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Building
Vocabulary
What do you do when you come
across a word you don’t know?
Let’s define these words:

Call

Put

Covered

Uncovered

Naked
Now, let’s read this passage and see if
our definitions make sense.
“Writing or selling Options against stock you
already own is a strategy that is conservative and
usually works well in a trading market. An
Option is either a call (a right to buy 100 shares
of stock at a specified price in the future) or a put
(a right to sell 100 shares of stock at a specified
price in the future). Thus an Option buyer or
seller who owns no stock (called uncovered or
naked) is a speculator who is looking at making
large percentage returns on a small amount of
invested capital in short time. This individual
would be paying the Option premium to us, the
covered writer.”
See What I Mean?
It matters what context
the words are in!
Types of Context Clues

Definition

Example

Explanation

Opposite term

Punctuation
Definition Context Clues

The author directly states a definition for
a word within the sentence.

Watch for cue words like “is,’’ “is
defined as,’’ “is called.’’

Example: A distinctive perspective is
central to the discipline of sociology,
which is defined as the scientific study of
human social activity. As an academic
discipline, sociology is continually
learning more about how human beings
as social creatures think and act.
Example Context Clues

Sometimes authors help you understand a
word or phrase by giving an example.

Watch for cue words like “such as,’’ “for
example,’’ “for instance.’’

Example: When describing cultural
diversity, sociologists often use the term
subculture. Teenagers, Polish-Americans,
homeless people, and “southerners” are all
examples of subcultures within American
societies.
Explanation Context Clues

The author might clue you in to a word’s
meaning by explanation.

Watch for sentences that explain how or
why something occurs.

One way to limit distortion caused by
personal values is through the replication of
research. When the same results are
obtained by subsequent studies, there is
increased confidence that the original
research was conducted objectively.
Opposite Term Context Clues

Antonyms are words with opposite meanings.
An opposite meaning context clue contrasts
the meaning of an unfamiliar word with the
meaning of a familiar term. Words like
“although,” “however,” and “but” may signal
contrast clues.

Watch for other cue words such as “in
contrast,’’ “unlike,’’ “on the other hand.”

Example: The children were as different as day
and night. He was a lively conversationalist,
but she was reserved and taciturn.
Punctuation Context Clues

Authors also use punctuation marks, such
as dashes, colons, parentheses, or commas,
to call attention to their word clues.

Example: Active readers-readers thinking
about and looking for related informationcan often use context clues to help them
understand the meaning of an unfamiliar
word.
You can also use parts of
a word to help define it.
This means analyzing the parts of a word. Use the
root word, or any prefixes or suffixes you know to
understand a word.
Submarine
sub= under
marine=water
Check out pages 35-38 in your book for some
common word parts.
If all else fails……use
a dictionary or a
thesaurus!!
Connotative Meanings

The literal meaning of a word is called its
denotative meaning. That’s what we’ve been
focusing on so far in this chapter.

Now it’s time to dig into the associated feelings
and emotions that certain words make you
experience.

For example, which of these descriptions do you
think I prefer?

Mrs. Huber is short, energetic, and techie.

Mrs. Huber is a forceful , geeky runt .
Connotations, continued

Certain words either have negative or positive
connotations.

Would you rather be called confident or cocky?

A jock or an athlete?

An old man or an elderly gentleman?

If an author disagrees with a certain subject, you can
usually tell through the negative connotations he/she
uses in the text.
O Romeo, Romeo….

Did you have trouble understanding Shakespeare in high school? It’s
probably because he used tons of figurative language. Figurative
language uses lots of adjectives, similes, and metaphors to paint a
picture in your mind.

I’m not telling you this because I’m going to make you write me a
sonnet, I just want you to realize that when a passage doesn’t make
sense to you, it may be because the author isn’t using the easiest way
to say things.

Check it out:


From my drifting hot air balloon, the Hawaiian Islands looked like
breadcrumbs floating in a bowl of soup.
Looking down from my hot air balloon, the Hawaiian Islands
looked small.
The End…