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KS3 · iLowerSecondary English · Writing skills · Vocabulary & cohesion
Strong writing is not writing that uses big words. It is writing where every word is the right word and where sentences hold together so the reader never has to work out what links them. This masterclass covers four habits: choosing the precise word over the vague one, varying synonyms without abusing a thesaurus, matching register to the reader, and binding paragraphs with cohesion devices.
It develops two strands of the iLowerSecondary writing content - Use synonyms to achieve cohesion and clarity in writing and Select a range of vocabulary for clarity and specific impact - and the Year 9 objective W9.3G: select vocabulary in text and spoken language for effect and impact.
A vague word makes the reader do your work. “The situation was bad” tells them almost nothing; which kind of bad? A precise word carries the meaning, the attitude and sometimes the cause all at once. Before you reach for a longer word, ask a sharper question: not “what is a fancier word for this?” but “what exactly do I mean?”
Each table below takes one tired word and offers three precise replacements. They are not interchangeable - the nuance note explains what each one adds, because choosing well means knowing the difference, not just having options.
Weak word “said” - a character speaking in a tense moment
Weak word “big” - describing the scale of a problem
Weak word “walked” - a figure crossing an empty street
Weak word “good” - evaluating a piece of someone else’s work
Weak word “bad” - reporting the effect of a decision
Weak word “happy” - a character’s reaction to good news
Repeating the same noun five times in a paragraph is dull and can read as carelessness. Varying it - through a synonym, a pronoun or a related phrase - keeps the prose alive and is one way to achieve cohesion. But variation has a strict rule: only swap in a word that means what you actually mean.
⚠ The thesaurus trap
A thesaurus lists words that are near a meaning, not words that are equal to it. Reaching for the longest synonym to sound clever almost always backfires: it loses the exact sense, shifts the register, or produces a phrase no one would ever say.
The test: if you would not say the word aloud to explain your point to a friend, do not write it to impress an examiner. Reach for precision, not length.
Good variation often is not a synonym at all. Instead of repeating “the storm”, a strong writer might use “it”, “the gale”, “the worst weather in years”, or simply restructure so the noun is not needed. Variety for clarity, never variety for show.
Register is the level of formality a piece of writing keeps. The same idea is worded differently for different readers, and the iLowerSecondary writing tasks can address adults, older children or students of the same age - so the audience decides the words, not your largest vocabulary.
Formal - a letter to a manufacturer
“I am writing to report a recurring fault and to request a replacement.”
Full forms, precise nouns, a measured tone.
Neutral - an article for a general readership
“The fault keeps coming back, and most owners want a straightforward fix.”
Clear and plain - neither stiff nor casual.
Informal - a diary entry
“It’s broken again. I just want the thing to work.”
Contractions and short sentences suit a private voice.
The content is identical in all three. Only the register changes - and changing it well is itself a vocabulary skill.
Cohesion is the invisible wiring that makes a paragraph feel like one thought rather than a list. Four devices do most of the work. Each example below is original, written for this page.
Referencing
A pronoun or determiner points back to something already named, so you do not repeat the noun.
The committee rejected the plan. They argued it would cost too much. - “They” and “it” carry the earlier nouns forward.
Substitution
A short word stands in for a longer phrase already used, keeping the sentence light.
My first idea failed, so I tried a different one. - “one” substitutes for “idea”.
Lexical chains
A run of related words keeps a topic alive across a paragraph without repeating a single term.
The harbour was silent: no gulls, no engines, no voices - only the slap of water on stone. - “gulls / engines / voices / water” chain the idea of sound.
Connectives
A linking word signals the logical relationship between sentences, so the reader is never guessing.
The repairs were expensive. Nevertheless, the bridge reopened on time. - “Nevertheless” marks a contrast the reader would otherwise have to infer.
Below is a flat original paragraph, then the same paragraph rewritten. Every change is labelled so you can see why it is an improvement, not just that it is one.
Before - flat and repetitive
“The town was bad after the flood. The flood made the town bad. People were sad and the town was sad too. People wanted help and people did not get help. It was a bad time and the town was a bad place to be.”
“Bad”, “town”, “people” and “sad” repeat with no variation; sentences list rather than connect; nothing is precise.
After - precise and cohesive
“The flood left the town devastated. Streets that had been busy were now deserted, and the families who remained waited for an aid convoy that never came. Their patience hardened slowly into anger. It was, by any measure, the worst week the place had known.”
See the labelled changes below.
Cover the right-hand column. For each weak phrase, write one precise replacement before you check the model. There is rarely a single correct answer - judge yours by whether it is sharper and still says exactly what was meant. Avoid the thesaurus trap: do not pick a word just because it is longer.
Notice that several models are shorter than the weak phrase (“a lot of people” → “a crowd”). Precision often cuts words rather than adding long ones - exactly what the highest band rewards, where stylistic features used confidently fully supporting purpose.
When you redraft, run two passes. First a precision pass: hunt for “bad”, “good”, “nice”, “big”, “said”, “got”, “thing” and ask what you really mean. Then a cohesion pass: check that each sentence is wired to the one before it by a reference, a substitution, a lexical chain or a connective. Precision then cohesion, every time.