Adverbs?

[Megawatts]

I never had a writing class, hated English in high school----hell I hated high school except for music---and missed so many days because of the pool halls downtown. I attended college for two years, but never had any writing courses or literature classes. <br><br>I read that adverbs shouldn't be used in writing! And also that after a dialogue only the 'he said' or 'she said' should be used and nothing more.<br><br>Could somebody shed some light on the use of abverbs and dialogue? <br><br><br><br>

[Robert_Moriyama]

Well, it is interesting to note that the "Valleyspeak" term 'totally' (an expression of delight or disgust, depending on context) is now much less common than 'whatever' (an expression of apathy) ... when one doesn't give a rodent's hindquarters about anything, nuances that might be gleaned from an adverb or two are at best superfluous.<br><br>(I am in my new apartment, have phone and Internet back, but no cable TV (and missed half of 'Lost' last night because the only station I could sort of get it sans cable ran it at 8:00 PM instead of 9:00 PM -- or did ABC do that too?). Still have a lot of stuff to move or chuck back at the old apartment ... I think this exercise (and there's a lot of exercise involved) is gonna take off a few pounds in sweat and a little blood, too.)<br><br>Robert M.

[kailhofer]

I've had an editor tell me to take every single adverb out of a piece if I wanted it to sell.<br><br>Of course, a later editor had me put a lot of them back in...<br><br>Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

But the real classic editorial comment was<br><br>Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!<br><br>

[Robert_Moriyama]

I am a 7th grade English teacher & when the students write, we try to get them to "show" us what they are writing instead of just "telling". That means that they MUST use adverbs to DESCRIBE what is going on (as well as adjectives). Adverbs are the type of wrod that helps the reader create a picture in their mind of the action/character in a story. YES - some people use adverbs as a "short-cut" in writing, using them to describe something in a "half-a**ed" fashion. Adverbs, when used judiciously, EXPAND the reading experience.

I think the "no adverbs" thing is meant to discourage "Swiftie" writing -- named for the "Tom Swift" tendency for characters to say everything "cheerfully", "grimly", "darkly", "bravely", etc., and do everything "quickly", "gracefully", "clumsily" -- not to ban descriptive language entirely[sup]*[/sup].  (Oops -- "entirely" is an adverb.)  To some degree, it is better to let the content of a speech convey the tone in which it is delivered (although this fails when the speaker is being sarcastic), and to let actions "show" intent (and intensity).  There are exceptions to every rule, of course; the question is whether slush pile readers and junior editors know that.

Robert M.

[sup] *[/sup] This tendency, in turn, may be attributed to genres and publishing modes where payment was/is by-the-word.  If you modify EVERYTHING, you need fewer 'things' (speeches, actions) to fill a page!