigger word.

For example, I would challenge myself to form as many words as I could from a big word, such as “Singapore”.

Examples of such words include “sing”, “gap”, “ore”, “ping”, “in”, “pore”, “pear”, “sin”, “gape”, “spore” and so on.

Here’s an exercise for you.

Can you form more than 20 words from the word “Singapore”?

(2) Write a mnemonic acronym

Another fun way you can boost your vocabulary is to write a mnemonic acronym.

A mnemonic is “a memory aid for something, often taking the form of a rhyme or an acronym”.

An acronym is “an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word”.

An example of a mnemonic acronym is “SMART”.

Specific
Measureable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely

Here’s another exercise for you.

If you were to write a mnemonic acronym based on your name in order to brand yourself professionally, what would it be?

For example, if your name is Eugene, you could brand yourself as follows:

Energetic

Upstanding

Generous

Enthusiastic

Nice

Easygoing

(Tip: You may find this website useful to help you find appropriate adjectives to describe yourself. )

(3) Write an acrostic poem

The third fun way to boost your vocabulary is to write an acrostic poem.

An acrostic poem is “a poem where certain letters in each line spells out a word or phrase”

For example, in commemoration of my coach Sam Choo‘s 10th year anniversary of his Internet Marketing journey, which began in 2008, I have written an acrostic poem based on his name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Started his Internet Marketing journey
After firing his own boss;
Made money in the first month.

Came a long way ever since;
Has a simple system to share.
Online marketing is his expertise;
One can learn so much from him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here’s the third exercise for you.

If you were to write an acrostic poem based on your name, what would it be?

P.S. You are invited to join my study group “Write Better English with Jimmy Tan“.