I always carried a pocket dictionary in college to be sure I knew the meaning of a word. I vowed I would never say in class, “was he cognitively aware?”. A buddy said later “If he was cognitive, he was aware.” Don’t want to make that mistake twice. LOL
I got a degree from a prestigious journalism school (long ago!). A couple of other students struggling with writing composition sought me for a study partner and were *amazed* that I consulted a dictionary, thesaurus, and almanac routinely when writing. They just wanted to be on television.