\'Thus,\' Just So

By PHILIP B. CORBETT

[PLEASE NOTE: After Deadline will be on vacation for two weeks and will return on Tuesday, Aug. 28.]

“Thus,” meaning “in this way” or “therefore,” is an adverb.

“-Ly” is a suffix that turns an adjective into an adverb.

Since “thus” is already an adverb, it has no need for “-ly.” So “thusly” is unnecessary - colloquial at best, illiterate in the view of many readers. Yet we've used “thusly” 10 times in the last year, including two days in a row recently. Let's be careful.

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Because he's a social liberal, Cory Booker, the Newark mayor, is seldom mentioned in terms of religion, but it turns out that he's made a study of the Bible, as well as other sacred texts, and given considerable thought to faith. On his Facebook page a few months ago, he mused thusly: …

Make it “thus.”

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Durant summarized the evening thusly: “I won't let anybody get in the point guard's face.”

Make it “thus” or, perhaps less pretentiously, “this way.”

 

More Adverb Trouble

Here's a similar problem with a different word. “Doubtless” is an adverb, meaning “certainly.” Like “thus,” it has no need of the suffix “-ly.”

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The coming Olympics will doubtlessly provide all manner of future retro-rooting opportunities.

Make it “doubtless.”

 

Bloodless Nouns

If you missed it, it's worth reading this essay on the perils of “zombie nouns,” part of our Opinion section's “Draft” series about writing.

 

In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

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But instead, the state party - once a symbol of Republican hope and geographical reach and which gave the nation Ronald Reagan (and Richard M. Nixon) - is caught in a cycle of relentless decline, a nd appears in danger of shrinking to the rank of a minor party.

This is a common sort of parallelism problem. The appositive construction of “once a symbol” is not parallel with the relative clause “which gave …” Rephrase.

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Derek Jeter has defined cool detachment, but no one begrudges him for it.

This is not the right use of “begrudge,” which means “envy.” Something like “no one faults him for it” would work.

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Parsing Harvey's performance, one of the main issues appeared to be how his pitch selection will evolve as he moves forward.

A dangler - “parsing” does not modify “one of the main issues.”

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Its nondescript name - Préparation Olympique et Paralympique - masked a more ambitious purpose: to boost medal counts through athletic surveillance, as much Spy Games as Olympic Games, under the direction of a man competitors called the French James Bond.

Journalese. Make it “increa se medal counts” or “to win more medals.”

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The amount of time lost can accelerate for passengers with transfers to make at the next stop, Times Square, who may miss their connections.

“Accelerate” was an odd verb choice in a description of delays and slow trains.

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The cause was heart complications, said Shanda Hererra, the principal of Pioneer Valley High School in Santa Maria, where Reed had worked since 2007 coaching football, basketball, golf and teaching physical education.

Not parallel. Make it “coaching football, basketball and golf, and teaching physical education.”

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The charges are unusual, both in their swiftness and seriousness, and reflect the Kremlin's anxiety about the popular anger that emerged after the flood, which left at least 171 dead, according to an official count.

Omit “both” or make it “in both their swiftness and their seriousness,” to keep this parallel.

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The enduring popularity of the Olympics teach the lesson that if you find yourself caught between two competing impulses, you don't always need to choose between them.

Agreement problem. Make it “popularity … teaches.”

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And in doing so, the festival, which has become something of a bellwether since Gerard Mortier shook it up in the 1990s after decades of elegant sameness under the conductor Herbert von Karajan, seems to have caught a wave of spirituality that is surging through the world of classical music (or, given the years of advance planning involved, helped instigate it).

This combination is usually redundant.

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Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land, however, Arizona's politicians may wish otherwise.

No comma after “however” in this construction.

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Investigators have recovered bullet casings from three different caliber guns from the playground area and a walkway on the opposite side of the b asketball court near the Forest Houses on East 165th Street.

An awkward pileup, hard to read. Hyphenate “different-caliber” or rephrase: “from guns of three different calibers.”

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What we do know, as my colleague Eric Lichtblau reported a couple weeks ago, is that cellphone carriers responded to at least 1.3 million requests for subscriber information last year.

Make it “a couple of weeks.”

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He told the story of one girl he met, Allie Young, 19, who was shot in the neck. She survived, Mr. Obama said, because her 21-year-old friend, Stephanie, laid by her side and stanched her bleeding even as shots continued to ring out.

Make it “lay.”

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She also signed up for a self-defense class and became a connoisseur of mace dispensers.

“Mace” is a trade name.

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From a distance it can be difficult to tell what distinguishes one reality-television battle royale from another, but by any me asure, the rumble that set off the second season of VH1's “Mob Wives,” in January, was a genre classic.

The dictionary says “battle royal.”