English

Powerful Words

In our last session on powerful verbs we looked at replacing said in speech to make our writing more interesting to read.

Today we are going to look at replacing another word that is used all the time but does not convey any real meaning, the word nice.

See if you can see what I mean:

I went for a walk in the woods. It was nice, sunny and quiet.

I went for a stroll in the woods. It was peaceful and the sun was shining brilliantly through the trees.

You see how the word "nice" stops you having to describe something in detail? If you don't describe something in detail your reader may not be able to get a good picture in their head of the scene or character you are writing about.

Here is another example.

The young boy smiled nicely when he heard the news.

The young boy's smile flashed across his face to show his delight at the news.

Which of those sentences makes you want to read on?

Using "nice" can make your writing weak

There are many different words that you could use in the place of nice. Here are a few of them:

Using the words above, rewrite this short passage by replacing the word nice to make it more interesting to read.

Read it through once and then see how boring it sounds:

The small room was nice and warm. The nice picture on the wall showed a nice forest scene and a nice woman walking through it. The man standing by the fire in the nice yellow jacket had a nice smile while he looked at his nice picture.

Go to answer

Here is my version. Yours may be different however the point is to use words that are appropriate:

The small room was cosy and warm. The wonderful picture on the wall showed a beautiful forest scene and a friendly woman walking through it. The man standing by the fire in the bright yellow jacket had a warm smile while he looked at his favourite picture.

I hope that you now see that using nice really stops you from writing well.
Be confident in using other words and if you can't spell them look them up and learn them. Not only will your writing improve, but your spelling will as well.
Good luck!

Return to top