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I've never understood why so many folks have a "thing" against adverbs. Anti-fetish? Is it just because a writing teacher once told you they were "bad"? Adverbs are simply another part of speech. And as with any part of speech, they can be used effectively or ineffectively. But they are not evil.
I've seen many examples in which adverbs are critical to the effect the writer is trying to achieve. And I've seen many examples in which they are abused or overused; but, when that is the case, the writing is typically poor to begin with. It isn't the fault of the adverb. Any part of speech can be abused. I'll bet I could come up with a humdinger that falls flat on its face because verbs or nouns are overused or abused. It's the same kind of thing you hear from certain segments about the evils of the passive verb construction. If passive verbs work in a given example of prose, they work. If they don't they don't. But there is nothing inherently "evil" about passive verbs, either.
But you are more likely to see adverbs overused, I think. I was thinking of bad novels --- stereotypical lurid prose.
I was always getting red loops drawn around my writing in high school when I used passive voice. Oh well, I've never even pretended to be a good writer.
Allocution -- a word I keep seeing on CD. Never having heard of it before, I looked it up and it means a warning or formal statement often given by a judge. The people who are using the word are usually referring to a particular type of speech or pronunciation though so I wonder if they mean elocution.
I could be wrong because if they are as knowledgeable about the language as they appear to be, it seems that they would know enough to use "elocution" if that's what they meant to say. I asked this question in the Boston forum where there is a thread about accent and the thread....died.
Not sure if it has been mentioned but using the word "loose" instead of "lose" in a sentence makes me want to scream. It's becoming more common, too. That one drives me nuts.
I was always getting red loops drawn around my writing in high school when I used passive voice. Oh well, I've never even pretended to be a good writer.
Allocution -- a word I keep seeing on CD. Never having heard of it before, I looked it up and it means a warning or formal statement often given by a judge. The people who are using the word are usually referring to a particular type of speech or pronunciation though so I wonder if they mean elocution.
I could be wrong because if they are as knowledgeable about the language as they appear to be, it seems that they would know enough to use "elocution" if that's what they meant to say. I asked this question in the Boston forum where there is a thread about accent and the thread....died.
The land of 'cahs'? they don't know how to speak, much less how to spell. Just look at the mayor and then remember who elected him.
For a chuckle, and an example of language skills NOT to have:
Not really a spelling or grammar error, but something reminded me of this the other day. Years ago a bunch of us would play pick-up basketball at a local school. The janitor was a very nice guy, not overly educated, but nice. He was on strike over the summer and told us that it was OK, he didn't lose any money, because they made it "radioactive".
Not really a spelling or grammar error, but something reminded me of this the other day. Years ago a bunch of us would play pick-up basketball at a local school. The janitor was a very nice guy, not overly educated, but nice. He was on strike over the summer and told us that it was OK, he didn't lose any money, because they made it "radioactive".
None of us laughed, he was such a good guy.
And you didn't call the "Nucular" Regulatory Commission?
Tonight, on NYC's Channel 2 local news, there was a story about the rapid recovery of audio equipment that had been stolen from a church.
The caption at the bottom of the screen was...are you ready?..."Devine Intervention".
Where do major TV stations find the people whom they hire for this type of work?
Last edited by Retriever; 02-01-2013 at 05:23 PM..
I counted over a dozen spelling and punctuation errors in a post about schools and education.
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Is it just because a writing teacher once told you they were "bad"? Adverbs are simply another part of speech. And as with any part of speech, they can be used effectively or ineffectively. But they are not evil. 
