Let Verbs Do the Work

Adverbs are what a writer adds when the verb was not strong enough.

"She walked slowly." "He said angrily." "The company grew rapidly." Each one is a verb with a crutch.

Stephen King put it like this in On Writing: "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops."

I will not shout. I will show you ten swaps and let them speak.

Why do strong verbs beat adverbs?

A strong verb carries the picture by itself. "Trudged" has the slowness in it. It has the tired feet in it. "Slowly" just sits there next to "walked" and points.

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style gives the same rule (Strunk's first edition came out in 1918): "Omit needless words." Vigorous writing is concise, they wrote. Most adverbs are needless words wearing a hat.

Mark Twain, in Pudd'nhead Wilson, had a rule for adjectives: "When in doubt, strike it out." Same spirit. Cut what the sentence did not need.

Ten swaps

Walked slowly: trudged.

Ran quickly: sprinted.

Said loudly: yelled.

Looked closely: studied.

Spoke softly: whispered.

Grew rapidly: exploded.

Asked politely: invited.

Held tightly: clenched.

Cried loudly: wailed.

Fell hard: crashed.

Does it work on business writing?

It works even better there, because business writing is full of weak verbs. "We help you achieve better results." Help. Achieve. Better. Three soft words doing the job of one.

Try it. "We help you achieve better results" becomes "We fix your checkout page." Shorter. You can picture it. A reader can hold it.

Watch for "is," "are," "has," and "makes." They are fine in small doses. In a pile, they turn copy into mush.

Where does it break?

Do not swap every adverb. King himself says to use them now and then. An adverb is fine when it adds something the verb cannot. "Almost" and "never" do real work.

And do not reach for a fancy verb. "Perambulated" is not stronger than "walked." It is just louder. Pick the plain word that carries the picture.

The verb drill

Circle every word ending in -ly.

Ask what the verb would be if the adverb were gone.

Say the new verb out loud.

Cut the adverb if the verb now stands alone.

Keep the adverb only if it adds news.

Check the rest of the page for "is" and "has."