Super big

I have two writing students, teenage sisters, and today I wanted to teach them about using good, strong words. I had them change sentences like "The dog was friendly" to "The chocolate lab sat at my feet and snuggled close, begging to be petted," and I gave them a copy of my mom's list of forbidden words - big, very, really, always, thing, stuff, kind of, sort of, a lot, etc. These words are forbidden in part because they're boring, and in part because they don't really tell you much. Even an innocent word like "big" doesn't always communicate what you want it to. Let me illustrate.

Last night, I was babysitting a three-year-old boy who thought he might enjoy a ride on the elliptical. I told him he was too small, but maybe someday he'd be big enough to use it.

"I'll be big?" he said.

He got new (bigger) shoes recently, but still doesn't have a good handle on the children-grow-and-become-adults concept. I thought I'd help him out."Yes, you'll be big," I said.

"Really  big?" He stretched his hands as high as he could into the air and looked at me, wide-eyed.

Now he was excited for something out of the ordinary. I egged him on, at this point picturing, you know, the Hulk. "Yeah, you'll be really  big. Really really big."

He crouched into his excited, about-to-spring stance, eyes fixed on me with anticipation. "Super big?" he asked me. "Super big like Mom and Dad? "

QED.