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Tool 6: Decorating Tool

These finishing touches will grab your
reader’s attention and improve your grades!

The decorating tool will give you lots of ideas to make your writing more
colourful, interesting and POWERFUL!

1. ‘WOW’ Words!

Don’t bore your reader by using the same words over and

over again. Using ambitious or ‘WOW’ words will impress
your reader and keep them interested!
Think of words that you use a lot in your writing and make a list of other words that
you could use instead (a thesaurus will help you). Here are some examples:

Words you can use instead of ‘said’
announced, argued, begged, called, chuckled, cried, declared, explained, expressed,
grumbled, insisted, joked, laughed, mentioned, murmured, pleaded, queried,
remarked, replied, reported, requested, screamed, shouted, shrieked, sighed,
sobbed, stammered, stated, stuttered, suggested, urged, uttered, whispered, yelled

Words you can use instead of ‘small’
diminutive, dinky, little, microscopic, measly, miniature, minor, minute, modest,

petite, pocket-sized, puny, scanty, short, slight, slim, teeny, tiny, undersized

Words you can use instead of ‘big’

bulky, colossal, considerable, enormous, generous, giant, gigantic, great, huge,
immense, large, massive, monstrous, oversized, sizable, substantial, towering, vast

Words you can use instead of ‘nice’ or ‘good’
amazing, attractive, beautiful, brilliant, charming, delightful, enjoyable, excellent,

fabulous, fantastic, fine, first-class, generous, gorgeous, great, incredible, kind,

lovely, marvellous, outstanding, pleasant, pleasing, pretty, remarkable,
satisfactory, striking, stupendous, super, superb, terrific, tremendous, wonderful

Words you can use instead of ‘bad’
awful, appalling, atrocious, disgusting, dreadful, frightful, grim, horrendous,
horrible, horrific, inferior, nasty, naughty, shocking, terrible, unpleasant, useless

Words you can use instead of ‘but’

although, alternatively, except, however, nonetheless, on the other hand, though, yet

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