Dynamic Work item text how-to

[Rick Sample]

I am using SELFITEM.SENDTASKDESCRIPTION tasks which send messages to users 
on an approval process. I have too many nearly identical messages. Any time I want to 
change a simple line or two I have to go into half a dozen tasks and make the same change. 
 
I know how to conditional coding in the Description but now I would like to have the 
Work Item Text a tad more generic. I can create a container and put it into the Work Item Text 
and pass it in the binding like so. 
For field "Work Item Text" in the Task ->Basic Data I entered &zWorkItemText&
&zWorkItemText& = "myMessage - Approved message for Mr Smith"
I can pass text into this field via the container but not other containers like so.
For field "Work Item Text" in the Task ->Basic Data I entered &zWorkItemText&
&zWorkItemText& = "myMessage - Approved message for &zEname&"
Result of this is the display of: "myMessage - Approved message for &zEname&" and not 
"myMessage - Approved message for Mr Smith"
 
Any way to concatenate the containers in the string so I can get the containers and the text?
I could create multiple containers and put into Work Item Text like &zWorkItemText1&, &zWorkItemText2&, 
&zWorkItemText3&, ... But would rather not.
 
thanks!