Repeating key words with synonyms

Repeating key words is an important technique for gaining coherence. To prevent repetitions from becoming dull, you can use variations of the key word (hike, hiker, hiking), pronouns referring to the word (gamblers . . . they), and synonyms (run, spring, race, dash).

In the following paragraph describing plots among indentured servants in the seventeenth century, historian Richard Hofstadter binds sentences together by repeating the key word plots and echoing it with variations (highlighted in color).

Start of green highlighting. Plots End of green highlighting. hatched by several servants to run away together occurred mostly in the plantation colonies, and the few recorded servant Start of green highlighting. uprisings End of green highlighting. were entirely limited to those colonies. Virginia had been forced from its very earliest years to take stringent steps against Start of green highlighting. mutinous plots End of green highlighting., and severe punishments for Start of green highlighting. such behavior End of green highlighting. were recorded. Most servant Start of green highlighting. plots End of green highlighting. occurred in the seventeenth century: a contemplated Start of green highlighting. uprising End of green highlighting. was nipped in the bud in York County in 1661; apparently led by some left-wing offshoots of the Start of green highlighting. Great Rebellion End of green highlighting., servants Start of green highlighting. plotted End of green highlighting. an Start of green highlighting. insurrection End of green highlighting. in Gloucester County in 1663, and four leaders were condemned and executed; some discontented servants apparently joined Start of green highlighting. Bacon’s Rebellion End of green highlighting. in the 1670’s. In the 1680’s the planters became newly apprehensive of discontent among the servants “owing to their great necessities and want of clothes,” and it was feared they would Start of green highlighting. rise up End of green highlighting. and Start of green highlighting. plunder End of green highlighting. the storehouses and ships; in 1682 there were plantcutting Start of green highlighting. riots End of green highlighting. in which servants and laborers, as well as some planters, took part.
—Richard Hofstadter, America at 1750