We\u2019ve all seen it. Chances are, we\u2019ve all done it at one time or another. What am I talking about? Overusing \u2013ly adverbs. That\u2019s right, adding those little \u2013ly words to make the verb seem stronger. Too bad that tends to weaken the sentence rather than make it stronger.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example of the \u2013ly adverb at its worst:<\/p>\n
Kelly ran quickly into the store.<\/p>\n
Not only does that sentence use an unnecessary \u2013ly adverb, it\u2019s redundant. Of course Kelly is moving quickly if she\u2019s running. So how can this sentence be fixed? Either delete \u201cquickly\u201d or replace \u201cran quickly\u201d with a stronger verb. Here\u2019s the change I\u2019d make:<\/p>\n
Kelly darted into the store.<\/p>\n
By replacing \u201cran quickly,\u201d the \u2013ly adverb is gone and Kelly\u2019s movement is described in a way that helps the reader picture it better.<\/p>\n
Another example of \u2013ly adverb overuse:<\/p>\n
The sun shone hotly down causing Brandon to thirstily gaze around in search of blessedly refreshing water.<\/p>\n
Yikes. Not only are the \u2013ly adverbs threatening to take over, the sentence is clunky and hard to read. Take a look at the revised version:<\/p>\n
The sun blazed down, and Brandon\u2019s parched throat prompted his search for a refreshing glass of water.<\/p>\n
Not only have the \u2013ly adverbs been removed, the reader gets a better idea of Brandon\u2019s thirst. It\u2019s amazing how much a few simple word changes can convey the intended feelings much more clearly.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a tip for dealing with those pesky \u2013ly adverbs: whenever you spot one in your manuscript, consider whether there\u2019s a stronger verb to convey what you\u2019re trying to show. Those little adverbs are rarely necessary, so a word change to get rid of one may be just the thing to make your manuscript shine just a little more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve all seen it. Chances are, we\u2019ve all done it at one time or another. What am I talking about? Overusing \u2013ly adverbs. That\u2019s right, adding those little \u2013ly words to make the verb seem stronger. Too bad that tends to weaken the sentence rather than make it stronger. Here\u2019s an example of the \u2013ly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[173,3],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-adverbs","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}