Are adverbs frowned upon in proper English (academic writing)?

Question

I understand that "proper English" is vague, but what I mean is, are adverbs to be avoided in scholarly writing? For example, let's say that I am wanting to publish an article in scholarly magazine for college English professors. Would the readers of that magazine generally look down upon a frequent use of adverbs as "fluff." The reason I ask is because my English professor showed our class the "Hemingway Application." According to hemingwayapp.com, the purpose of the program is to make your writing "bold and clear." One of the ways it supposedly does this is highlighting the adverbs so that you can replace them with "verbs with force." So, what is the problem with adverbs, and what would be an example of a verb "with force?" Lastly, could you please use an example where an adverb is used, then replace it with a verb "with force."

Answer 1

Good afternoon Pablo,

The Hemingway Editor is a great tool. I hope you find it helpful!

An example passage from the Hemingway Editor homepage is "Adverbs and weakening phrases are helpfully shown in blue. Get rid of them and pick words with force, perhaps." The recommended, adverb-free edit is "Adverbs and weakening phrases are shown in blue. Get rid of them and pick words with force." In this example, both of the adverbs could be eliminated without changing the meaning. The problem is not that adverbs are informal; in this case they're unnecessary words.

"Verbs with force"are verbs that help your reader to picture what you mean without the need for modifiers. As an example, I can tell you that the athlete ran quickly. Alternatively, I can drop the adverb and use a different verb to convey the same meaning by writing "The athlete sprinted." If I tell you that a rock climber "scampered" up the rock, you will know that she summited more easily than the climber who "lurched" to the top. In fact, if I wrote "lurched slowly and awkwardly," the adverbs "slowly and awkwardly" would not add much to the the reader's understanding because the strong verb is doing the work.

To sum up, eliminate extra words or "fluff" in your writing. Often the fluff is adverbs. One way to keep writing interesting in the absence of adverbs is to use strong verbs.