Adverbosity
I'm a sucker for qualifiers--"sort of," "rather," "just," "quite," and "too." And I'm crazy for dashes. Every editor wants to chop my adverbs. Zinsser says,- "Most adverbs are unnecessary. You will clutter your sentence and annoy the reader if you choose a verb that has a precise meaning and then add an adverb that carries the same meaning. . . "blared loudly," "mostly flabbergasted," and "moped dejectedly."
- "Kill the modifiers. This is machete work, so wrap a bandanna around your face and grab some shop goggles. No reader is going to believe that your process is innovative or your product is world-class just because you say so, so kill those adjectives. Don’t feel sorry for them. They have no feelings."
- strives desperately
romantically involved (if a man and woman are involved, doesn't that mean romantically?)
awfully heartily (adverb modifying an adverb--double whammy)
singularly unpleasant
notoriously homely
inexplicably awful
terribly tedious
extremely small (how about tiny?)
quite disarmingly
genuinely sweet
unquenchably energetic
singular passion
slightly stooped
essentially undiminished
mostly calm
patiently didactic
uncomfortably admiring advertisement
narrowly focused
mostly uncritical view
uncritical but not unaffecting
peregrinating conscience (I had to look this one up--means traveling)
1 comment:
I don't like critics much to start with. On my blog I shoot from the hip a lot, so I probably don't have any room to talk about other's but I have always been amazed at what newspaper writers get away with. I guess I could try to be more careful on my blog as practice in good writing, but by the time I write and post, I've forgotten all about going back over things with a careful eye.
Speaking of William Zinsser, he wrote a book called, "Writing About Your Life: A Journey Into The Past" about writing personal stories. I LOVE this book and reread it at least once a year. He has had quite an interesting life and uses his own stories to illustrate his points.
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