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Words are enormously powerful tools that most people don’t fully appreciate. Although people recognize the importance of communication skills, they don’t necessarily grasp how to become more effective communicators.
When people develop true mental agility in working with language, they gain a range of skills that make them more highly effective communicators. Attuned to the nuances of words, they become expert at working in teams because they can communicate clearly and translate the real meaning of what one person says to another person. They are able to separate their emotional reaction to a report or news article from their cognitive reaction and as a result can glean what’s really significant. They can “read” other people by the words they use and the way they use them.
The Power of Words
Language is a neurocognitive tool by which we can:
· Transmit and exchange information
· Influence and control the behavior of others
· Establish and demonstrate social cohesion, and
· Imagine and create new ways of experiencing life.
To appreciate the power and majesty of words, we have to recognize that they mean more than their dictionary definitions. Words require context to make them meaningful. We understand them in relation to other words. A single word such as light can evoke different images and emotions at different times: The Charge of the Light Brigade, a light snack, the light at the end of the tunnel, lighthearted, lightweight, lightbulb, light of my life, and more.
We understand others best when we can identify the purpose that frames the words. For example, reports are intended to help people crystallize a problem. A good report contains information that is verifiable. A good report writer carefully avoids inferences, judgments, and inflammatory language that might bias the reader and affect the quality of the work.
On the other hand, preachers, parents, teachers, propagandists, politicians, and employers use directives to influence and control the future behavior of their listeners or readers. Directives promise rewards and/or consequences. Those that have the strongest impact engage people’s emotions through the dramatic application of tone, rhyme, rhythm, and repetition, devices through which the message is embedded in our memory.
Words are so much a part of our human experience that we need to disengage ourselves from them. We disengage by turning words into objects—by playing word games. People who play with words are more conscious of the subtleties and innuendos that conversations contain and are less likely to be swayed by emotional appeals or fall victim to their own prejudices.
Difficult crossword puzzles, such as the New York Times crossword puzzle, force solvers to pursue increasingly subtle clues as the week progresses and the puzzles get harder. Think about all those people you know who brag that they do the New York Times crossword puzzle in ink. Doing the puzzle in ink intimates that their verbal agility is such that they won’t make mistakes and need to erase answers in order to try again.
Wordle erupted in popularity in 2021, making players guess a five-letter word by staring with a random guess. As the player guesses letters correctly, they appear in yellow or green—yellow means it’s in the day’s word and green means that it’s in the day’s word and you’ve put it in the correct place. Players are limited to six guesses. Guessing the day’s word with no other context but your vocabulary and understanding of spelling conventions forces players to think about words differently.
Turning One Word into Another
It takes a long time to learn to read and even longer to learn to read well. Once that threshold has been crossed, we become efficient readers. We read automatically—traffic signs, cereal boxes, billboards, t-shirts. In fact, we can’t stop ourselves from reading when we see what looks like a word.
In the verbal puzzle below, you will need to bring out your Wordle skills to understand how one word can follow a pattern to turn into a series of different words. The word on the far left on the first line is SEED and the word on the far right is PICK. In the example, you can see how changing one letter each time can get you from SEED to PICK. But you need to take into account what that last word is so that you can make the appropriate guesses.
SEED SEEK PEEK PECK PICK
HANK ____ ____ ____ PORT
HARE ____ ____ ____ COOK
MAUL ____ ____ ____ WILD
ROOD ____ ____ ____ LICK
HELP ____ ____ ____ ROAM
TEST ____ ____ ____ PORE
DILL ____ ____ ____ BOOT
TUBA ____ ____ ____ DONE
DIVE ____ ____ ____ HART
DUNK ____ ____ ____ BEET
MUST ____ ____ ____ DOCK
LIFE ____ ____ ____ DEBT
HAIR ____ ____ ____ DEAN
DELL ____ ____ ____ VOTE
MITT ____ ____ ____ PACE
What makes the puzzle hard is that you have to switch between thinking abstractly and thinking concretely. The puzzle would be easy if all you had to do was randomly replace letters. By having to come up with a legitimate word each time, as in Wordle, you have to think through the words you know. Puzzles like this one help breed verbal agility.
Answers:
SEED SEEK PEEK PECK PICK
HANK HARK PARK PART PORT
HARE CARE CORE CORK COOK
MAUL MALL WALL WILL WILD
ROOD ROOK ROCK LOCK LICK
HELP HEAP REAP REAM ROAM
TEST PEST POST PORT PORE
DILL DOLL BOLL BOLT BOOT
TUBA TUBE TUNE TONE DONE
DIVE HIVE HAVE HATE HART
DUNK BUNK BUNT BENT BEET
MUST DUST DUSK DUCK DOCK
LIFE LIFT LEFT DEFT DEBT
HAIR HEIR HEAR DEAR DEAN
DELL DOLL DOLE DOTE VOTE
MITT MITE MICE MACE PACE
