Constant Content

This web page has some great tips (even if you aren't writing an academic paper), but I found the following for choosing the right word to be especially useful.

From: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts ... hoice.html

"Try the slash/option technique, which is like brainstorming as you write. When you get stuck, write out two or more choices for a questionable word or a confusing sentence, e.g., "questionable/inaccurate/vague/inappropriate." Pick the word that best indicates your meaning or combine different terms to say what you mean."

Examples (not from the page):

Bland/flavorless soup can be made more exciting with hot sauce. (Flavorless is more descriptive.)

Tips to/for Getting Out of Debt (For) or Tips for Helping You/to Help You Get out of Debt (Second option is less wordy.)

This prescription drug purports/is purported to ease migraine headaches. (The second option is the correct one.)

While your brain may do this automatically when you write, if you actually record your options, you can determine what word or phrase is better upon reviewing what you wrote rather than making a split-second decision that may result in an incorrect or awkward phrase.

Ed

I don't know if it's age or undiagnosed ADHD, but searching for the right word frequently bogs me down. To speed up my first draft, and avoid losing all trains of thought for the entire article, I use similar tactics:
When I draw a complete blank, knowing that I know the specific word that I want, but it refuses to reveal itself, I write a phrase that means the same thing and then a series of these: XXXXX next to it.
Or, I write a generic word (if I can think of one) with the same series of Xs.
Later I can return (that line of XXXXX is easy to spot) and about half the time I think of the elusive word right away.

I picked up a reverse dictionary at a book sale a few years ago, but found it was not very useful. Although it was alphabetized, it was as much a chore to search for how the author might have phrased the definition as it was to think of the word I wanted.

Emma

That's a good idea. Plus you can use the Control + Find command to quickly jump to those XXXXXs or /s.