Power Synonyms - Book One

Book excerpt: Hi! My name is Bruce Stirling. Welcome to Power Synonyms. Power Synonyms is based on my innovative vocabulary strategy I call synonym substitution. This is how it works. First, I look at your active English vocabulary. Your active English vocabulary contains English words you know. Because you know them, you use them correctly, for example, a word like MANY. Now here is the problem: On test day, if you use MANY when speaking or writing, will it increase your score? No. Why not? Because MANY does not demonstrate academic language use, the very thing the raters are looking for. But wait. What if you substitute MANY with the power synonym MYRIAD? Compare the two sentences below. Which demonstrates academic word choice when writing and/or speaking? Which will score higher on test day? 1. The world has many problems, 2. The world has myriad problems. That's right. Sentence two-and all you did was change MANY to MYRIAD. Easy, right? That is synonym substitution. That is Power Synonyms!