ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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Picture it: you're reading along, happy as a clam…

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…when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, BOOM! [Clam with a smile]

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A word you don't recognize. [The clam explodes]

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So what do you do??

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Well, you could cry in the fetal position and never read a book again… [Boy on the floor crying]

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…or you could look it up in the dictionary…

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…or you could figure out what it means from context clues, those little hints about

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meaning we find in the text. [Sherlock appears]

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But which route should you take?

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Definitely not the fetal position…it's not great for your back. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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Which leaves the highway to Dictionary City, or the road to Context Clueville. [A roadsign]

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And in case you were wondering, no, you don't need a driver's license. [No sign appears over a driver's license]

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So let's start with dictionaries!

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There are a whole bunch of benefits to using a dictionary, and the main one is that we'll [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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know that the definition is correct.

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After all, the dictionary is put together by a whole bunch of language experts. [Two language experts deciding what to name their job title]

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Another plus?

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The words are all in alphabetical order, which makes the definitions really easy to find.

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And we're glad they went for the alphabetical system instead of, say…the system of how

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much some guy named Larry likes the word. [Larry stood next to his order of words]

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Does he like "cardigan" more than "sweater"?

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Who knows.

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But, for all their plusses, dictionaries do have some drawbacks.

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For one thing, they're kind of a pain to haul around.

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If you're going to the park for a quiet read, you don't necessarily want to drag your Merriam-Webster [Guy with a giant dictionary on his back]

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along with you.

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They can also be a bit confusing.

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Sometimes they offer definitions that are hard to understand, or lots of definitions

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for one word.

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And everyone knows, the only place you want to go to get more confused is a magic show. [Dictionary performing at a magic show]

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Looking something up in a dictionary also ruins the flow of your reading.

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If you're finally getting to a story's exciting climax, a guest appearance by a dictionary [Two men about to fight]

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is going to slow things down. [A dictionary appears in between them]

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No offense, dictionary.

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Context clues, on the other hand, don't interrupt the flow of our reading.

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By figuring stuff out on the fly, you can keep pesky dictionaries from ruining the action.

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Which is good, if you prefer action to dictionaries. [One of the men kicks the dictionary away]

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Also, since context clues require us to really think, we're more likely to remember the word.

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That said, context clues aren't without their flaws.

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For one thing, it's hard to tell if we came up with the right definition.

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Without the authority of the dictionary on our side, we're really just making an educated [Guy is stopped from passing onto a bridge by a guy asking him the definition of loathsome]

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guess, so we might be right...

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…or we might be very, very wrong. [The guy explodes]

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Another weakness of context clues?

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Sometimes the text doesn't give us all of the clues we need…

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…which leaves us floating around without a paddle, unlikely to reach the Shores of [Boy looking unhappy on a boat]

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Clarity.

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We might make it to the Rapids of Confusion, but uh…that's not a great place to be… [Boy looks worried]

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So as we can see, dictionaries and context clues have all sorts of pros and cons, but

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we're sure that when the time comes, you'll pick the right one.

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…or maybe you'll pick "Taking a two-hour break from reading to play video games." [Two guys playing video games]

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Great.

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Real helpful.

Full Transcript