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It was the exact advice given. Not all adverbs end in "-ly", either, and not all adverbs should be avoided in technical writing; that'd be impossible. The rule
by junon 4y ago
It was the exact advice given. Not all adverbs end in "-ly", either, and not all adverbs should be avoided in technical writing; that'd be impossible.
The rule states "-ly" words because those words are often cruft or crutch words that can be removed. If the sentence can't stand on its own without that word, then the sentence probably doesn't belong in the body of technical writing.
Compare this with time-related adverbs, which generally provide chronological structure. Those are more relevant for technical writing.
So yes, avoid "-ly" words. Not adverbs in general. That was the advice given.
- nohuck13 4y agoSome adverbs not ending in "-ly" are always, soon, today, ever, yet. "The Python interpreter has a number of functions and types built into it that are always available." [1] "Long option values can be split across multiple lines simply by indenting the continuation lines." [2] Agree with your teacher in that the first one seems fine. [1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html [2] https://docs.python.org/3/distutils/configfile.html https://docs.python.org/3/distutils/configfile.html
- sorokod 4y agoI think that the advice is a bit more nuanced, your first example is fine as it is but consider the variants: "...that are clearly always available." "...that are obviously available." "...that are simply available." These adverbs are not only redundant but their presence suggest that things are actually not clear, simple or obvious.