English 290 Content / Homepage
English 290 Content / Homepage
The
dictionary is an extraordinary book. It even has a plot, of sorts, as many of
the words are related to other words and old words fade and new words are born.
Every word has a history, an ETYMOLOGY. A good dictionary will give you a sense of a word's history and its original meaning. A good dictionary will also provide enough current definitions of each word to ensure that when you use a word, you are using it APPROPRIATELY.
You can discover words all around you: in the morning paper, listening to the radio or television, in advertisements, on the job and certainly in your classes. If you're not sure of the meaning of a word you encounter in the world, write it down like it sounds and look it up later in the dictionary! Your vocabulary can expand on a daily basis.
There are many types of dictionaries: college editions, pocket editions, slang dictionaries, and specialized dictionaries for medicine, law, chemistry and psychology, and other fields and professions. We recommend that you choose a "Collegiate" edition for your work at Cabrillo and the university, like the ones we keep for your use in the lab.
Mobile Electronic Dictionaries: Electronic dictionaries are light, portable, quick, and most of them are easy to read. They cost between $20 and $100, depending on their features, and some even come with voiced pronunciation of the words. There are also CD-ROM and other software dictionaries available, which are limited because they lack the convenience of the hand-held ones.
Electronic dictionaries should be used with caution. One of their appeals is that they list definitions in TRUNCATED form and don't burden you with the least common definitions of words. This often leads to the misuse and misunderstanding of words as students often believe that they are seeing the full definition of a word when in truth they are only being given the most COMMON definition.
Know the limitations of electronic dictionaries and translators and use them carefully. If nothing else, they are great companions to reading.
Which One? / Looking up a Word / Reading an Entry / Parts of Speech /