Often times, when we write something in English majority of us including me, face a catch-22 situation where we might have tremendous ideas but due to the lack of knowledge of advanced vocabulary our writings don't come into the view and as a result, we end up getting an average mark in exams despite trying hard. So it's always a good idea to expand our vocabulary to express ourselves in a better way without using the same words over and over and sometimes we find ourselves caught between two stools when we do know the words but confused which phrase to use in a particular situation.
I would request you to share your knowledge and suggestion regarding the formal writings.
Consider this:
"Often, English learners like myself face the problem of having wonderful ideas but lacking the words with which to express them. As a result, we fail to make our point clear, and get disappointing exam grades despite our best efforts. If we try to learn new vocabulary to avoid repetition, we then have the problem of knowing many words but not knowing which one is the best one to use."
1) Did I improve your paragraph?
2) How did I do it? Did I use idioms? Did I use advanced vocabulary?
3) Did I include all of the important ideas in your paragraph?
@Mohsen,
With ¨thought¨ it does make sense. However, both ¨sanguine¨ and ¨laudable¨ are words that are uncommon enough that I had to stop and think about what they mean. Also, to me, it would make more sense if you used ¨idea¨ or ¨opinion¨ instead of ¨thought.¨ An idea is a little more complicated than a thought. Several thoughts were expressed in the paragraph, but one general idea/opinion was expressed.
If I paraphrased ¨I'm sanguine about this thought which can be laudable,¨ to ¨I like this idea. It makes good sense to me, ¨ does that convey what you were trying to say? That is what I think you were saying and to me that leaves less room for doubt. I put it in more simple words and think it makes it clearer with the simpler language. When you are writing a paragraph with complex ideas, I think using simpler, concrete structures with common words works better.
Yes, as Dan said the idiom is „caught between a rock and a hard place“ not betweem two stools. I’ve never heard „between two stools“ in my life. If it ever existed, it’s archaic and not used anymore, so forget that one. And a Catch 22 is a fairly new (like 50 year old) Idiom that comes from that novel Dan mentioned. Be careful using idioms because unless you’re a native speaker or at native fluency you’re likely going to fail to understand the Idiom and use it incorrectly and just make things worse. My preferred language, German, translates „Catch 22“ as a „Teufelskreis“, a devils‘s circle, which I think captures the meaning better. In the book there‘s a fellow fighting in WWII as a bomber in a plane. He’s wants to be sent home because he’s afraid of being killed. The military has a rule that if flying missions makes you filled with fear, you can be declared unfit to fly and sent home due to anxiety. The doctor tells the guy it’s not neurotic to be afraid of flying bombing missions and it`s normal to suffer anxiety, normal people experiece it. See the catch 22? It’s a paradox. He can`t win for losing. He wanted to be declared crazy to be sent home as mentally unfit, but as a mentally unfit person he has to request to be sent home. At the same time the military had a rule that said militarily unfit people don’t declare themselves mentally ill. Again a Catch 22. It‘s an impossible situation for him. That’s what a Catch 22 is, What you wrote was not.
If you want to build your vocabulary read Catch 22. i disagree with the poster above about a page limit on understanding vocabulary. No. Read the hardest books you can find with the most advanced vocabulary, even if there are 50 words per page you have to look up.
. You want to expand your vocabulary dońt you? How are you going to do that reading baby books?
I would not worry so much about expanding your vocabulary. I believe the key to good writing is to make the most effective use possible of whatever tools you have. Simple, clear writing is good writing. Good organization is good writing.
If a word of advanced vocabulary has a precise meaning that is just a little bit more precise or more accurate than a simple word, then it is a small improvement to use it. However, you really need to understand the meanings well. A fancy word that is just a little bit "off" actually makes things worse.
In your example, I don't think the use of "a catch-22 situation" or "caught between two stools" adds anything. The big problem is that they don't make your writing clearer. They sound a little contrived and awkward. In part this is because you have actually mixed idioms from two different eras! "A catch-22 situation" is a reference to Joseph Heller's 1961 novel, Catch-22. "Caught between two stools" is very, very old--and somewhat old-fashioned.
And now that I think about it, "having tremendous ideas but not having the vocabulary to express them" is not an example of "a catch-22 situation."
