If you're a writer, you should continue to include "word study" along with your literary education.
To be a writer, you should write and write and practice writing. Read and read and practice reading, and certainly read the best writers.
In addition, you should include word study. Get the best dictionary. Continue to learn words you don't know. Continue to study the origins of words. Continue to build your vocabulary.
Certainly you can't use all of these great words that you learn in writing. Much of your writing these words are not always appropriate for the context, nor for your readership, nevertheless you should know these words, and when it is the appropriate context, you can make use of them.
If you watch the national spelling bees, most of the time they give these children words that most adults don't know. These children spend a lot of time asking about pronuncation, use of these words in sentences, and even word origins. Many of these youngsters know if the word origins are Japanese or Greek or Latin. Very good. These children are not only learning words, but how to use them in sentences, how to spell them, and the origins of these words.
Writers can continue to do this to increase your vocabulary for writing.
In addition, the study of these words can also give you ideas for what to write about.
For example, you might find a word of Japanese origin and decide to write an article about how many English words are of Japan origin and how many Japanese words are of English origin. How are these words used in English and Japanese sentences.
Some of the words you learn might suggest titles for short stories, poetry, plays, screenplays or they might be introduced in the vocabulary of some of your characters, those characters that it might be appropriate for them to make use of such words.
The internet also provides many opportunities for word study, "for working and playing with words." There are many word study activities for children and for adults.
Here you can find an article on word study, "word study games," and word study reference books:
http://literacyconnections.com/WordStudy.php
For self-study vocabulary quizzes:
a4esl.org/q/h/vocabulary.html
For vocabulary builder software:
www.wordsmart.com
www.Executive-Vocabulary.com
