29 October 2021

The road to hell is sloppily paved in adverbs

Words are alchemy. They transfer abstract thought from your head to another head and can change the material world. Clear writing makes that alchemy more effective and you, the alchemist, more interesting.

To make your writing clear: Cut adverbs.

Adverbs describe verbs (i.e., quickly, loosely, happily), so beware words ending in -ly. They’re a crutch for poor verbs, so cut or replace them with a stronger verb.

• Smile happily → smile
• Run quickly → sprint
• Hang loosely → dangle