A LEARNING COACH and a STUDENT sit at a table.

Question

STUDENT: Hey, I'm having a bit of a tough time.

LEARNING COACH: What's the problem?

STUDENT: There are word choice comments all over this essay.

LEARNING COACH: Why do you think that is?

STUDENT: I don’t know. I didn’t want to keep using the same words over and over so I looked in the thesaurus. That’s what you use to find synonyms for words.

LEARNING COACH: That’s true. Variety of words is important but you also need to understand the connotation of the word.

STUDENT: What’s that?

LEARNING COACH: What the word means in context.

STUDENT: So, I searched for the word walk and I got a lot of different words, amble, mosey, saunter, strut.

LEARNING COACH: And if you want to describe someone as walking confidently, which of those would you use?

STUDENT: Saunter? Or maybe strut?

LEARNING COACH: Those are good words. Would you use amble?

STUDENT: I don’t really know what that means.

LEARNING COACH: Okay, so this is when you would look amble up in the dictionary to see what kind of walking it describes.

STUDENT: So, the purpose of the thesaurus is to help me use a lot of different words. And, the purpose of the dictionary is to make sure I use the right word!

LEARNING COACH: Yes! Now, saunter on over to your computer and fix up that essay!

STUDENT: Righto!
summarize plssssss

Answer 1

The student is struggling with word choices in their essay and seeks help from the learning coach. The student explains that they used a thesaurus to find synonyms but received comments about the word choices. The learning coach explains that while variety is important, understanding the connotation and meaning of the word in context is crucial. The student gives examples of words they found in the thesaurus and the learning coach asks them which word they would use to describe someone walking confidently. The student realizes they don't know the meaning of one of the words and the learning coach suggests looking it up in the dictionary to ensure proper usage. The student understands that the purpose of the thesaurus is to provide different word options while the dictionary helps in choosing the right word. The learning coach encourages the student to fix their essay using this knowledge.