Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Keith Johnson from Great Documents.

As a Technical Writer, I consistently work with technical words that are new and that require my understanding. Here are ten steps you can take, as I have, that will help you to assimilate the words and make them part of your everyday vocabulary, especially at work:

1. Physically write out the word - like they say, “seeing is believing”

2. Look-up the term in Wikipedia and see what the general public has to say.

3. Look-up the term in a regular dictionary to get an academic interpretation of the word.

4. Compare these two definitions, and see where they align, as definitions.

5. Discuss the term with others at work, especially those who use the word daily.

6. Write a few meaningful sentences using the new word.

7. Have others review your sentences to see if you have correctly understood its usage.

8. Begin to use this word as part of your daily experience, especially if work requires it.

9. Try to assimilate an image or picture to better connect the word with experiences in general.

10. Make sure you use the word in your technical documents as you are writing, if possible.

Keith Johnson is a blogger who shares 10 years worth of experience on technical writing at his blog Great Documents. He is also the author of 365 Great Affirmations.