vocabulary

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This isn't directly related to mstp per se, but I was wondering where all of you got such sophisticated vocabulary. What kind of daily reading do you do?

I don't want to seem like I'm studying you, but I notice there's a slight pattern where the English on the mstp forum is slightly more sophisticated/formal compared to the English on other forums.

 

[dmblue]

This isn't directly related to mstp per se, but I was wondering where all of you got such sophisticated vocabulary. What kind of daily reading do you do?

I don't want to seem like I'm studying you, but I notice there's a slight pattern where the English on the mstp forum is slightly more sophisticated/formal compared to the English on other forums.

I did not notice this. Maybe we are smarter 😛

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

This isn't directly related to mstp per se, but I was wondering where all of you got such sophisticated vocabulary. What kind of daily reading do you do?

I don't want to seem like I'm studying you, but I notice there's a slight pattern where the English on the mstp forum is slightly more sophisticated/formal compared to the English on other forums.

The key is reading. That's something I never believed until I experienced it myself. Occasionally newspaper and magazine articles, but sometimes also history/politics/current events forums and of course "classic" literature.

I've recently been reading through a ton of Dickens and it's just jam packed with tons of new vocab. For every novel of his I read, I pick up an extra 30 or so words - of course, they're not "everyday" words - stentorian, lucubration, execration, ineluctable, assiduous - but if you feel your vocabulary is currently weak it's likely you'd pick up even more.

 

[GliaGirl]

What kind of daily reading do you do?

Why, this forum of course! And when I was younger I used to read a ton of books. All kinds. Lots of fantasy and sci fi stuff (yeah, I'm that cool). But now that I'm all grown up I read mostly scientific articles (once again, super cool) and textbooks, sadly.

Reading is fun! 😎
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[URHere]

What kind of daily reading do you do?

Pubmed.

Sadly, that's true at this point. My novels and plays have all been shoved aside in the pursuit of obscure staining and culture techniques from the 1980s...Someone actually asked me a non-science question the other day and my first instinct was to do a literature search. When I realized that, I promptly found beer.

But anyway, I don't know if there's a universal pattern in what the MD/PhD forum dwellers read. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that our success as students relies so heavily on what we're able to write? That would make sense to me at least...

 

[Neuronix]

I'm about halfway through War and Peace. The last novel I read was Roots. I think next on the list is the Autobiography of Malcolm X (keeping with Alex Haley). This is mostly year out stuff though. I did virtually no reading for fun, outside of near daily Wikipedia entries to expand my knowledgebase, in med school or grad school, as I just felt I spent too much time staring at a book, article, or computer screen.

Something that improved my writing and editing a lot was writing manuscripts in grad school. You wouldn't know it on this forum, because my writing is off the cuff and typically not reviewed and unedited. But one of my thesis committee members and co-PIs was a real grammar nazi (wife is an English teacher), and I learned a lot from him. It wasn't just him though. I also learned in grad school you have to speak more plainly than you might think or people will miss your point. This is why I am so wordy. In addition to typing about 100-120wpm, I always try to give my evidence for what I'm saying, and then state my conclusions very plainly. If you leave the reader to make a conclusion, you never know what conclusion they might make! Just ask my manuscript reviewers . It kind of backfired though, as my latest review came back "Your paper reads more like a sales pitch." 😀.

 

[QofQuimica]

I think next on the list is the Autobiography of Malcolm X

Excellent book. I highly recommend it. 👍

OP, I think the key is to read *anything*. Literature, nonfiction, it doesn't really matter. I even learn new words from the newspaper once in a while. It's a lot better to read versus memorize vocab lists b/c then you learn words in context.

Why don't we all list the last book we read and the next one we plan to read, just for fun? (Note: science/medical school textbooks or review books don't count.) Neuro already gave his. Last book that I read was Agatha Christie's The Big Four. Next up is Tales from the White Hart.

 

[URHere]

My last book was "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. I'm actually in the process of re-reading it, because I stopped to think far too many times the first time through, and I'm curious what the book will feel like the second time around.

Next, I'm going to read either "The Purity Myth" or "The God Delusion", depending on whether I feel more like mentally bashing sexual stereotypes or organized religion...

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Right now I'm reading three texts simultaneously:

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens

Cleanness by the Pearl Poet

Essays by Francis Bacon

 

[pseudoknot]

My next book will be A Lion Among Men (the third book in the Wicked series). I just took Step I and don't feel the need to justify my intellectualism 🙂

After that will probably be either Wandering in the Gardens of the Mind or Why Beauty Is Truth (the inner nerd doesn't stay down very long).

 

[gstrub]

Just finished the entire Dark Tower series by Stephen King...over 6000 pages. Awesome, BTW.

Before that it was Atlas Shrugged and American Psycho.

You have to read to stay sane in this field, IMO.

 

[PBandJ]

My next book will be A Lion Among Men (the third book in the Wicked series). I just took Step I and don't feel the need to justify my intellectualism 🙂

After that will probably be either Wandering in the Gardens of the Mind or Why Beauty Is Truth (the inner nerd doesn't stay down very long).

i definitely want to read a lion amongst men this summer. 👍 after i take step 1, of course. 🙂