Experts on Adjectives & Adverbs

Students studied adjectives and adverbs recently. When we are taught these two elements and drilled in their use extensively, we leave our students thinking that riddling their work with adjectives and adverbs is a good thing. So, I sent the girls to do a bit of research on what some authorities had to say about using adjectives and adverbs in creative writing. Then I complied their work. The research provided below is by Missy, Izabell, and Arpita. Good job, girls.

ADJECTIVES
1) Limit yourself to a single splendid adjective when you need one. Peggy Tubor Millin
2) Never or rarely use the word 'unique'. Richard Lally
3) Watch out for adjectives that are used for emphasis, that are cliched, that do the work another word's already done, and that come too thick and fast. Joanna Young
4) Poor food writing includes the three laziest adjectives, "nice" "wonderful" and "delicious". She also suggest adding word "perfect "to the list. Amy Sherman
5) When you catch an adjective, kill it. Mark Twain
6) Before you revise for accurate and strong adjectives, make sure you are first using accurate and strong nouns and verbs. unc.edu
7) Whenever tempted to use more than one adjective, look harder to find one adjective that says both things. Josi S. Kilpack
8) With the exception of within dialogue, certain adjectives should never be used in the novel. They have the effect of making the prose appear lazy and sluggish. Here is a list of such adjectives: Lovely, wonderful, pretty, beautiful, horrible, stupid, pleasant, unpleasant, nasty, and other adjectives of this calibre. **These adjectives are weak because their meaning is broad. They do nothing to create a vivid impression for the reader. When the lazy adjective sneaks in, it is time for the trusty thesaurus. Rachel Shirley
9) If the adjectives are there only to prettify the prose, they should be eliminated. The key is, adjectives should be used only when they highlight something the noun can't highlight. For example: He slipped into the darkened alley ... William Noble

ADVERBS
1) Good writers use the right word; clumsy writers use adverbs to bolster up the wrong verb. Jennnifer Roach
2) You can tighten your writing by dropping adverbs and picking a more powerful verb. Anowalk
3) A descriptive verb will usually be more effective than a verb. Paul Docherty
4) When an editor sees a manuscript full of adverbs, he knows that the author is an amateur. The intent of the adverb is to modify a verb and to clarify action in the process. However, overusing adverbs means an author is telling readers instead of showing them. That's one of the quickest ways to turn off your readers because it doesn't allow them to get absorbed in the story. Katarina Saylor
5) Adverbs are red flags, they replace concrete descriptions or phrases with words that don't hold real meanings. www.writersdigest.com
6) Avoid redundant phrases such as tiny little, which could be replaced with minuscule or just tiny. Intensify the action without using an adverb. "She ran swiftly across the room" could be rewritten as, "She sprinted across the room."
7) If your dialogue is strong, the words will be angry words...adding 'she said angrily' should be totally unnecessary. Or, if the words are calm and you want to show that the person saying them is hiding his anger, have his body language reflect his anger. You can get away with your characters using adverbs, but do go easy or your characters might sound too much alike, or even dated as in "totally awesome." Sheryl J. Dunn
8) Using single words to describe actions and objects quickly brings them to mind. When someone "stabs" a straw into their drink we see it, but "pokes swiftly" is not so clear. When a person "meanders" it is more accurate than "walking slowly". A man whose foot is described as a "hoof" is much more vivid that having "gnarled toes and sole". A "Porsche" is a much more striking image than a "German sports car". Kim H. Peres
9) Adverbs are red flags, they replace concrete descriptions or phrases with words that don't hold real meanings.- www.myliteraryquest.wordpress.com