Page 174 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

Besides the following sections, I have included usage and style advice
throughout the rest of the book.

Usage is about the implementation of the commonly understood features of a
language in a consistent way acceptable to users of that language.

Style is about the appearance of the language, such as capitalization and
punctuation, as well as about its tone and register.

For example, it’s one thing to know how to conjugate a verb, but it’s another

thing to put it into a complex sentence that not only says what you mean, but
also has none of the kinds of errors that would make your readers doubt your

intentions or intelligence—or cause them to suspect that you doubted their
intelligence.

In a brief book, it’s possible to cover only a few key usage and style points.
For more, please see the books recommended in the Further Reading section

(here).

17.1 Avoiding Adverbs

Somewhere along the way, it became a passed-along piece of advice to avoid

adverbs when writing. Many inexperienced writers take this to heart and strike
them from their writing wherever they realize they’ve used them.

However, there is nothing whatsoever intrinsically wrong with adverbs. In

fact, avoiding them leads to bland, forgettable writing. You can and should use
adverbs.

But, as with adjectives, it is easy to overuse them, and, like any other part of
speech it is easy to use them in the wrong place. Use them in moderation and in

the right ways.

You know you need to fix your adverbs when:

■ You read a sentence aloud and the adverb feels awkward.

■ You’re using a lot of them in business or formal writing. Adverbs tend
to work best in narrative and in fiction.