The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart: 1, 200 Essential Words Every Sophisticated Person Should be Able to Use

This is a tongue-in-cheek guide to words that any smart, well-educated, pretentious person should be able to drop into cocktail conversation.The reader is encouraged to toss off words such as ‘Disestablishmentarianism’, ‘descant’, and ‘autodidactic’, proving, if not the value of a good education, at least the appearance of a good education.Each word is accompanied by a pronunciation guide and a sentence illustrating its use. Some of the sentences are made up, while others are well-known quotations.

Author Biography Robert W. Bly is a professional writer and self-made millionaire. He is the author of seventy books including several popular volumes on writing. He has lectured on writing, publishing, and marketing to numerous groups. He is a former Adjunct Professor of Communications at New York University.

Author Biography

Robert W. Bly (Montville, NJ) is a professional writer, speaker, and marketing consultant with over three decades of experience in business-to-business, high-tech, and direct response marketing. He became a self-made multi-millionaire while still in his 30s. Bob is the author of more than 90 published books including Careers for Writers (McGraw-Hill/VGM), Secrets of a Freelance Writer (Henry Holt), The Copywriter’s Handbook (Henry Holt), and The Elements of Business Writing (Alyn & Bacon). McGraw-Hill calls Bob Bly “America’s top copywriter,: and he was named 2007 Copywriter of the Year by American Writers and Artists, Inc. Bob writes a column for Target Marketing magazine. The Direct Response Letter, Bob Bly’s free e-newsletter, has over 60,000 subscribers. Check out Bob’s blog at Bly.com/blog.