Word choice - offence and success

More than once, other people who read or listen to me say I have a good choice of words or I choose my words carefully. Perhaps they are right, but sometimes I get confusing or unclear about what I try to say. Luckily, I have learnt to avoid this early enough in my life. When I am serious about what I'm writing or saying, I usually check every word I think can cause confusion or misunderstanding.

During my participation in the Online Writing Collaboration project with IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA), some Americans who read my posts told me that I could fool other people into thinking I am a native speaker of English. I took it seriously ever since. I wanted to keep this and worked on this purpose since then.

One of my posts in that forum (OWCp) was about a word I thought was misused - purposefully or unintentionally - in the media. That word was "Fundamentalism". I used my dictionaries to check whether the meaning used in the media is correct and I found useful information. After that, I spent some time composing an article on the difference between "Fundamentalism" and "Fanaticism" discussing the importance of using the right words in naming things, as misuse of words can cause disasters eventually. Unfortunately, I lost the original copy of that article and, to add insult to injury (make it worse), the site has expired.

What I'm trying to state here is that word choice can help you communicate successfully and achieve your aims or cause you frustration and disappointment. So, why don't you try to do it yourself and see whether the following words are synonyms (carry similar meanings) and can be used interchangeably (in place of one another):

sexist

racist

extremist

terrorist

fundamentalist

fanatic

zealot

You might think who you can call sexist, racist, etc; to make your task easier and more fruitful.

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