{"id":165,"date":"2016-06-08T19:52:38","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T19:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/waymaker-level3-english\/?post_type=chapter&p=165"},"modified":"2017-04-30T19:06:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T19:06:36","slug":"outcome-vocabulary-1-4","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-engcomp1-wmopen\/chapter\/outcome-vocabulary-1-4\/","title":{"raw":"Outcome: Vocabulary","rendered":"Outcome: Vocabulary"},"content":{"raw":"

Evaluate vocabulary usage<\/h2>\r\nConsider the following passage by author Luciano Passuello, discussing the virtue of language development.\r\n

Vocabulary Opens Your Mind<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

My favorite story that illustrates the importance of vocabulary is from George Orwell\u2019s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"CoverIn a dark view of the future, Orwell pictured a world ruled by an authoritarian government that controls every citizen. In this world, no one escapes being watched by video cameras, which are present even inside people\u2019s homes. But when it comes to control, there was something even more effective than the ubiquitous cameras, and that was the official language: Newspeak<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Newspeak is rigidly controlled by the government, and it\u2019s the only language whose vocabulary gets smaller every year. In Newspeak, words that convey subversive thoughts \u2013 like \u201cfreedom\u201d \u2013 simply don\u2019t exist anymore. By systematically removing or distorting the meaning of words, the government takes away the tools to question its authority. Without words to exchange or perpetuate ideas, these ideas start to gradually disappear from people\u2019s minds. Without not even being aware of it, people became completely powerless and easily controlled.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Although this example may be a bit extreme, it serves to illustrate the point: when you lack words, you shut down new insights and lines of reasoning.<\/b> People who possess a limited vocabulary have a much tougher time breaking out from old patterns of thought or questioning. By the same token, each new word you learn opens a new avenue of thought, empowering you to think or take action in ways you could never have before.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. \u2013 Philip K. Dick<\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

Vocabulary Gets You Results<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

The researcher Johnson O\u2019Connor<\/span><\/a>, known for his studies about the impact of vocabulary on people\u2019s lives, has drawn many amazing conclusions from a vast amount of tests and experiments<\/span><\/a>, performed in more than 20 years of research.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A significant part of his research observed successful people in many walks of life, trying to correlate their success with factors such as gender, age, scholarship levels and many others, including vocabulary level. He tested people on the most diverse endeavors, such as students about to take their SATs, engineers working in their areas of expertise, executives in large corporations, and many others.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

He always found the same results, no matter which area he looked at, and no matter how he analyzed the data: a person\u2019s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational success.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\r\n

This astounding discovery can be illustrated by the following study, made with managers in 39 large manufacturing companies. Below are the average results of an extensive vocabulary test, averaged and grouped by hierarchical level:\"Graph:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

O\u2019Connor took extreme care to statistically isolate variables that could distort the results. Scholarship level and age, for example, were taken into account to make sure it was indeed vocabulary, and not something related, that correlated with success. His studies also show that vocabulary usually comes before<\/b> achievement, and not as a consequence of it. Even if we\u2019re not able to ultimately prove<\/b> the correlation, it\u2019s hard to ignore O\u2019Connor\u2019s findings.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What determines professional success? Especially for knowledge workers, I would risk saying\u00a0professional success depends entirely on thinking and communication skills<\/b>. If you analyze every activity you perform as a knowledge worker, you\u2019ll always get down to either thinking (as the activity that leads to the creation of something new) or communicating (as the activity that gets your ideas across). Well, if words are tools for both thought and communication, it\u2019s no surprise that those who master them have a much greater chance of success \u2013 not only professionally, but in their lives as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

What You Will Learn To Do<\/h2>\r\n