Observing Cordially - improving your writing with Sherlock Holmes

Improving writing is about developing lots of mini-skills, and today's post is about the simple skill of varying the words we use for "said".  It's part of a teaching approach I use called 'Writing with Sherlock Holmes'.

As an English tutor, I'm often asked to help students improve their writing.  Varying vocabulary is an important skill that develops as we read and learn a wider and wider range of words.

Near the start of the Sherlock Holmes story The Red Headed League, we read two different ways of varying the word "said".

The first is simply to add an adverb - "he said cordially" is the example.  The adverb tells us more about the feelings or tone of the person speaking.

The other is "I observed".  The different word makes a subtle difference in the way we understand how and why something is said.

What other ways of varying "said" can you think of?

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