Your function definition
def calc_score(word):
"""Calculate the score of a given word."""
word_score = 0
for x in word:
word_score += scores[x]
return word_score
may be as simple as
def calc_score(word):
"""Calculate the score of a given word."""
return sum([scores[x] for x in word])
[scores[x] for x in word] is so called list comprehension - it creates the list of scores[x] for every x in word - and then the function sum() will add its items together.
Similarly, your function definition
def look_up():
"""Create the variable containing the master list of words."""
read_dict = open("sowpods.txt", "r")
master = read_dict.read()
read_dict.close()
master = master.split("\n")
return master
may be as simple as
def look_up():
"""Create the variable containing the master list of words."""
with open("sowpods.txt", "r") as sowpods:
master = list(sowpods)
return [m.rstrip('\n') for m in master]
Using the context manager (with) is preferred for files, as it properly closes a file for you, even after the occurrence of an exception, and moreover gives you individual lines in the sowpods variable.
