Teaching page · Grade 2 · Lesson 15

A word worth stealing

Writers choose one exact word where an ordinary one would do, and you can take it.

What it is

Writers choose words, and the choice is visible if you look. The word worth stealing is rarely the longest one — it is the most exact one, the word that could not be swapped for another without losing something. Finding it is how you build a vocabulary for stories, which is not the same vocabulary a report needs.

Watch it built

1
Here is a line from the page.
The old gate shuddered open.
2
Ask what the ordinary word would have been.
Opened. Or moved.
3
Ask what the author's word adds that the ordinary one does not.
Shuddered tells you it was heavy, stiff, and unwilling.
Remember
The word worth stealing is the most exact one, not the longest.
Ask yourself: “Why that word and not an easy one?”

Remember

Steal the word the author chose.

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