deilaitha
Sage
It seems that anytime a writing advice article crosses my radar, it inevitably includes something along the lines of "eliminate most occurrences of adverbs."
So, what I want to know is this: when did adverbs become so universally loathed by writers and/or readers? It kind of makes me think about 'rules' for composing music. In music composition, parallel octaves and thirds are considered "okay," whereas parallel fifths are not. The reason for this is that Bach and many other classical composers did not use parallel fifths.
To me, this seems a bit backwards. We are told that "strong writing has very few adverbs," and when we ask why, we are told, "Because this writing with very few adverbs is stronger, see?"
While I understand that adverbs are often redundant, and that a weak verb-adverb pair is not as good as one solid verb, I guess I'm still mystified by the vitriol directed at adverbs in writing. It seems like it's the kind of advice that one person propagates and suddenly everyone is repeating it.
Really, who determines what good style is, anyway?
(Guess who just came across another statement condemning adverbs?)
So, what I want to know is this: when did adverbs become so universally loathed by writers and/or readers? It kind of makes me think about 'rules' for composing music. In music composition, parallel octaves and thirds are considered "okay," whereas parallel fifths are not. The reason for this is that Bach and many other classical composers did not use parallel fifths.
To me, this seems a bit backwards. We are told that "strong writing has very few adverbs," and when we ask why, we are told, "Because this writing with very few adverbs is stronger, see?"
While I understand that adverbs are often redundant, and that a weak verb-adverb pair is not as good as one solid verb, I guess I'm still mystified by the vitriol directed at adverbs in writing. It seems like it's the kind of advice that one person propagates and suddenly everyone is repeating it.
Really, who determines what good style is, anyway?
(Guess who just came across another statement condemning adverbs?)