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On one of my Dunnett lists today, Olive quoted Wordsmith quoting Strunk & White quoting Mark Twain:
William Strunk and E.B. White, in their highly-regarded book, The Elements
of Style, say:

"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place."

They have a point. Nouns and verbs work better especially when you're trying to paint a picture with words. Adjectives and adverbs are to nouns and verbs as painting is to stenciling.

But adjectives have their place. There are times when a well-chosen adjective (literally, one that lies [next to a noun]) can do the job of many words, such as when the purpose is to convey an idea quickly and succinctly.

So don't be afraid to use them, with restraint, particularly if you can find a fresh adjective. This week we'll feature five of these much-maligned words, words that drove Mark Twain to verbicide* ("When you catch an adjective, kill it").

I find this reassuring.

Date: 2007-11-05 03:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] maaseru.livejournal.com
This week we'll feature five of these much-maligned words, words that drove Mark Twain to verbicide* ("When you catch an adjective, kill it").

You can't leave it there. Where are they?

Date: 2007-11-05 04:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Today's choice is "riant":
riant (RI-uhnt) adjective

Smiling, cheerful.

[From French riant, present participle of rire (to laugh), from Latin
ridere (to laugh).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=riant

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

"The Audley girls became the idols, the stars, the queens of our corps.
Sunshine, the eldest, with her riant smile, her radiant eyes ..."
Ouida; Randolph Gordon and Other Stories; Lippincott; 1867.

You can have a look at his website, but we have to wait till tomorrow for the next one.

Date: 2007-11-05 04:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sollersuk.livejournal.com
It's a funny thing, I get all this S&W advice thrown at me (which being a UK writer I promptly ignore), then I pick up a well-written American bestseller (yes, they exist) and what do you know? They break all those "rules".

As far as I can make out, they work on the basis that "if too much X is bad, then any X is bad". Leaving out adjectives and/or adverbs makes for deadly boring, lifeless writing. It also makes the previous sentence impossible.

Date: 2007-11-05 04:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
It's all in the style. And brings us back to the Tom Robbins quote I used on Thursday: Whatever works, works..

Date: 2007-11-05 05:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sollersuk.livejournal.com
Absolutely! And I've been passing the quote around.

I suspect that rules can make bad writing less bad, but can't produce good writing, which is a craft that has to be worked at.

Date: 2007-11-06 02:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
I suspect that rules can make bad writing less bad, but can't produce good writing

I suspect you're right about good writing; but if you break too many of the 'writing rules' without careful judgement, you'll be guaranteed yourself some bad writing.

The trick is not to think of any of it as 'following the rules'.

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