A great blip from Wordsmith’s Word-A-Day:

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.

Write on, all!

Therese Walsh co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006. Her debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, sold to Random House in a two-book deal in 2008, was named one of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2009, and was a Target Breakout Book in 2010. She's never been published with a lit magazine, but LOST's Carlton Cuse liked her haiku best on Twitter, and that made her pretty happy.
Therese Walsh
View all posts by Therese Walsh
Therese's website
If you enjoyed this post, please consider spreading the word using one of our social-media buttons. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

4 Comments »