So how do we produce readable and clean scientific writing? One of the good elements of style is to avoid adverbs and adjectives (Zinsser 2006). Adjectives and adverbs sprinkle paper with unnecessary ...

Is there something unforgivably, infuriatingly obfuscatory about the unrestrained use of adjectives and adverbs? Many celebrated stylists think so. Crime writer Elmore Leonard, who died last week, ...

Have you ever wondered why some writing feels vivid and engaging while other texts seem flat and lifeless? The secret often lies in the strategic use of descriptive words, specifically, knowing when ...

Aspiring science-fiction authors receive one piece of advice above all others: Forsake the adverb, the killer of prose. It’s terribly, awfully, horrendously important. But why? Really, adverbs aren’t ...

To crime novelist Elmore Leonard, their use is "a mortal sin." Graham Greene said they were "beastly." They have been called "the lazy tool of a weak mind." Drugs? Pornography? Vodka shots? None of ...

Adjectives must agree with the noun in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). Make most adjectives agree with the nouns by adding 'e', 's' or 'es'. Position of adjectives in ...

Ned in Albany had a question about the phrase, used in this column, “that works out great.” He asked, “Isn’t ‘great’ an adjective and what’s it modifying here? Shouldn’t it be ‘well’ in uncorrupted ...

Adverbs are of different types. Among such are adverbs of manner (like smoothly, awkwardly and loudly) and those of time (today, yesterday and now). But there is a type not commonly taught: the one ...

I couldn’t agree more with the meaning of that slogan. But what about its grammar? Purists would argue that people don’t drive “drunk”; rather, they say, people “drive drunkenly” or they “drive in a ...