The Well-Spoken Thesaurus: The Most Powerful Ways to Say Everyday Words and Phrases (A Vocabulary Builder for Adults to Improve Your Writing and Speaking Communication Skills)

This book was a game changer for me I even bought a second copy to gift it to someone.

The book is everything that I wanted out of it. It's really helped me at work when I'm lost for words I don't know quite how to put things into an email. I love it!

I honestly love this book, it is very informational, easy to read, and can be implemented in all aspects of life. 5 STARS!

I’ve started examining this and found a number of ways to improve my vocabulary and strive for variety of expression. There are a few things I don’t agree with but overall very helpful and informative.

I just purchased six different Thesauri. They were all top rated on Amazon, and sounded so good I couldn't resist trying them all. I hope you find this Comparison Guide helpful.....THE SYNONYM FINDER BY RODALE - 5 Stars1,361 pages of Words in alphabetical order (no Index needed), and each word has a long list of Synonyms - many more than Microsoft Word 2004 gives. Each lookup word is identified as adverb, noun, verb... No pronunciation guidance.Soft brownish pages at about 86% brightness. 1,361 pages. 6" x 9"* * * * * * *BARTLETT'S ROGET'S THESAURUS - 3 StarsThis book is written in a Concept Flow. It is almost impossible to find any lookup word without the Index, so 663 pages of this book are Index! And the Index is in very fine print!! Each lookup word has a list of Nouns, then Verbs, then Adverbs... after it. No pronunciation guidance.Smooth white thin pages at about 96% brightness with good sharp text. 1414 pages. 7.25" x 9.5"* * * * * * *ROGET'S INTERNATIONAL THESAURUS - 3 StarsThis book is written in a Concept Flow. It is almost impossible to find any lookup word without the Index, so 469 pages of this book are Index! And the Index is in fine print!! Each lookup word has a list of Nouns, then Verbs, then Adverbs... after it. No pronunciation guidance.Soft yellow-brown pages at about 86% brightness. 1282 pages. 7.4" x 9.5"* * * * * * *THE WELL-SPOKEN THESAURUS:THE MOST POWERFUL WAYS TO SAY EVERYDAY WORDS AND PHRASES - 5 StarsThis book gives you better sounding, more descriptive words and phrases to say or write instead of the words that are ordinarily used in every day language. There are from one to about twenty alternatives under each lookup word.Soft pages at about 94% brightness. 391 pages. 6" x 9"* * * * * * *THE DESCRIBER'S DICTIONARY:A TREASURY OF TERMS AND LITERARY QUOTATIONS - 4 StarsEven though this book is organized entirely by subject, and there's no Index at all to look up a particular word, it's still very good at conceptualizing a great many words and phrases that you may want to better describe in that article or book you are working on. On the left pages there are paragraphs by famous authors to further illustrate how to better write the concepts for your project.Rough brownish pages at about 84% brightness. 414 pages. 5.5" x 8.25"* * * * * * *THE EMOTION THESAURUS:A WRITER'S GUIDE TO CHARACTER EXPRESSION - 5 StarsEach Emotion gets two pages, and begins anew on the top of the left page (I do love a book that is formatted in this way). After the Title Emotion we get a Definition, and then very good descriptions of the following: Physical Signals, Internal Sensations, Mental Responses, Cues of Acute or Longterm..., May Escalate To, Cues of Supressed...Smooth bright white paper at about 99% brightness. 164 pages. 7"x 10"

Thee perfect (just because) gift to my grown daughter. She has taken a shine to public speaking. Having completed her b.a. then masters all while joining the staff a her Alma mater this kid never stops learning!! Like a sponge, has always sought growth. After Alyssa had a few days to flip through it, I asked her if it was going to be a good tool for her? My fingers crossed hoping she’d actually use it, she nodded saying, “ Mom it’s perfect! I will definitely be using this to draft my next speech. The references and layout make it super simple too.” It gives bland or repetitive stories color, sophistication and fluidity drawing the listener closer with simplicity

The book includes examples of helpful content hidden under layers of not so helpful suggestions, which make me regret buying it.(For the sections below, the first term pastes the author's example of a "poor" (?) term (officially, "don't say X"), followed by the author's recommended term.)Helpful:- Suggestions of words that evoke a visual action or a feeling: To show ("poor") vs. to school (recommended); adjust vs. tailor; distinguish between vs. draw a distinction; distort the truth vs. sugarcoat; getting into vs. warming into; getting dark vs. growing dark, not in line vs out of step.- Options to replace overused language: busy vs. not a moment to spare; fancy vs. extravagant; political handlers vs. praetorian guard (To interview the president, you've got to get past the praetorian guard).Not so helpful:- Suggestions more wordy than the original: Best we can do is vs. we can do no better than to, cancel vs abrogate the contract, get used to vs. accustom oneself to.- Suggestions replacing vivid words for those less vivid: blood money vs. filthy lucre.- Suggestions of vocabulary to help you pass the GRE (but who talks like that?): brother vs. brethren, concerned vs. solicitous.- Suggestions you say as you drink tea, pinky up: carefree attitude vs. insouciance.- Suggestions replacing active tense for passive tense: They don't all agree on vs. there is little agreement on. (To be fair, "there is little agreement on" has a place and time, best used when you're trying not to place blame on who is not agreeing), but the author doesn't dive into these nuances.

Great read.