Course 7 Week 6--Important Words

When you are studying any writing, it is important to identify the important words in a document? They obviously are the words that are used to describe the central meaning of the writing. They fall into several categories:

(1) The major words in a descriptive title (not necessarily those in a "cute" title, those that are in a title that really describes the theme of the writing. This is not to say that "cute" titles should never be used.)

(2) Common words that are emphasized by the author.

(3) Common words that the author is using in a specialzed way. He may be using the word in a different way from its common meaning.

(4) For each reader, the most important words, for him or her, are the words that are unfamiliar. It it is a word he has never heard of, that, of course is important to him because he needs to be able to understand it to understand the rest of the document. It may also be a word that he has a vague idea of the meaning.

This week, as I do each term, I am encouraging you to become a "word detective." I will tell you how to do that in tomorrow's post. (Those of you who have taken the course before know how to do this, so you could begin today if you wish.)