ENG001

Assignment No. 2(Fall 2009)

Elementary English (Eng001)
Q no. 1: “Dictionaries are important reference tools for writers to use”. Give your views regarding above statement.

ANS: Writers feel they have to struggle to find the right word, almost as if the struggle itself somehow makes the discovery valid. But help is at hand, and it's a lot closer than you think.
A dictionary is not the same as a spell-checker. When you read, a dictionary is the place to discover the meanings of unknown words; when you write, it is a tool for distinguishing among the nuances of words you already know. A dictionary can tell you many things about a word: its spelling, its pronunciation, its different meanings, even its history. Some of the best dictionaries illustrate such information with examples of proper usage, including special idioms that determine how a particular word will combine with prepositions and other parts of speech. One especially useful tool, the Oxford English Dictionary (commonly abbreviated OED) attempts to illustrate the entire history of every word in the English language with quotations that exemplify each word's changing usage.
Dictionaries are important reference tools for writing to use. If you own a good dictionary you'll never be stuck for a word. You can even create stories or articles out of thin air just by choosing three words at random from different places in the book. They don't necessarily have to be unfamiliar words, but sometimes putting three unrelated words together can help spark off an idea or two.
Dictionaries have been part of the writer's palette since Dr. Samuel Johnson created a Dictionary of the English Language way back in the 1750s. Browse the reference section of any library or bookstore and you'll find dictionaries covering a host of topics: languages, medicine, dreams, fictional characters, scrabble, finance, etc. And then there rhyme dictionaries, multilingual dictionaries, legal dictionaries, dictionaries of symbols, cultural literacy, biblical imagery, philosophy and so on.