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VCE Stuff => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English Studies => Topic started by: sabii on July 30, 2012, 05:20:27 pm

Title: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: sabii on July 30, 2012, 05:20:27 pm
Hi everyone, I have a very limited vocabulary and therefore I am trying to extend it so I am able to use a some diverse and variety of word in essays as I often find myself becoming an innocent target of repetition. If anyone knows or is familiar with some extraordinary words or even perhaps some simple yet good words, it will be really appreciated. Thank You.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: sabii on July 30, 2012, 05:23:37 pm
I'll start it off with just some basic words I often use, feel free to add in more to the list:

- suppressed
- highlight
-strive
- endow
- illustrate
-demonstrate
-portray
-emphasize
-exemplify
-draw on
- establish
-intensify
-signify

PLEASE help me extend my vocabulary. 
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Yendall on July 30, 2012, 05:30:57 pm
Use exacerbate for negative exaggeration. I love that word.
Use insinuate for suggestions, rather than a word like 'imply'.

There are tones of fantastic words out there. I'd advise you read more complex novels that utilise sophisticated language.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Surgeon on July 30, 2012, 05:32:17 pm
http://thesaurus.com/ is your friend. It's probably not the best idea to try and blindly remember the meaning of words.

I'll pass on a little advice that was given to me by my teacher, ensure that your ideas or complex but make sure that the way you present the ideas is not complex. From what I can gather, this means that by all means, try your best to present ideas that not many people have heard of (ie. not directly from a study guide, half the state will use those, and half the state will get a study score below 30) but do it in a way that anyone could come and read your piece, and fully understand it.

Just my $0.02
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: pi on July 30, 2012, 05:39:06 pm
A few words I liked to use were (may be some overlap with your list, meh):
- Aforementioned
- Zenith
- Nadir
- Encapsulates
- Insinuate
- Evoke
- Validated
- Reciprocated
- Enhanced
- Moreover
- Primarily
- Illustrates
- Condemns
- Propagates
- Sardonic
- Equivocally
- Didactic
- Connotes


But it's really not about using sophisticated and grandiose vocabulary in an attempt to demonstrate your own verbosity to the examiner; rather, it is far more vital and critical that your sentences, and essays to take a holistic view, actually make for a clear and flowing reading that is first and foremost relevant to the prompt or topic that you are approaching.

ie. don't make stupid sentences like the one above just because you can :P 
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Bhootnike on July 30, 2012, 05:52:11 pm
A few words I liked to use were (may be some overlap with your list, meh):
- Aforementioned
- Zenith
- Nadir
- Encapsulates
- Insinuate
- Evoke
- Validated
- Reciprocated
- Enhanced
- Moreover
- Primarily
- Illustrates
- Condemns
- Propagates
- Sardonic
- Equivocally
- Didactic
- Connotes


But it's really not about using sophisticated and grandiose vocabulary in an attempt to demonstrate your own verbosity to the examiner; rather, it is far more vital and critical that your sentences, and essays to take a holistic view, actually make for a clear and flowing reading that is first and foremost relevant to the prompt or topic that you are approaching.

ie. don't make stupid sentences like the one above just because you can :P

using hifi, or more sophisticated vocabulary may help in separating the top-end!
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Hancock on July 30, 2012, 05:55:04 pm

using hifi, or more sophisticated vocabulary may help in separating the top-end!

It's how I survived Year 12 English. BSing and big words. Love it (although I'm not the top end ;D )
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: pi on July 30, 2012, 05:55:40 pm
using hifi, or more sophisticated vocabulary may help in separating the top-end!

That may be true, but you all have to get to that top end first ;)
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Hancock on July 30, 2012, 05:58:59 pm
Reading some essays from my brother (48 english) and this indie-pot head girl I hated (50 English), I could understand why they scored so highly. Mind-implosion after reading some paragraphs. The use of vocabulary only strengthens an argument/essay/whatever, you have to have the "meat" there first.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: WhoTookMyUsername on July 30, 2012, 05:59:04 pm
Whats "hifi"
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: sabii on July 30, 2012, 06:00:21 pm
Thank you everyone!! Yes I totally agree with everyone, its not about the complexity of the essay but more so the idea and how well you have linked it to the actual prompt! However just in general I feel as though I need to have a more advanced vocabulary and I really appreciate all the replies, there are some really good words in those replies, cant wait until I find out what they all mean :P

But I guess the difference between a A  and a A+  student is the student who has presented a more professional and sophisticated essay rather than a simple essay??? Not everyone may agree, but that's something my teachers are always advising me.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: soccerboi on July 30, 2012, 06:07:41 pm
Complex vocabulary can bite you in the ass if overly used. I have been told many times by my friends,teacher/s and then by an external assessor that i should "dumb down" my vocab as it's doing harm to the structure and clarity of my essays.

So, beware of using big words. Make sure they actually fit in with your piece and clearly expresses what you want to say.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Bhootnike on July 30, 2012, 06:35:50 pm
Whats "hifi"

it means to have an exquisite lexicon engendering notions of prestige and sophistication.
god, how do you not know that?!  ;D

Complex vocabulary can bite you in the ass if overly used. I have been told many times by my friends,teacher/s and then by an external assessor that i should "dumb down" my vocab as it's doing harm to the structure and clarity of my essays.

So, beware of using big words. Make sure they actually fit in with your piece and clearly expresses what you want to say.

haha i dont do english, so i dont need to worry much about using many words like this, we have our own metalanguage. as far as essays go.
however.
i can say this...

using fancy language is a stylistic device - adds to the aesthetics of a piece. It CAN actually add to the coherence of ones written work if used properly! e.g. where one word describes a situation much more better than a group of words.
e.g.
"It can be seen that Bazza16 owned me in asking what hifi means because I made it up on the spot and confused it with physics"
vs
"It can be seen that Bazza16 has successfully questioned my lexical choice since I have incorrectly construed the term 'hifi'.. "

here, 'construed' is the fancy word which not only sounds good, but sums up my thoughts nicely.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: sabii on July 30, 2012, 06:39:59 pm
wow nicely put! ;D
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: thushan on July 30, 2012, 06:43:54 pm
I used 'deleterious' and 'conducive' a LOT in my essays.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: charmanderp on July 30, 2012, 06:48:00 pm
Obfuscate. As in, 'if you contrive to use impressive sounding words in your essays you will often obfuscate the examiner and they will not be able to comprehend your actual analysis.'

That being said, if you ever get the chance to use antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence, please let me know.

As Surgeon said, keep your phone with you at all times or a dictionary, and look up words that you think put a cherry on top in terms of expression. Then commit that to memory by using it in a couple of sentences. Make sure you know exactly what the word means, and watch out for any similarly spelled ones.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Bhootnike on July 30, 2012, 06:53:35 pm
Obfuscate. As in, 'if you contrive to use impressive sounding words in your essays you will often obfuscate the examiner and they will not be able to comprehend your actual analysis.'

That being said, if you ever get the chance to use antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence, please let me know.

As Surgeon said, keep your phone with you at all times or a dictionary, and look up words that you think put a cherry on top in terms of expression. Then commit that to memory by using it in a couple of sentences. Make sure you know exactly what the word means, and watch out for any similarly spelled ones.

yeah, dont wanna obsfucate your ideas by putting all these wonderful words which are meaningless in the context of your work!

LOL.
thats nothing.
in one of my bros lecture recordings, the professor attempted: "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis"
it was obviously as a joke. but wtf!
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: charmanderp on July 30, 2012, 07:04:24 pm
Haha to be fair, if that's a medical term it probably belonged there (assuming it was a med lecture).
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: paulsterio on July 30, 2012, 07:13:42 pm
Well here's my wordbank for English - you might or might not find it useful depending on the texts - but pretty much I memorised all of this and used phrases as I needed in my Essay.

PS. Charmanderp - might be good for you because I know you're doing the same texts that I did last year :P
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Jenny_2108 on July 30, 2012, 08:00:27 pm
Well here's my wordbank for English - you might or might not find it useful depending on the texts - but pretty much I memorised all of this and used phrases as I needed in my Essay.

I dont do this text but its quite helpful to learn some sophisticated words from here though.

I remember in my first SAC, I was so nervous so almost forgot everything I remembered before. Then I used some Bio, Chem and Maths terminology to describe the characters and analyse the events. When I got my SAC back, the teacher underlined these words and wrote they were quite good. LOL Scientific terms are awesome!
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: paulsterio on July 30, 2012, 09:06:32 pm
Be careful with complicated terminology though, you don't get brownie points for making your essay hard to read.

Your final aim is to write an essay which contains:

1) A good argument, based on good ideas with good evidence
2) Coherence
3) Professional and academic language

So I think you should be aiming for basically around about the same language level as an opinion article in The Age. Don't try to use too many complicated words or else your essay will sound like this:

The use of complicated wording as an overall literary technique needs to encompass graphic and individual comprehension to allow the reader to become acquainted with the unique terminological aspects employed by the author whilst not detracting from the application of the specific innuendos influencing the particular methods involved which reflect the tone of the major works in question, thereby altering the quality of the outcome.

Try reading it, all at once, I bet at the end of it, you'll be forced to read it again, because it's just too complex - remember - easy on the adjectives and easy on the adverbs. What you want is one nice adjective to describe what you're getting at instead of five mediocre ones.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: sabii on July 30, 2012, 09:16:10 pm
Be careful with complicated terminology though, you don't get brownie points for making your essay hard to read.

Your final aim is to write an essay which contains:

1) A good argument, based on good ideas with good evidence
2) Coherence
3) Professional and academic language

So I think you should be aiming for basically around about the same language level as an opinion article in The Age. Don't try to use too many complicated words or else your essay will sound like this:

The use of complicated wording as an overall literary technique needs to encompass graphic and individual comprehension to allow the reader to become acquainted with the unique terminological aspects employed by the author whilst not detracting from the application of the specific innuendos influencing the particular methods involved which reflect the tone of the major works in question, thereby altering the quality of the outcome.

Try reading it, all at once, I bet at the end of it, you'll be forced to read it again, because it's just too complex - remember - easy on the adjectives and easy on the adverbs. What you want is one nice adjective to describe what you're getting at instead of five mediocre ones.

Wow, that was actually really annoying to read, I think I have a headache now! I get what you mean though, sophisticated yet coherent!
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: brenden on July 30, 2012, 09:35:39 pm
Juxtaposition. It's the word to end all words.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: charmanderp on July 30, 2012, 10:14:11 pm
Especially remember that examiners have to mark hundreds of essays at all hours of the day and night. If they have to read a sentence or paragraph or essay more than once to try to decipher your convoluted prose, they're not going to be too pleased and it'll reflect in how they mark you. Take it from someone who learnt the hard way from a couple of Lit SACs.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: pi on August 22, 2012, 12:00:38 am
A great word I just found: eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious

Get around it :)
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: FlorianK on August 25, 2012, 12:50:59 am
Can we use "for the sake of" in an exam?
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Truck on August 25, 2012, 01:20:54 am
The concept of memorizing words for the purpose of improving your vocabulary is so incredibly foreign to me... As far as I'm concerned, the only way one can properly build up their "wordbank" (for want of a better word) is to read a variety of texts. Year 12 is not the best time for this however, so I suggest working with what you have and not worrying about memorizing newer and better words. So long as you have not completely neglected books you should be able to develop sentences with relatively sophisticated expression.

On another note, I find a thesaurus helps most when I can't think of a synonym for a word that I may have used in a prior sentence but need to reuse, in which case it is helpful but do not choose words whose meanings you don't understand or your sentence will probably not make sense .
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: Shenz0r on August 25, 2012, 10:49:28 am
The concept of memorizing words for the purpose of improving your vocabulary is so incredibly foreign to me... As far as I'm concerned, the only way one can properly build up their "wordbank" (for want of a better word) is to read a variety of texts. Year 12 is not the best time for this however, so I suggest working with what you have and not worrying about memorizing newer and better words. So long as you have not completely neglected books you should be able to develop sentences with relatively sophisticated expression.

On another note, I find a thesaurus helps most when I can't think of a synonym for a word that I may have used in a prior sentence but need to reuse, in which case it is helpful but do not choose words whose meanings you don't understand or your sentence will probably not make sense .

I think it's good if you can find some nice-sounding words to integrate into your writing, but not too much. I'd rather memorise some epic phrases and sentence structures instead.

When I was writing my practise essays under untimed conditions, I used the Thesaurus a damn lot, but also make you sure check the actual dictionary meaning of a synonym too. Synonyms have slightly different meanings to each other, some may have stronger meanings than others, and you don't want to be using them in the wrong contexts.
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: BigAl on September 14, 2012, 11:39:52 pm
I like "aver" when writing about media texts.
-assert
-profession
-claim
-declare
-despotic
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: _eriicc on October 04, 2012, 06:50:33 pm
- Reiterates
- Depicts
- Extrapolates
- Coincides (with ____)
- Juxtaposes

When describing characters and their traits:
- Petulant
- Convivial
- Ignominious
- Vivacious
- Duplicitous
- Vindictive
- Nostalgic
- Metamorphic
- Impetuous
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: bluehorizon on January 10, 2013, 12:18:50 pm
Considering how I use 'highlight' a lot, here are some straight synonyms for that - straight synonyms, as in, you can directly substitute these words in place of 'highlight' without changing the sentence structure:

illustrates
illuminates
expounds
depicts
signifies
exemplifies
epitomises
underscores
establishes
expresses
reveals
indicates

Likewise, for 'reinforce':
punctuates
reiterates
accentuates, enhances (perhaps followed by 'the perception of...')
underlines
emphasises
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: sabii on January 24, 2013, 02:49:27 am
Some knew words:

-Lachrymose
-concede
-accumulate
-instigate
-disposition
-exemplify
-comply
-instill
-impinge
imperative
Title: Re: What are some good sophisticated words that can be used in a essay??
Post by: gummo on January 24, 2013, 11:03:06 am
Try to get hold of essays from someone who scored 50 and just read them. Ask your teachers - they should have heaps on hand. Also go to the State Library and read books about your texts. They often have good vocabulary used in the right context.