Methods & strategies: Working with synonyms In other words … Having a large vocabulary is very helpful in life. If you know a lot of words, you will understand what others are saying or writing – no matter whether you are having a conversation with someone, watching a movie, or reading a book. Plus, you will be better at speaking (and writing) if you have a greater variety of words to choose from. Some ways to expand your active vocabulary are described below (1 9.3). An easy method is to use synonyms for some of the most common words – such as “interesting” and “important”. Other words you should make sure not to overuse are “good”, “bad”, “nice”, “big”, “small”, “get”, and “thing”, among others. When you are using word processing software on a computer, there is a very easy way to replace a word with one of its synonyms: ■■ Right-click the word you would like to replace. ■■ Click on “Synonyms” (or “Synonyme”, depending on what software you are using). ■■ Choose a synonym by clicking on it. Alternatively, there is an excellent website, Thesaurus.com, that specialises in finding synonyms. (The word “thesaurus” traditionally designates a printed synonym dictionary.) It can be problematic to replace words mechanically without paying attention to the fine details. However, it is often possible to replace the words “interesting” and “important” with the words given below (1 3.7, 1 3.8). Replacing (a form of) “to be” with a stronger verb Another method, one which requires slightly more thought and effort, is to alter the grammatical construction of the sentence that contains the word you would like to replace. You can often improve a sentence by replacing (a form of) “to be” with a stronger verb. For example, instead of saying, “This element is very important in the company’s business model”, you could say, “The company’s business model centers on this element”; or “This element forms the basis of the company’s business model”; or “This element plays a central role in the company’s business model.” These new sentences sound much more powerful. How-to [H] 3.5 How-to [H] [I] 3.6 Zooming out: Companies influence our lives in many ways ■ ■ Businesses wield enormous influence on our lives and well-being. Almost everything we eat, drink, read, work with, or use for entertainment has been made by companies. Our lives are shaped by the products companies make to an unprecedented degree. ■ ■ Some companies are huge. The number of Walmart employees is greater than the entire population of Slovenia. In his article “These 25 Companies Are More Powerful Than Many Countries”, Parag Khanna argues that “corporations are likely to overtake all states in terms of clout. Already, the cash that Apple has on hand exceeds the GDPs of two-thirds of the world’s countries”, and “the 10 biggest banks […] control almost 50 percent of assets under management worldwide.” Zooming out: The influence of companies [B] 30 Key aspects Strategies Sample task 3 Companies & CSR Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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