Isaac Asimov's Use Of Unnecessary Adjectives

Teachers and those involved in the writing process concern themselves over the issue that writers abuse adjectives in their writing. For example, in the Course Reader week five materials the lecturer gives the following quote, “Isaac Asimov warns writers against ‘a having thick layer of fatty, adjectival froth’ in their work.” [Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s, p.179, Doubleday, 1974.]. Asimov’s warning puts an eloquent exclamation point to the point concerning adjective misuse. Both novices and experienced writers face this quandary, and simply put, meaningless adjectives deaden the prose. The following example helps answer the question of why unnecessary adjectives stifle text.

One error highlighting writer’s
employing unnecessary adjectives concerns clichés, which clutter our minds turning them into junkyards for meaningless words and phrases. For instance, examine the phrase ‘white snow’ which is redundant since, when a person thinks of snow it is white, not green or red. Thus, one asks the question of why authors need to color snow in their sentences, and the answer is that they do not. Using white with snow diminishes the noun snow, because it puts into question the author’s confidence in the quality whiteness which is inherent in the word snow. Hence, ‘white snow’ adds nothing to the prose and in fact weakens it, since the noun calls for a more descriptive and precise wording

To conclude, since adjectives are qualities rather than actions or inanimate objects, one can argue that by overusing adverbs the writer weakens his prose and makes it lethargic. This is not to say that adjectives are not fundamental they are, however, nouns and verbs carry the sentence.” Therefore, choosing vigor in writing means working with fewer adjectives and letting nouns and verbs carry the sentence.