In an interview on Charlie Rose this evening, Charles Gibson said (approximately) "At ABC we take the obligation to report world news very serious." I suspect a few years ago, he would have said "seriously" instead. The shift away from adding the ly to adverbs of manner was noticeable first among sportcasters but has since spread to many areas of the media. Of course all living languages change over time; such changes are probably being accelerated by the widespead example of the media. This would make for an interesting class discussion. But is it appropriate for today's teacher to permit this kind of variation, especially in writing; or would it be better to penalize failure to add the ly? How can one convince students eiher way? Thanks Elizbeth Ward To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/