Hi Everyone! Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I always have problems with repeating the same words in the same paragraph that I can't seem to replace with a better alternative. Here is one that I encountered recently. The scene is about a gym teacher waiting for a student who is late. The facts that I need to get across are: 1. The gym teacher is waiting 2. He already sent the rest of his class to start their morning jog 3. The class usually jogs down a hiking trail that runs alongside the school 4. The gym teacher usually jogs with them but couldn't today because he is waiting for the late student So here is the description of the scene that I'm stuck on: Mr. Teacher waited by the courtyard checking his watch. He had already sent his students off to begin their morning jog down a hiking trail that ran alongside the academy. Normally, he would be jogging alongside them, but today, he had to stay behind because one of his students is late. Standing there alone, he was left to decide what to do with the late comer when he arrives. "Alongside" is repeated twice. I know this is a pretty simple problem, but I can't seem to fix it. I've tried reworking the paragraph for days but I keep coming back to this same issue. What's going on?! How do we get stuck on such simple things? Can somebody suggest an alternative way to describe the scene?
Thank You so much, The Dapper Hooligan!!! You made it so simple, I feel so dumb, haha! But I'm glad to have come for help, cause I sure need it.
Don't feel dumb, everyone is at different levels and we are here to help, which is likely why you joined this forum in the first place. It may seem like a pretty common place thing, but why dont you right click these words and look up synonyms when you have the word choice stuck points? Sure, synonyms aren't usually an exact fit, but as you can see above in the correction post, you can work the synonyms in with other words and reorganization. This may help until you expand your "on call" vocabulary, which simply takes time. Just a thought to prevent a recurring issue.
Thank you EFMingo! Yes, I completely agree. Even though I pull out the thesaurus a lot, I still struggle with the other point you mentioned about reorganization. Once I get the sound or flow of a sentence stuck in my head, I can't seem to "get it out" another way even though I know for a fact there is. I definately need to work on getting better at this. Thanks again for the great advice and encouragement!
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Thank you so much jannert for alerting me of the messages in my inbox! I had no idea and apologize for the delay in response.
