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This is kryptonite to fast, aerodynamic writing
A well constructed sentence is a beautiful thing.
A sentence depleted of its power is a sad situation, and an avoidable one.
One of the chief reasons sentences find themselves in a weakened state is the inclusion of adverbs. Not all adverbs are bad. We just have a tendency to use far too many of them.
Adverbs typically end in “ly” and can be any words that modify verbs and adjectives. Or, as Strunk & White put it in their historic writing guide The Elements of Style: “Adverbs are easy to build. Take an adjective or a participle, add –ly, and behold! you have an adverb. But you’d probably be better off without it.”
Here’s a few of many adverbs that receive widespread overuse.
Totally
Really
Hopefully
Usually
Probably
Shortly
Extremely
No less an authority than William Zinsser, author of the classic On Writing Well, one of the bestselling writing books of all time, says that most adverbs are unnecessary, and they clutter sentences and annoy readers.
So let’s review two examples that demonstrate how the adverb can take the wind out of sentence, followed by the same sentence stripped of the offending adverb.
The radio blared loudly.
The radio blared.The IT department’s rapid deployment force raced quickly to the crashing server farm.
The IT department’s rapid deployment force raced to the crashing server farm.
The problem with using the adverb “loudly” is evident. It robs a strong, accurate verb of its power. If the radio “blared” it goes without saying that it was loud. The definition of blare is “to emit a loud, raucous sound.”
Ditto for our second example. If IT employees “raced” to the scene they were obviously moving “quickly.”
We don’t need such redundancy in our writing. The revised versions of these sentences also read better because they’re tighter and faster.
Fast, aerodynamic writing something we should all strive to produce.
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