Using reference books

[sctroyenne]

So I have a thesaurus, this book - a sort of thesaurus with collocations: Le Robert - Dictionnaire des combinaisons des mots, a Bescherelle that includes a style guide, as well as regular dictionaries (and all the dictionaries online). I've never had a writing workflow that included regular use of reference materials for my native language (apart from some thesaurus abuse when I was an adolescent) but I thought I could stand to use some reference works to improve my expression and enhance my vocabulary in French. Any suggestions?

[pir]

I am not at this stage in French yet (though I read thesauri for fun), but when I got there in other languages, I'd write whatever I was writing (daily diary entries are the most common), and then add an editing phase where I'd use the thesaurus to look up synonyms for words I overused, or for words that seemed a bit boring, less expressive than they could be, and rewrite the text. It's quite similar to editing for fiction, except I stop after one pass. I read it out loud several times so I hear the new words. I add any new words to Anki.

Since most of what I write tends to be affirmative and leans towards using familiar words, I also do occasional "opposite days", where I cast everything I write into its inverse meaning -- a good chance to look up antonyms.

Oh, and my eye roves, so looking up words in a thesaurus inevitably also leads to me adding a few extra flashcards to an Anki deck (I keep using flashcards even when I am advanced in a language because that's how I get to activating vocabulary -- I make up sentences when reviewing new words).

[MorkTheFiddle]

Sometimes I use a thesaurus to pep up my emails. The same thing could be done with posts to this forum, too, I suppose.

[zenmonkey]

Bescherelle is excellent but it really isn't the best training tool alone, as it stands.

Either create your own grammar exercises, get some from the web, or get Grammaire Progressive du Francais with the exercises and use the Bescherelle as the "tutor" that explains the rules.

Use Anki or a create your own "cheat sheet" of rules. Percolate Bescherelle to the essential as if you were going to explain it to someone.