Scott:

I've had similar students --- but the advice they need is more along the
lines of, "use specific nouns, not fluffy ones." The problem really
isn't the adjectives and adverbs. And at least some of those students
aren't deliberately being verbose, or displaying signs of functional
illiteracy (they probably know a fair number of highly specific
nouns...but they're part of the students' passive vocabulary, rather
than being part of the active pool that is deployed when writing).
Instead, they've adopted a common strategy of marking out a general area
with the noun and then using modifiers to home in on a particular spot
in within it. 

In fact, it's the same thing professional writers do when they come out
with sentences such as "The fact that these results have been observed
indicates that the phenomenon is real." "Fact" is fluffy -- but since I
know the genre, I know when I can get away with using it (if that
sentence bothers you, all I can say is that amazing numbers of articles
have been published with near-equivalents). Students pick up on that
kind of practice, but they don't yet have enough exposure to scientific
genre to know which words can be used in particular cases without coming
across as "gauche."

This simply highlights one of Pullum's points: One of S&W's major
injunctions is that writers should be clear and concise, but they wrote
THEIR OWN RULE in a way that attacked a side effect of the actual
problem rather than the problem itself, and implied there was something
wrong with entire classes of words that are only problematic when
they're used as part of a compensation mechanism. It's as if I watched
someone using glue to connect two pieces of wood that should instead
have been nailed together, and then proclaimed that glue is a bad thing.
I'd probably figure out my mistake once I saw people trying to nail
wallpaper.

Bill Spruiell



-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: An expert speaks? was ATEG Digest - 14 Apr 2009 to 15 Apr
2009 (#2009-86)

Pulliam is the stupid one if he does not understand what The Little Book
means by 
"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs," they
insist.
(The motivation of this mysterious decree remains unclear to me.)

Anyone who had ever graded English themes, especially descriptive
writing,
has been exposed to students who use plain verbs and generic nouns, both
of
which are accompanied by a plethora of adverbs and adjectives
respectively
when more descriptive verbs and nouns would do a far better job with
less
effort.  The only explanation that I can give for such students is
either
functional illiteracy or sheer laziness (many theme assignments have--or
used to have--a minimum number of words).  The slovenly among them use
any
gimmick to expand their impoverished thoughts and expression.

I cannot believe that Professor Pulliam has taught English without
having
encountered such students: his extreme prejudice towards The Little Book
seems to have blinded him to the extent that he can only see vices and
never
virtue.  The Little Book has its faults; however, I would trust Shrunk
and
White over a "grammarian" who has had too little contact with writing to
understand the motivation for the very sound advice:

"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs." 
(The motivation of this decree is quite clear to me and has been since
Freshman English.)

Scott Catledge
Professor Emeritus

During the "God is dead" fad of the 60's, I had a bumper sticker that
said,
"My God is alive--sorry about yours."

My understanding of the "motivation" is clear to me--sorry it's not
clear
to him.  Perhaps he should teach a Freshman English course sometime.

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