If your skill with words isn't up to scratch, you may find yourself sidelined or ignored at work and elsewhere. You create an impression with what you write, and a weak or incorrect vocabulary is a serious liability.

Awesome Vocabulary offers a painless way to build an exceptional vocabulary. Readers will discover comprehensive, useful lists of words and exercises focused on improving word choices. They'll also learn:

• Tricks to reveal the meaning of new words
• Memory devices to help distinguish between similar words
• The difference between using words to impress and using words that make their meanings clear
• Examples of writing—correct and incorrect, attractive and unlovely, persuasive and off-putting—that clearly show the right stuff and how to amend the wrong stuff
• The secret to "balanced prose": the Rule of Three
• Avoiding repetition and redundancy
• The proper vocabulary for the proper occasion: business letters, e-mails, and casual conversation