The World of Words: Vocabulary for College Success ... - eLibrary

PREFACECopyright © Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.OrganizationThe World of Words, Eighth Edition, will help students master strategiesfor becoming independent learners of vocabulary, learn specific wordsthat will be useful in their academic and professional work, and developa lifelong interest in words. Through a series of carefully paced lessons,students learn several hundred words that appear in the “Words to Learn”sections. In addition, they master three vocabulary development strategiesthat facilitate independent learning of word meanings: using the dictionary,context clues, and ancient Greek and Latin word elements.The new edition of The World of Words continues to link vocabulary tostudents’ general knowledge, covering such topics as food, styles, automobiles,and sports. I find that students enjoy these features and begin to appreciatethat vocabulary learning is relevant to their lives and careers.While reinforcing these links, the text also supplies information that willhelp students to acquire a firmer knowledge base for college academicwork. Thus, as the book progresses, students read more about science, art,and classic literature.The word lists and the ancient Greek and Latin word elements havebeen carefully selected on the basis of their appropriate level and usefulnessin students’ academic work. Word elements are presented so that studentscan easily recognize them in modern English words. Avoiding complexdiscussions of infinitive, participle, and stem forms, the text neverthelessprovides the spellings of the most common word elements in English.Feedback from students and instructors has enabled me to adaptthis book to the needs of today’s diverse student population. Instructorswill find The World of Words, Eighth Edition, suitable for students ofmany cultural and linguistic backgrounds, including those for whomEnglish is not a native language.Part 1 (Chapters 1 through 4) concentrates on dictionary skills and contextclues; Part 2 (Chapters 5 through 12) stresses word elements (Greek andLatin prefixes, roots, and suffixes). To make vocabulary study cohesive,each chapter has a theme, such as Words About People, the Body andHealth, and Words in the News.Every chapter of The World of Words contains these features:A Did You Know? feature gives word facts to spark students’ interest.xiii