The Vocabulary of Essay Writing: Can It Be Taught?.

In a discussion of needed research in writing, Mina Shaughnessy points out that vocabulary is "the least cultivated field in all of composition research."l Why it has not stimulated research interest is unclear, for, as we shall see below, the vocabulary of essay writing, or literate, informational prose, is remarkably different from that of literary discourse and would appear to pose special problems for the inexperienced writer. What are the specific characteristics of this vocabulary? What stylistic purposes do they serve? Is the acquisition of the vocabulary of essay writing a developmental phenomenon? If not, how is it learned or taught? This paper will suggest some possible answers to these questions as a guide to further research.