Sometimes. Some adjectives and adverbs add nothing but emphasis, like “awesome” in “The awesome power of this cleaning product blows me away.” Those can usually be nixed.

Adverbs can be bad news. They can come off as unprofessional and even undermine a writer’s point. Heller’s examples, “extremely,” “totally” and “incredibly,” are among the worst ...

I am gladly, fully, openly in support of adverbs. Despite our democratic ideals, schoolchildren throughout America learn that not all words are created equal: Nouns and verbs make sense of the ...