Starting the New Year with Writing Advice THE CADENCE OF THE WRITTEN WORD
I borrowed this with permission from the Public Safety Writers Associations's December Newsletter. The author wants to remain anonymous. I felt it needed an even bigger audience. THE CADENCE OF THE WRITTEN WORD I debated titling this article “The Cadence of the Written Word and the War on Adverbs.” The versatile modifier has been under fire the past few years due to an onslaught by currently preferred styles, made virtually sacrosanct by certain self-proclaimed experts, who unfortunately are the current heavyweights in the field of writing. Perhaps the most fatuous example was provided by bestselling author, Stephen King, who made the officious pronouncement that “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” While I believe that Mr. King was intentionally being a bit hyperbolic in that statement, it’s certainly true that the hapless adverb has fallen out of favor with current writing stylistic preferences. This is due, in part, to how the written words sound. Nothing can ru...