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July Theme: Descriptive Writing

So, it’s July. And this month’s theme is descriptive writing: when to use adjectives and adverbs. You may have thought that this theme has been tackled already. And you are right . . . sort of. I mentioned this many times in previous tips, but when I asked for a list of tips last year . . . this one popped up again. I suppose there’s no harm in tackling again. So on we go.

Week 1: English Lesson: Adjectives and Adverbs
Week 2: When Not to Use Adjectives and Adverbs
Week 3: When to Use Adjectives and Adverbs

English Lesson: Adjectives and Adverbs

I understand that there may be non-American English speaking people reading this. However, I am not one of them. American English is my only language (though, I am somewhat fluent in British English--and at times, there is a major difference between the two), so it is the language I will be speaking about. Other languages may or may not have the same rules about these two parts of speech—I wouldn’t know. The moral: know your language of choice inside and out. Then you can weave together a truly spectacular masterpiece of words.

Now, that that’s out of the way, here is a grammar lesson. I went to a school that taught us grammar—hammered it into our heads—every year until about 11th grade. I will ever be grateful for the result.

There are eight parts of speech in the American English language: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, interjections, prepositions, and conjunctions. Of those eight, we will be dealing with two: the adjective and the adverb.

Adjectives are words that describe other nouns and pronouns. These include words such as pretty, happy, gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, lonely. Examples in sentences:

She is beautiful. (“Beautiful” describes the pronoun, “she” ).

What a gorgeous sunset! (“gorgeous” describes the noun, “sunset” ).

He is such a tired, old man! (“tired” and “old” are describing “he” and “man” (“he” and “man” are the same person) ).

Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. These include words such as very, only, beautifully, wonderfully, happily, such, and logically. Notice the amount of words that end in –ly. Most adverbs will end in –ly, but not all. You will also notice that an adjective can be turned into an adverb by the addition of –ly.

Examples in sentences:

That is a very nice story. (the adverb, “very”, is describing the adjective, “nice” ).

He behaved stupidly. (“stupidly” describing a verb, “behaved” )

She dressed most accordingly. (“most”, an adverb, describing “accordingly”, another adverb which is describing “dressed”, a verb)

He’s a pretty lonely guy. (Ah, hah! “ Pretty,” usually an adjective, is being used as an adverb here and is describing the adjective, “lonely”. The sentence is not saying that the guy is pretty.)

Adjectives and adverbs are used often in the English language to describe. It helps the speaker describe what he is speaking about to the listener. It helps him paint a picture. Notice I said the speaker! The writer needs to tackle adjectives very differently.

But we’ll start to discuss that next week.


-~Michelay

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Literary News by: ~Michelay

BTW: if you are serious about getting published, there is a e-newsletter I have discovered that is really helping me out. It is totally free and really informative. It is written by Randy Ingermanson, PhD, the same guy who writes the snowflake method. Go check it out here: [link] .



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