With all of the vocabulary tips available on hundreds (thousands!) of internet sites, how can you sort out the good advice from some random farrago of nonsense that’s been cut-and-pasted from unverified sources? Rely on Ultimate Vocabulary, of course, and if you’re reading other sites, make sure that they’re giving you useful and practical information that’s been based on scientific study, educational research, and personal experience. One good way to tell if a site is valid is if it suggests incorporating word history into your study program, and reminds you to check the etymology of a word when you’re learning it so that you’ll have a better understanding of the word, as well as a deeper mental connection between the word and its definition, which helps with memory and recall.

For example, let’s look at the word farrago used in the previous paragraph. If you look the word up in a good dictionary, you’ll see that they provide the information that it comes from the Latin word for grain, far, and that a farrago was a kind of mixed porridge made of various types of grains, often used for animal feed. You can get a visual image of this mess of mush, and link it to the modern definition of the word, which is “a collection of miscellaneous items, often of poor quality.” In general, we use the word in a negative sense, as seen in this quote from a British newspaper a few years ago:

Like millions of others, I now bitterly resent that a prime minister could use such a farrago of lies and manipulation to deceive us and to take the nation to war so dishonestly. (Michael Meacher, The Guardian, December 1, 2006)

The idea of mixing in a variety of techniques, however, is a good one. Studies have shown that the more ways you approach a topic, and the more ways you involve your brain in the process, the better able you are to learn quickly and remember what you’ve learned. Looking up a word’s etymology will get you thinking about different facets of the word’s definition and roots, and about related words. Looking up the word in context to see how skilled writers use it will give you clues as to how you can include the word in your own written communication. Finally, practicing the word by creating your own example sentences will stimulate your creativity, and the act of writing them out will involve the areas of your brain related to motor movement, which will add to the connections your mind makes and strengthen your ability to recall and correctly use the word in the future.

Learn to separate the wheat from the chaff, and you’ll find kernels of wisdom that you can apply to improve your vocabulary and boost your study program’s success.