Let me digress from word usage for a moment to write about carpenters. Carpenters use hammer and saws and screw drivers.There’s a great variety of hammers, just to select one tool, that carpenters can choose from depending on the task at hand. Among the various hammers are:

• Curve Claw Hammer.
• Rip Claw Hammer.
• Framing Hammer.
• Shingler’s Hammer.
• Drywall Hammer.
• Ball Peen Hammer.
• Bricklayer’s/Tilesetter’s Hammer.
• Rubber Mallet.

There are actually more subcategories of hammer,  but I’ll limit myself to these. You get the idea that one size does not fit all.

Let’s move on to word usage.

Our writing tools

In our writing craft, we memoirists use words as one of our primary tools. (Other tools are punctuation grammar, spelling [perhaps a subcategory of words rather than its own category?].) How like the carpenter with the right tool can we not be concerned with right word usage?

It stands that being able to handle words carefully, precisely and elegantly is necessary if we are to express ourselves clearly and pleasurably (for both ourselves and our readers). While nice will do when we are having  a superficial conversation with a sales clerk or a chatty neighbor, it will not do when presenting the reader with a favorite aunt who may be better described as nurturing, sympathetic, understanding or encouraging.

We must hone our word usage skills.

Of course, proper word usage is not only about precise vocabulary, it is also about avoiding clichés and stereotypes, about eschewing wrong usage (myth meaning lie comes unfortunately to mind), about omitting useless reinforcers (how more unique is very unique from unique or how earlier is first met from met?)

In conclusion

In this section, the Memoir Writer’s Blog offers suggestions about how we can handle words well and become better stewards of elegant and precise word usage