I Just Might Throw My Dictionary Away

Over the past week I’ve been up to my eyeballs in writing reports and anyone who is used to tossing out tens of thousands of words in a short time span knows that after awhile, a traditional thesaurus or online synonym resource can feel awfully limited. Enter visuwords.com, a refreshingly useful online resource that functions as a sort of graphical dictionary/thesaurus. What I found particularly useful is how it uses diagrams to illustrate word relationships that actually helped me break out of the tunnel vision writing style instigated by marathon writing sessions…

learn moreIf that weren’t enough, it’s simply fun to use; so much so that I have to consciously check that I’m not getting carried away with it and lose track of time. If you’re a visual oriented learner, visuwords is for you so to all the professionals out there who get tired of using the same old bag of terminology but relish the idea of using MS Word’s synonym feature about as much as getting a physical from Dr. Mengele, add visuwords.com to your favorites.

P.S. Don’t forget to double-click suggested words – it’s fun watching the screen explode in an array of suggestions!

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

Related Posts

1 thought on “I Just Might Throw My Dictionary Away”

Leave a Comment