Dumbing down is not the best plan for survival

Churches who have tried to go the "seeker" route have found this; those of us on government health care have found this; the trend in entertainment to the cheaper reality shows have proved this. Maybe newspapers could have been saved.

"I never thought I would see the day newspapers would dumb-down, but I’ve seen it. They argue they must do so to survive. I would humbly suggest they took the easy way out, instead of taking the time to rethink their role in society and create new revenue streams to reflect it. But what do I know? I just edited them, I didn’t own them." Djelloul Marbrook, text from a pod cast for journalism students

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."

But then, Zinsser doesn't think much of adjectives, either--"stately elms," "frisky kittens" and "hard-bitten detectives.' He likes strong verbs. At nHumanities it was suggested

"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."

So I struggled with film critic Joe Morgenstern's article today on Dan in Real Life, and the new Jimmy Carter documentary. There were so many adverbs (and adjectives), I was mostly and dejectedly flabbergasted.

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)

Whew! Is it just me? Maybe he's British. They like their sentences fully and heartily packed.