1. Thoroughly familiar words you use confidently in everyday speech and writing.
2. Words that you vaguely understand in speech and writing, but which you wouldn't feel comfortable using.
3. Words that you don't understand at all.
Jot down category 2 and 3 words that you come across in your daily life - in newspapers, radio, TV and at school or work.
Open the dictionary to find (or confirm) the meaning. Does the word make sense in the sentence where it was used?
Note down other words in the same word family. They should be listed along with the word you were looking up.
An example might make this clearer. Suppose you read the following sentence in your newspaper: "Mr Bigg, president of Betalanda, was yesterday accused of being a despot by the country's opposition leader, Mr Aggronom."
Since being promoted to office manager, Mrs Brown has behaved in a rather despotic manner towards the staff.
Despite appearing to take into consideration the views of his cabinet colleagues, the Prime Minister is still regarded as a despot.
Idi Amin promised to introduce democracy to Uganda but what followed was in fact despotism.
It's important to set yourself a target of a certain number of words per day or per week.