Unless you’re tailoring an article for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and keywords, stop using the same old words over and over again.

For example – “Dad took the whole family to the zoo yesterday.  We saw lions, tigers, and bears.  The lions were fantastic.  The tigers were fantastic.  The bears were fantastic too.  Amy got a snowcone, it was fantastic.”

Your story will be better and more readable if you don’t repeat important words.

Instead tell us about the majesty of the lions, the wildness of the tigers, and shy brute force of the bears.  Better still, ignore adjectives and adverbs for once and involve your readers in whatever action is going on.  Maybe Amy stuck her face against bars and the lion charged her.  Maybe she acted like a two year old screaming until Dad bought her a snowcone, and then to make matters worse, it fell out of the cone and the ball of ice rolled down the hill towards the bears.

Image via Wikipedia

Perhaps she got home and displayed artistic talent by drawing a really good picture of the lions.  Or maybe something embarrassing happened and Dad didn’t want to explain it to Amy at the time.

Image via Wikipedia

So, the rule of thumb is – Don’t use the same words over and over again in the same paragraph.

Shake things up.  For yourself and your readers.  You’ll end up being a better writer for it.