The Student Writer's Guide to Avoiding Dead Words is a reference/instructional book to help students of all ages avoid the most commonly used words in the English languageoften referred to as dead words. Where this book differentiates itself from common thesauri is that each dead word is followed by a list of synonyms, as well as places the writer should use them. After all, what good is substituting a word when you do not know the specific contexts of it?