Want to feel smarter? Want to have the perfect quip at the tip of your tongue? Use Your Words combines Word Power Quizzes and Quotable Quotes from Reader's Digest, Amercia's Most Popular Magazine so you can do just that! Use Your Words is part word quiz book and part quote book, combined together in themed sections. It will be a combination of 2 of our most popular columns in Reader’s Digest Magazine—Word Power and Quotable Quotes. Quotable Quotes, as it appears today, first ran in January 1934. It was proceeded by similar quote columns, including Remarkable Remarks, which ran in the first ever issue of Reader's Digest in February 1922, and Significant Sayings, which ran in June 1922. These first columns featured the great minds of the day, including Herbert Hoover (before he became president), Lady Astor, and John D. Rockefeller. The quotes were, and continue to be, collected from a variety of books, speeches, journals, and articles. We've quoted both living and dead people. The column hasn't changed much, except for the art. It began as a one-page list of quotes and continues to be a one-page list of quotes. Quotable Quotes is second to Laughter the Best Medicine in column popularity. Word Power first ran in January 1945—January 2020 will mark 75 years. Word Power's creator, Wilfred Funk, was a poet and lexicographer—his family was the “Funk” of the reference publisher Funk & Wagnalls. He presented his quiz idea to Dewitt Wallace in 1944. Wilfred's son Peter Funk wrote the column from the 1960s to the 1990s. Current writers are a married couple who are well-known in the crossword/puzzle world: https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/wordgame/crbio.htm The column hasn’t changed much—it has 15 words now instead of 20. It has themed columns (car words, Italian words) rather than words based on RD. It has a sidebar that goes in-depth on something related to the theme. Word Power is our 3rd most popular column in the magazine.

This collection of 52 quizzes is for anyone who's ever puzzled over the exact meaning of a word or phrase encountered on the pages of a newspaper, magazine, or book; for those readers eager to expand their own vocabulary; and everyone intrigued by the power of words to persuade, clarify, or simply entertain. Like Reader's Digest's popular column, the quizzes here illuminate the inner workings of the English language, revealing in a fun and challenging format its complexity, subtleties, and magic. There's a quiz for every week of the year. Each focuses on a specific theme or area of interest and features a list of 20 words with four possible definitions for each word. Have fun while you: - Discover the precise meaning of unfamiliar words you've encountered - Learn to distinguish between words that may have confused you in the past - Add new or unusual words to your vocabulary - Find out where you stand on the word power scale by using the simple rating system included on the answer pages These exercises are bound to stimulate your brain muscles and help you develop a better vocabulary--you'll be amazed at how much fun increasing your word power can be.

USE YOUR WORDS introduces the art of creative nonfiction to women who want to give written expression to their lives as mothers. Written by award-winning teacher and writer, Kate Hopper, this book will help women find the heart of their writing, learn to use motherhood as a lens through which to write the world, and turn their motherhood stories into art. Each chapter of USE YOUR WORDS focuses on an element of craft and contains a lecture, a published essay, and writing exercises that will serve as jumping-off points for the readers’ own writing. Chapter topics include: the importance of using concrete details, an overview of creative nonfiction as a genre, character development, voice, humor, tense and writing the “hard stuff,” reflection and back-story, structure, revision, and publishing. The content of each lecture is aligned with the essay/poem in that chapter to help readers more easily grasp the elements of craft being discussed. Together the chapters provide a unique opportunity for mother writers to learn and grow as writers. USE YOUR WORDS takes the approach that creative writing can be taught, and this underscores each chapter. When students learn to read like writers, to notice how a piece is put together, and to question the choices a writer makes, they begin to think like writers. When they learn to ground their writing in concrete, sensory details and begin to understand how to create believable characters and realistic dialogue, their own writing improves. USE YOUR WORDS reflects Kate’s style as a teacher, guiding the reader in a straightforward, nurturing, and passionate voice. As one student noted in a class evaluation: “Kate is a born writer and teacher, and her enthusiasm for essays about motherhood and for teaching the nuts and bolts of writing so that ordinary mothers have the tools to write their stories is a gift to the world. She is raising the value of motherhood in our society as she helps mothers build their confidence and strengthen their game as writers.”

A collection of Word Power quizzes and other fun language and grammar facts that will appeal to word nerds, knowledge hunters, and students of all ages. Want to sound smarter in business meetings? Finally beat your brainy uncle at Word Cookies? Ace that standardized test? Whatever your reasons for wanting to improve your vocabulary, you won’t find a funner way of doing so than Word Power (and yes, “funner” is really a word!). For instance, do you know what these words mean: Orthoepy – A: code. B: proper pronunciation. C: sign language. Zyzzyva – A: type of weevil. B: tricky situation. C: fertilized cell Fricassee – A: cut and stew in gravy. B: deep-fry. C: sautee with mushrooms And do know when it’s okay to use a double negative or start a sentence with “Because”? Word Power will answer all these questions and much more for hours of language fun for word nerds and grammar gurus.