What Is Historical Vocabulary in G2 History? | Using Precise Words Without Jargon

CHAPTER 1 OF 16 · Make words precise

1. Precise language makes the thinking visible

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History writing asks a reader to follow relationships between people, institutions, decisions and outcomes. A vague word can hide a missing relationship. “Things became bad” tells us almost nothing about the change. Did prices rise, employment fall, legal restrictions increase or public trust weaken? Replacing the vague phrase with a specific process does more than improve style. It reveals what evidence the writer needs.

Start with the actor, action and object. “The council restricted access to the market” is clearer than “There were restrictions.” The second sentence may be appropriate when the actor is unknown, but it should not be used automatically. Naming who acted prevents responsibility from disappearing into abstract nouns. Naming who was affected prevents a general claim from treating everyone’s experience as the same.

Precision does not require a difficult word. “The tax increased transport costs” may be more informative than “The taxation framework engendered adverse ramifications.” The longer sentence adds verbal weight while hiding the mechanism. If a term makes an explanation harder to follow without adding accuracy, simpler language is usually the better choice. Technical words earn their place when they name a distinction ordinary wording cannot preserve as efficiently.

Fictional teaching example: a port authority increases docking fees. “The policy affected trade” is true but incomplete. “Higher docking fees raised costs for shipowners, who might pass some costs to merchants” identifies a pathway. It also retains uncertainty through “might,” because passing costs on is not established merely by the fee increase. The vocabulary now records the limits of the evidence instead of decorating an unsupported conclusion.

A useful self-check is to explain a sentence to someone who has not read the chapter. If you need to add an actor, mechanism or qualifier orally, consider whether the written version needs it too. The aim is not to make every sentence long. It is to ensure that the important historical relationship survives in the words on the page.

CHAPTER 2 OF 16 · Make words precise

2. Learn topic terms through examples and boundaries

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A topic term names a historical concept, institution or practice. Learning its definition is a start, but students also need to recognise examples, non-examples and limits. A treaty, for instance, should not be used as a loose synonym for any conversation between states. A protest should not automatically be described as a revolution. Terms carry claims about the nature and scale of an event.

Build a small entry with four parts: a plain-language meaning, an accurate example from your course materials, a nearby term that differs and a sentence using the distinction. Keep the example anchored to the topic being studied. If you are uncertain about a historical detail, check the textbook or teacher’s notes rather than inventing one to complete the vocabulary record. Accuracy matters more than filling every box immediately.

Fictional teaching example: several neighbourhood groups petition a council for longer clinic hours. Calling this a petition is supported if they submit a formal written request. Calling it a revolution would add a claim about major political transformation that the example does not establish. The correction is not merely stylistic. It changes the kind of event the reader understands to have occurred.

Students sometimes learn broad labels before understanding their internal variation. A word such as reform can cover changes of very different size and purpose. After naming a reform, specify what changed: eligibility, funding, enforcement, representation or administration. This moves the answer from a category label to an explanation. Without that next step, a paragraph may repeat “reform” several times without telling the reader what the authorities actually did.

Review terms in related pairs or small clusters rather than enormous alphabetical lists. Petition, protest and rebellion can be compared through their features. Alliance, agreement and cooperation can be distinguished through the commitments involved. The course context determines the exact usage, but the learning principle stays useful: understand what the word includes, what it excludes and what evidence would justify applying it.

CHAPTER 3 OF 16 · Make words precise

3. Causal words describe different jobs

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Cause, trigger, condition and consequence are related but not interchangeable. A cause helps explain why something happened. A trigger is an event that sets an already developing process into immediate motion. A condition makes an action more or less possible. A consequence follows from an event or process, though showing that it followed is not by itself enough to prove the connection.

These are analytical descriptions, not rigid boxes into which every factor must fit forever. The same development can be a consequence of one event and a cause of another. Rising food prices might result from supply problems and then contribute to protest. Good writing states the relationship being discussed. “This was a cause” is incomplete unless the reader knows a cause of what.

Fictional teaching example: poor harvests reduce grain supplies, prices rise over several months and a sudden ration announcement sparks a demonstration. The harvest problem is part of the background pressure; the price rise transmits that pressure into household difficulty; the announcement may be the immediate trigger. A paragraph that calls all three “the main cause” loses the sequence and makes it harder to explain their interaction.

Use causal verbs to identify mechanisms. “Encouraged” suggests a factor made action more attractive. “Enabled” suggests it made action possible or easier. “Constrained” suggests it narrowed options. “Intensified” suggests it increased an existing pressure. None is a magic substitute for explanation. Follow the verb with the reason: enabled by providing resources, constrained by limiting credit, intensified by increasing costs.

Before using “led to,” ask whether the evidence supports a causal claim or only a chronological sequence. If two events occur one after the other, the relationship might involve causation, coincidence or another shared cause. A precise answer explains the link and considers relevant alternatives. Vocabulary supports reasoning when it makes that link visible, not when it quietly supplies certainty the evidence has not earned.

CHAPTER 4 OF 16 · Explain relationships

4. Intention, action and outcome must stay separate

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An intention is what someone hoped or planned to achieve. An action is what they did. An outcome is what resulted. A policy can have a clear intention, be implemented unevenly and produce mixed outcomes. Treating the three as the same creates some of the most common errors in History writing. A promise of equal access is not evidence that equal access was achieved.

Pay attention to the verbs attached to evidence. A speech may announce, promise, justify or encourage. A budget may allocate resources. An administrative order may authorise a procedure. An inspection report may record implementation. A set of outcome measures may show what changed afterwards. These sources can be connected, but each establishes a different stage. Naming the stage accurately prevents a premature conclusion about success.

Fictional teaching example: a council promises cheaper water, approves funding, builds new pipes and later records lower charges in two districts. The promise establishes the stated aim. Funding and construction show action. Lower charges provide evidence of an outcome in the districts measured. They do not prove that every household paid less, that supply was reliable or that the whole programme met all its aims.

A good sentence can preserve the sequence without becoming cumbersome: “The council intended to reduce water costs and funded new pipes, but the available figures demonstrate lower charges only in the two districts surveyed.” The contrast is factual rather than cynical. It recognises achievement while controlling its scope. Historical precision allows a student to be fair without either celebrating automatically or assuming every official promise was dishonest.

For practice, take one paragraph from your notes and mark every verb as intention, action or outcome. Check whether the evidence really belongs to the stage named. Replace “succeeded” with “attempted” if success is not established, or replace “planned” with “implemented” when the evidence shows execution. These small changes can transform the accuracy of an explanation without adding any new historical content.

CHAPTER 5 OF 16 · Explain relationships

5. Change, continuity and significance need criteria

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Change describes a difference across time. Continuity describes something that persists. Significance concerns why a development mattered under a stated criterion. A change can be dramatic in appearance but limited in reach. A quieter administrative change can have far-reaching consequences. Students need to say what changed, for whom and over what period before deciding how important it was.

Avoid treating “changed” as a complete explanation. “Education changed” leaves the reader to guess whether the difference concerned access, curriculum, teaching language, funding or qualifications. Specify the dimension and the comparison points. “School attendance expanded in the rural districts over the period studied” is narrower but much more useful. It identifies what evidence would support or challenge the statement.

Fictional teaching example: a town replaces its market buildings but keeps the same licensing rules. There is physical change alongside administrative continuity. Saying “everything changed” ignores the rules. Saying “nothing changed” ignores the buildings and possible effects on traders. A good answer can hold both observations together because they concern different dimensions. Historical vocabulary should help separate those dimensions rather than force a single totalising label.

For significance, choose a reason the development mattered: scale, duration, depth, influence on later events or effects on particular groups. The criterion should fit the question and evidence. Do not assume that “many people were affected” settles every significance enquiry. A smaller group’s experience may matter greatly for understanding rights, institutions or a turning point, provided the argument explains why.

A practical sentence frame is “This changed X while Y continued, and it mattered because Z.” Use it as a thinking prompt, not a compulsory final form. The important work happens inside the variables: a specific dimension, a defensible continuity and an explained consequence. If those parts remain vague, the frame cannot rescue the answer. Understanding the terms gives the structure substance.

CHAPTER 6 OF 16 · Explain relationships

6. Qualifiers control the size of a claim

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Words such as some, most, partly, mainly, initially and eventually carry substantial historical meaning. They tell the reader how widely and how strongly a claim applies. Removing a qualifier can make a statement false. “Some residents opposed the move” does not mean that the whole town opposed it. “Initially successful” does not mean permanently successful. Careful readers preserve these limits when quoting and paraphrasing.

Qualifiers are not signs of weak confidence when the evidence requires them. They are tools for matching a conclusion to its support. The problem is using them mechanically. Adding “perhaps” to every sentence makes an answer evasive; adding “clearly” does not make evidence stronger. Choose the word that reflects the actual uncertainty, coverage or degree, then explain the reason when it matters to the argument.

Fictional teaching example: a survey covers 80 households in one district. Its results may support a claim about those respondents, and perhaps suggest a wider pattern if the selection method is appropriate. They do not automatically support a national conclusion. The scope should appear in the wording: “Among the households surveyed…” or “In this district…” Such phrases prevent a limited sample from becoming an imaginary universal experience.

Time qualifiers are equally important. A reform might attract support before implementation, encounter resistance during disruption and gain acceptance later. “The public supported the reform” flattens this sequence. A more precise answer distinguishes phases and asks whose views are recorded in each. This does not require a separate paragraph for every date. It requires wording that preserves the pattern instead of hiding change inside a general statement.

Try a qualifier audit during revision. Circle words that express number, extent, certainty or time. Ask what evidence justifies each one. If “most” appears without a basis for majority, consider a narrower phrase. If “only” excludes every alternative, check whether the record permits that exclusion. This audit is quick, and it often catches overstatement that a general proofreading pass misses.

CHAPTER 7 OF 16 · Compare and judge

7. Institutions, governments and populations are not the same actor

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A country is not a single person with one intention. Governments contain departments and officials; populations contain groups with different interests; institutions can disagree or change position over time. Writing “the country wanted” may sometimes summarise a defined policy position, but it can also erase important differences. Use a more specific actor whenever the evidence allows it.

Distinguish an official decision from popular approval. A ministry’s order establishes that the ministry issued the instruction. It does not prove that every local official implemented it consistently or that the population supported it. A public demonstration establishes participation by those present, not the views of every absent person. These differences matter because historical arguments often turn on the distance between policy, enforcement and experience.

Fictional teaching example: a municipal authority orders markets to close earlier, while some inspectors enforce the rule strictly and others allow exceptions. Traders respond differently according to their working hours. “The town opposed the rule” is too broad unless further evidence supports it. “Several evening traders objected to the authority’s order” identifies both the actor imposing the measure and the group recorded as resisting it.

Collective terms also need boundaries. Workers, merchants, residents and elites can be useful categories, but none guarantees a single viewpoint. Ask whether the source concerns a particular occupation, district, organisation or social position. A factory owner and a street vendor may both count as businesspeople while facing very different pressures. Good vocabulary keeps the category useful without pretending its members were identical.

When revising, underline every collective noun and ask whether it names the right level. Could “officials” become “local inspectors”? Could “people” become “residents who signed the petition”? Sometimes the broader term is appropriate because the argument genuinely concerns the institution as a whole. The check is not a ban on generalisation; it is a way to ensure that the generalisation has been earned.

CHAPTER 8 OF 16 · Compare and judge

8. Power, authority and influence describe different relationships

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Power concerns the capacity to shape actions or outcomes. Authority concerns a recognised or claimed right to decide or command. Influence concerns an ability to affect views or behaviour, sometimes without formal office. These distinctions help students describe how decisions happened. They also prevent the assumption that a person with a title automatically controlled every outcome.

A formally authorised official may lack resources to enforce an order. A community organiser may have no official position but substantial influence among residents. A powerful institution may face resistance that limits what it can achieve. Historical explanation improves when it identifies the mechanism: legal rights, control of resources, access to information, public trust, coercion or organisational networks. A label alone cannot show how power operated.

Fictional teaching example: a mayor announces a curfew, but enforcement depends on police staffing and public compliance. The mayor has formal authority to issue the order in the invented scenario. Police capacity affects implementation. Community leaders may influence whether residents accept it. Saying “the mayor had power” is less informative than explaining these connected relationships and where the policy could encounter limits.

Avoid using authority as a synonym for truth. An official source can be well placed to report a procedure and still misrepresent its effects. A non-official source can lack institutional status while providing accurate local knowledge. The relevant question is what the source’s position allowed it to know, what it sought to communicate and how its claims can be tested. Status is a clue, not a verdict.

A helpful practice is to complete three separate sentences about an actor: “They could decide…”, “They could enforce…” and “They could persuade…” The answers may differ. This exercise makes institutional relationships concrete and helps students move beyond descriptions of powerful personalities. It also creates more precise causal explanations because the route from position to outcome becomes visible.

CHAPTER 9 OF 16 · Compare and judge

9. Perspective, bias and purpose should not collapse into one label

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Perspective is a viewpoint shaped by position, experience and context. Bias involves a tendency or inclination that may shape selection or judgement. Purpose concerns what a creator aimed to achieve by producing a source. These ideas overlap, but they ask different questions. A shopkeeper may view a road closure through its effect on trade, select details that support compensation and write a letter to persuade the council.

Calling that letter “biased” is not the end of analysis. Identify what the viewpoint helps the writer see and what it may leave out. The shopkeeper could provide detailed evidence of delivery disruption while knowing little about benefits elsewhere. The letter’s persuasive purpose may explain its emphasis, but does not prove that the reported disruption was invented. Analyse the particular claim instead of dismissing the source as a whole.

Purpose also differs from effect. A poster may intend to increase recruitment without actually persuading many readers. Evidence of intention might come from its message, audience and context. Evidence of effect requires information about reception or behaviour. Using “persuaded” when the source only shows an attempt to persuade quietly turns a communication analysis into an unsupported claim about results.

Fictional teaching example: a leaflet tells residents that a new transport service will save time. The message concerns convenience; the apparent purpose may be to encourage use; its effect remains uncertain without evidence of responses. A precise sentence separates them: “By emphasising shorter journeys, the leaflet sought to encourage residents to use the service.” It does not need to claim that the attempt succeeded.

For revision, replace a generic evaluation with a claim-specific one. Instead of “The source is biased and unreliable,” write what is selected, why the creator might select it and which assertion needs testing. This takes slightly longer but produces useful reasoning. Vocabulary helps when it opens an enquiry; it becomes a problem when it closes the enquiry through a label.

CHAPTER 10 OF 16 · Practise with evidence

10. Comparison words must show what is being compared

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Similar, different, greater and more successful need a common basis. Two policies can share an aim while differ in implementation. Two groups can agree about a problem while disagree about a solution. A comparison that simply says “both are similar” leaves the dimension unstated. Name the shared or contrasting feature before selecting evidence.

Fictional teaching example: two town reports describe housing schemes. Both promise lower rents. One uses public construction; the other subsidises private builders. “They have the same policy” erases a major difference. “They share an aim of improving affordability but use different delivery methods” preserves both relationships. The next analytical step is to explain why those methods might produce different results in their respective contexts.

Comparative degree needs support too. “More effective” requires a criterion and reasonably comparable evidence. If one source measures construction totals and another measures resident satisfaction, the figures do not automatically establish which scheme worked better. You may compare dimensions separately or explain why the evidence does not permit an overall ranking. That is a legitimate conclusion when it reflects the available record.

Useful connectors include similarly, whereas, in contrast, nevertheless and on the same criterion. Their value depends on the relationship they introduce. Do not insert “however” before a sentence that merely adds another example. Do not use “therefore” when the second statement does not follow. A connector makes a reasoning claim, and the surrounding sentences must support it.

A short exercise is to write one similarity and one difference using the same pair of sources, then underline the dimension in each. If the dimension cannot be found, revise the opening phrase. After that, explain whether the difference changes your overall judgement. Comparison becomes analytical when the student moves from noticing features to explaining their importance for the enquiry.

CHAPTER 11 OF 16 · Practise with evidence

11. Words of judgement need reasons, not volume

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Important, successful, effective and significant are conclusions, not evidence. Writing them repeatedly does not strengthen an argument. Define the criterion and show how the evidence meets it. A policy could be successful at increasing production while unsuccessful at reducing inequality. A development could be significant for one group and less immediately important for another. Good judgement names the dimension before weighing the result.

Avoid treating strong adjectives as substitutes for mechanism. “A terrible crisis caused enormous anger” may be emotionally vivid but historically thin. What made the crisis severe? Who experienced hardship? How did hardship translate into action? A precise answer might discuss shortages, wage pressure, organisation and public meetings. The emotional conclusion becomes more persuasive when the explanation shows what generated it.

Fictional teaching example: a new drainage system reduces flooding in the central market but leaves outer districts vulnerable. Calling it a complete success exaggerates coverage. Calling it a total failure ignores recorded improvement. A proportionate judgement recognises success in the area reached while noting the geographical limit. The conclusion is not weaker because it is mixed; it is more closely matched to the evidence.

Distinguish description from evaluation. “Large” describes a scale under some reference point. “Important” evaluates its meaning. A large gathering is not automatically decisive; a small meeting could matter if it produced a decision with wide consequences. Explain the pathway from size, duration or reach to historical significance. Otherwise, descriptive facts are being asked to carry a judgement they have not yet earned.

When checking a conclusion, circle its strongest adjective and ask, “Under what test?” Then ask, “Which evidence supports that test?” If either answer is missing, the conclusion needs development. Students often discover that replacing a dramatic adjective with a clear criterion improves the paragraph immediately. Historical confidence comes from reasons the reader can examine, not from making the claim sound louder.

CHAPTER 12 OF 16 · Practise with evidence

12. Build a vocabulary notebook that supports retrieval

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A vocabulary notebook works best when it records relationships rather than copied definitions alone. Use a modest number of terms from the current topic. For each, write a plain meaning, a course example, a near-neighbour distinction and a short question. The question turns the entry into something you can test later. “How does implementation differ from intention?” is more useful for retrieval than rereading two highlighted definitions.

Include a non-example when confusion is likely. If a student calls every protest a revolution, record a fictional petition as a non-example and explain why the label is too strong. If they confuse evidence and interpretation, place a source detail beside two possible readings. The distinction becomes memorable because the learner has to make a decision, not merely recognise familiar wording.

Review in both directions. Given the term, explain it without looking. Given an example, choose the most accurate term and justify the choice. Then use it in a new sentence about your actual school topic, checking factual details against trusted materials. This final transfer matters. A student can recite “consequence” perfectly and still misuse it inside an essay if practice never reaches connected writing.

Keep corrections specific. Instead of “wrong word,” record “used outcome where the evidence showed only an intention.” Instead of “vague,” record “did not name the affected group.” A few weeks of these entries can reveal recurring problems. Revision can then target the missing distinction rather than expanding the notebook indefinitely. The most useful vocabulary list is not necessarily the longest one.

A parent can help by asking for an example and a non-example, even without knowing the whole syllabus. Let the student explain why one word fits better than another. If the historical detail is uncertain, mark it for checking rather than guessing together. This keeps the session constructive: the goal is clearer thinking, and uncertainty becomes a manageable question for the next lesson.

CHAPTER 13 OF 16 · Transfer the habit

13. A complete fictional paragraph-repair workshop

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Read this deliberately weak fictional paragraph: “The government did a reform and everyone was happy. It caused success because the people had better things. The source proves the reform was very important.” Almost every phrase hides a question. Which authority acted? What changed? Who approved? What counted as success? Which evidence supports importance? The paragraph sounds positive, but it contains little that can be tested.

Now supply a fictional evidence pack. A municipal council extends clinic hours. Attendance rises during evening sessions. A workers’ association welcomes the change. A rural petition reports that distance still prevents access. These details support a much more precise explanation. The actor is the council; the action is an extension of hours; the recorded benefit concerns evening use; approval is documented for a specific association.

A repaired paragraph could say: “The council’s extension of clinic hours improved access for some residents who could not attend during the day. Increased evening attendance supports greater use, while the workers’ association’s response suggests approval among its members. However, the rural petition indicates that longer hours did not remove the separate barrier of distance. The measure therefore addressed one access problem without establishing equal access across the whole municipality.”

Notice the vocabulary changes. “Everyone” becomes named groups. “Better things” becomes access during workable hours. “Caused success” becomes a supported mechanism. “Proves” disappears because the evidence supports a bounded conclusion rather than certainty about every resident. The paragraph is not more sophisticated because it contains rare words. It is more sophisticated because its terms fit the evidence and preserve differences.

Try a second repair yourself. Replace the access question with an enquiry about the council’s intended image. Which source now does the main work? You might need a speech, poster or official statement rather than attendance figures alone. Vocabulary and evidence selection are connected. Once the enquiry changes, the appropriate verbs and claims change too. That is why memorised sentences should never be pasted into a new task without checking their job.

CHAPTER 14 OF 16 · Transfer the habit

14. Use a five-minute language audit before submitting

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First, check actors. Replace an unclear “they” if more than one group could be meant. Make sure a population has not been given an institution’s decision and an institution has not been given a single member’s view. This is especially important after a paragraph introduces several groups. A short repeated noun can be clearer than an elegant pronoun with an uncertain reference.

Second, check time and sequence. Does “before” really come before? Have you turned a later recollection into knowledge available at the time? Have you described an intention as a completed outcome? Tenses and time phrases carry historical reasoning. They are not merely grammar details, because they tell the reader when a cause, decision or response belonged in the sequence.

Third, check causal connectors. Every because, therefore and led to should have a defensible link. If the sentence only establishes that two events occurred close together, use wording that does not claim more. Where the connection is supported, explain how it worked. One extra clause identifying resources, incentives, restrictions or communication can make the causal reasoning much clearer.

Fourth, check scope and certainty. Look for everyone, never, entirely, only, proves and inevitable. These words are not forbidden, but they demand strong support. Consider whether the evidence covers all the groups and alternatives your wording excludes. Replace overstatement with a specific boundary rather than sprinkling “maybe” everywhere. Precision means stating the strongest claim the evidence permits, not the weakest claim imaginable.

Finally, read the conclusion in ordinary language. Could a reader explain what you decided and why? If the final sentence is full of abstract nouns but contains no clear judgement, simplify it. The last check is communication. Good historical vocabulary helps an intelligent reader follow your thinking without needing to decode a performance of academic language.

CHAPTER 15 OF 16 · Transfer the habit

15. A manageable practice plan and an honest summary

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Begin with one recurring distinction in your own work. Perhaps you confuse aim and outcome, or write “people” when the evidence concerns one group. Practise three short examples, explain the difference aloud and repair one paragraph. In the next session, revisit the distinction without looking at your notes. Then apply it to a different source or topic so that the learning transfers beyond the original example.

Do not try to master every historical term in one evening. Some words need factual knowledge that develops across a unit. Keep the definition provisional enough to refine when the course introduces a more specific use. Ask your teacher when a term seems to carry a different meaning in a new context. Learning vocabulary includes recognising that context can sharpen a broad definition.

For parents, the encouraging sign is increasing precision, not simply longer answers. A child who changes “everyone benefited” to “the surveyed traders reported lower delivery costs” has made a meaningful improvement. They have identified a group, selected an outcome and controlled scope. Those are intellectual gains even if the sentence contains no unfamiliar word. Praise the clear distinction and ask what evidence supports it.

This guide’s practical vocabulary is not a separate examination syllabus or a universal marking formula. Your school may teach different planning language, and tasks require different amounts of development. Use the distinctions to understand those instructions more accurately. If a framework becomes a script that prevents you from reading the question, step back and return to the actual source and enquiry.

The central principle is simple: choose words that keep the past specific. Name the actor, distinguish the stages, explain the mechanism and preserve the limits. Historical vocabulary becomes powerful when it helps you say exactly what you mean. It should make History easier to understand, not make a clear idea disappear behind difficult language.

One useful final exercise is to explain the same point twice: once to a classmate and once in a formal paragraph. Keep the meaning unchanged. If the formal version introduces a stronger claim, check whether the evidence justifies it. If it becomes less clear, restore the concrete language. Formality should improve precision and organisation, not create distance between the student’s understanding and the reader’s understanding.

CHAPTER 16 OF 16 · Transfer the habit

16. Keep a personal list of distinctions, not impressive phrases

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After each marked task, record one word choice that changed the meaning of your answer. Perhaps “introduced” was used when the source showed only a proposal. Perhaps “residents” replaced a specific association. Write the original phrase, the corrected phrase and one sentence explaining the difference. This creates a compact revision resource drawn from your own work rather than an expanding collection of generic academic expressions.

Then test the distinction on a fresh example. If a fictional committee discusses a plan but takes no vote, which verb fits: considered, approved or implemented? Explain why the other verbs go further than the record permits. A student who can reject the near-neighbours has usually understood more than a student who can repeat only the correct definition.

Bring recurring uncertainties to the teacher. Some terms have a specific use in a topic or school task, and it is sensible to clarify that use. The goal is flexible precision: a vocabulary that helps you read a new question accurately and explain a new source clearly. It should support independent judgement rather than make your writing depend on a stored list of sentences.