Adverbs are sometimes overused but are they essential? Some people say that adverbs are redundant and that they weaken the verbs impact. Some say adverbs lead to messy prose and indicate lazy and cluttered writing. Is this true? To a degree, it is, but adverbs still have their place in my opinion.
What is an Adverb?
Adverbs are modifiers used alongside verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. Adverbs tell the reader ‘how, when, where, why, or to what extent’ They can be used to modify other adverbs as well. This is how they can end up being overused as you might find a direct verb is more succinct and clear.
A lot of adverbs end in -ly such as ‘quietly, quickly, loudly, slowly’. Any adjective that you can add -ly to will become an adverb. Be aware that sometimes adding an -ly isn’t correct. Avoid using it with linking verbs associated with using the senses.
“The cake smells nice/nicely.”
Using an adverb here suggests the cake is doing the smelling, so you need to use the adjective ‘nice’ instead of ‘nicely’. Nobody ‘feels badly’ after receiving sad news, as they’re not using their sense of touch. So they ‘feel bad’ about it instead.
Degrees of Adverbs
Adverbs, like adjectives, come in degrees. There is the standard form, the comparative form that compares one thing to another and the superlative form which compares three or more things. Here’s a couple of examples.
Adjective:
Positive: Good Comparative: Better Superlative: Best
Adverb:
Positive: quickly Comparative: more quickly Superlative: most quick
In formal writing you should use these forms of adverbs. Nobody is saying you can never use adverbs at all, but you should consider carefully if there’s a better way to say something.
How To Avoid Overusing Adverbs
One trap a lot of writers fall into is using adverbs to add more description and qualification to things. Especially in dialogue tags where writers will add adverbs to each dialogue tag to keep them varied and ensure the reader knows how each character is speaking.
So when you find this in your own writing, look carefully at it and ask yourself if the adverb serves an important function to convey your meaning. Or if the dialogue itself and perhaps a brief indication of body language is enough to imply tone of voice and emotions. Look at this example.
“I’m done with you! Never contact me again. Goodbye!” he yelled loudly into the phone before slamming it down angrily.
What do you think? I’d say that the exclamation marks indicate loudness, and the verb ‘yelled’ also implies a raised voice so we really don’t need ‘loudly’ in this sentence. Same goes for the action of slamming the phone down, nobody does that if they are happy. Let’s rewrite it.
“I’m done with you! Never contact me again. Goodbye!” he yelled, slamming the phone down.
See? You use less words but it’s still clear that the speaker is angry. There will be times where you need an adverb. Use them where you need to, but ensure you do need them.
Thanks for reading! I’ve got some more Fallout content coming soon, so look out for that. Follow me on social media for more behind-the-scenes and follow my YouTube channel for gaming and story-telling content.
The most dangerous and insidious problem in a post-war nuclear wasteland is radiation. Fallout makes good use of radiation as a constant threat. The explosion and shockwave do the most damage up front, obviously, but that’s over in a few minutes. If you’ve survived that part, then the rads might get you instead.
So what is radiation and why is it so bad? Radiation is emitted energy formed of waves or particles. It’s all around us, and we rely on several forms of radiation in day to day life. Sound waves and visible light are forms of radiation, which our senses have evolved to make use of. Plants use light to create energy by photosynthesis. Radio waves allow communication. Ultrasound and x-rays are used all the time in medical settings.
That all sounds good, right? It is, but not all radiation is safe. We know now that excessive exposure to UV light in sunlight increases the risk of skin cancer significantly. Yet UVB light exposure is important for producing vitamin D in our skin.
X-rays are used for diagnostic testing in hospitals, but excessive exposure can damage the thyroid, the reproductive organs and increase the risk of cancers. Some of the people who experimented with X-rays in the early days of its discovery ended up suffering hair loss, burns, cancers and even death.
Nuclear Warfare
Many elements of the periodic table are radioactive, such as uranium, plutonium, caesium. This means that they produce radiation. The energy contained in these elements can and has been harnessed for many purposes. Nuclear fission was discovered in 1938, atoms could be split to produce energy and a chain reaction. The first nuclear reactor was used in 1942 in Chicago.
The reactor was developed as part of the Manhattan Project, the Allies plan to create atomic bombs. If you know your history, you know that this was in the middle of World War II. You will also know that just three years later, atomic bombs were used against Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These bombs killed up to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and up to 80,000 in Nagasaki over the next few months. Beyond this, many more were injured and died from burns, radiation sickness, illness and malnutrition. The impact was massive. Radiation exposure increases the risk of cancer formation and birth defects, which we have seen time and again.
Effects of Radiation on Humans
Have you heard of the ‘Radium Girls’? They were women who worked in a factories painting luminous watch faces and hands from around 1917. The glow in the dark paint contained powdered radium. They were told it was harmless, and were told to put the brushes in their mouths to make a fine point of the bristles. They also used the paint on their nails, faces and teeth.
The companies scientists and chemists used protective equipment to prevent any exposure, while the women using the paint did not. Dental issues were the first to arise among the painters, with ulcers, tooth loss and failure of extraction sites to heal noted by dentists. Later, anaemia, bone fractures and necrosis of the jaw were reported, known as ‘radium jaw’ now. The women also reported loss of menstruation and inability to conceive, confirming the effect radiation can have on the reproductive organs.
The first dial painter died in 1923, after her jaw fell off. Yes, really. More illnesses and deaths followed. The companies pushed for doctors to blame other causes such as syphilis, an STI, to damage the women’s reputations. Thankfully, the man who invented the paint died in 1928 from the same issue, affecting his hands due to handling the radium. This proved that the radium was responsible, and paved the way for increased health and safety legislation in the workplace.
So what was going on? Acute radiation sickness is the culprit. High levels of exposure for a short period of time will cause illness quicker than low levels of exposure. Chronic exposure will lead to different illnesses. But let’s go over the known symptoms and effects of radiation exposure.
Radiation Sickness (Acute Radiation Syndrome)
Total dose higher than 0.7Gy (70 rad) within a few minutes. There are three types, depending on the body system involved. Parts of the body with rapidly dividing cells are more vulnerable, including the bone marrow and the gastrointestinal system.
Haematopoietic – the bone marrow. Blood cells come from the bone marrow. There are cells there dividing constantly. Radiation damages these cells, leading to aplastic anaemia. Blood cells stop being produced to replace the what is lost naturally. Infection is a risk because white blood cell numbers drop. You will also see anaemia due to reduced red blood cells, and bleeding disorders due to lack of platelets. Wound healing is delayed.
Gastrointestinal. This follows higher doses, 600-3000 rad. The person will experience nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and abdominal pain. The gut is constantly renewing it’s inner lining, so again, rapidly dividing cells are present. Without aggressive treatment such as bone marrow transplant, death is common at this level of exposure.
Neurovascular – the nervous system. Typically this happens at doses above 3000 rad, but it can be seen as low as 1000 rads. Neurological symptoms include dizziness, headaches, reduced consciousness and even seizures. These symptoms within a few hours with no vomiting, is almost always fatal even with aggressive treatment.
Radiation Burns
Skin changes after irradiation are common. Redness and itching will show up a few hours after exposure. Reddening, blistering and ulceration will develop over a few days to weeks. The skin can regenerate, but high doses on the skin can cause permanent damage and hair loss. This is why it’s called a radiation burn.
We know a lot about these effects due to the discovery of x-rays, the Radium Girls, the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear plant accidents in Chernobyl in 1986, Tokaimura in 1997 and 1999 and Fukushima in 2011.
Chronic Radiation Exposure
Chronic exposure to radiation can increase the risk of cancer and damage the DNA of the body’s cells, leading to mutations which could affect offspring. We are all exposed to some degree of radiation. There is background cosmic radiation, as well as the sunlight. Even bananas are radioactive, although it is far too low to cause any issues and it is physically impossible to eat enough bananas in a short enough time to cause radiation poisoning.
For this reason, there are regulations about maximum annual exposure limits to ionising radiation in the workplace. These limits may depend on the type of workplace. Monitoring exposure is essential in certain jobs. When I worked as a vet, we had dosimeters to wear when doing x-rays to monitor our exposure. We also had annual inspections of our equipment to ensure it was safe.
Radiation In Fallout
So, we know what happens in the real world with radiation. What about in the game? Conveniently we always have a Pip-Boy with a built in Geiger-counter. This detects radiation. The lethal limit for rads is 1000 Rads. Reach that level and you will die. This fits quite neatly with what we discussed relating to acute radiation syndrome, as anything above 1000 rad seems highly likely to be fatal.
The Fallout universe at least has RadAway and Rad-X available, to treat radiation sickness and increase your radiation tolerance respectively. You do have to assume, however, that most people not safely locked away in a vault, will be suffering from some degree of radiation sickness.
Most food and water has radiation. It hangs around in the environment for a long time. There’s a good account of the immediate days after the bombs fell at Germantown Police Headquarters, where a nurse is caring for some people suffering radiation sickness. Her journal entries document the aftermath of the bombs and the radiation effects.
In most settlements in Fallout, we don’t see a lot of children. While this could be because of a lack of resources and safety, it is likely that radiation is affecting conception and birth rates. We know that exposure can run the risk of birth defects, and damage to the reproductive organs.
What About Ghouls?
That’s the interesting thing. Ghouls were human, and after prolonged exposure to radiation, they changed. You can see that most ghouls have lost their hair, and there are extensive changes to their skin and eyes. They become immune to radiation, even healed by it or able to discharge it from their bodies in the case of Glowing Ones.
While some ghouls retain their memories and ability to think and speak, a lot end up ‘feral’. We also learn that most ghouls seem to eventually end up becoming feral after a couple of hundred years. This process is documented in Kiddie Kingdom in Nuka-World.
We don’t really know why some go feral immediately and some don’t. It could be an inherent resistance to radiation or some other factor. Some of the ghouls from Nuka-World, who were employees who sheltered at the park after the bombs, are searching for a cure for the ‘affliction’. Most people just think that it’s a thing that happens to ghouls eventually. This is why they are often excluded from society and ostracised.
Ghoulification prolongs the persons life for over two hundred years is surprising, when radiation is usually more likely to reduce expected life span. So there must be something different about the people who become ghouls. Ghouls are created deliberately, such as Eddie Winters and Hancock in Fallout 4. We also know that odd things can happen with ghoulification, like with Harold who is a ghoul that has a tree growing out of him, that eventually takes over his body.
Uranium Fever
We can conclude that a lot of thought has gone into the design of the games to account for radiation. Radiation presents a real danger in the world of Fallout. So keep an eye on that geiger counter as you explore the wasteland and grab any RadAway you can find!
For more science and story analysis of Fallout, watch this space. I will also be covering this topic in a video on YouTube, linked below. Any thoughts? Comment below. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all next time!
Commas are important punctuation marks. If nothing else, they let you breathe! Commas are a short pause in a sentence, compared to a full stop or period. The comma is essential in writing but often misused. So let’s look at some of the rules about comma usage.
Lists and the ‘Oxford Comma’
Writing a list of more than three items in a sentence? Commas are used to separate the items. The final two items have ‘and’ or ‘or’ between them. A lot of publications will not use a comma after the ‘and’ or ‘or’. This is the “Oxford Comma”.
The Oxford comma,or serial comma, gives clarity. It is sometimes controversial, but there are definitely cases where not using it will cause confusion for the reader. See the example below:
“The milkshake flavours are banana, strawberry, chocolate, cookies and cream and vanilla.”
“The milkshake flavours are banana, strawberry, chocolate, cookies and cream, and vanilla.”
See the difference? It’s subtle, and most people would figure out that it is “cookies and cream” and not two separate flavours called “cookies” and “cream”. It is confusing, especially if your writing is being read by someone whose first language isn’t English.
Commas are used to separate two adjectives in a sentence, but only if the order of the adjectives can be switched and still make sense. The trick is if you put “and” in between the adjectives and it still makes sense, then use a comma.
The Dreaded Comma Splice
The comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined by a comma, when they really should be separate sentences using a full stop. This can lead to a run-on sentence. Here’s an example.
“She opened the fridge, her phone started to ring.”
The two clauses are not related to each other. So, you can rewrite it as two separate sentences.
“She opened the fridge. Her phone started to ring.”
Or you can use a connecting word to join the clauses together and use a comma at the end of the first clause.
“She opened the fridge, but her phone started to ring.”
As a rule, if the subject isn’t used in front of a second verb, you don’t need a comma. You might need it for clarity if there is ambiguity about who is performing the second verb. You may need a comma before the word “because” for the same kind of reason.
An introductory phrase or dependent clause needs a comma after it. Such as this example:
“If you don’t know, I can’t help you.”
Asides and Extra Information
Adding an aside to a sentence with extra but not essential information, requires the use of commas. A comma comes before the aside, and one after it. This is an appositive comma.
“Elaine, my girlfriend, has been there twice.”
It is especially important if the subject is clearly identified already, because the additional description isn’t essential. Avoid ambiguity where you can. See these two examples:
“My girlfriend Elaine has been there.”
“My girlfriend, Elaine, has been there.”
The first example suggests the speaker has more than one girlfriend and is specifying which one he is talking about. The second example indicates that the speaker only has one girlfriend so her name is additional information. This rule is often misused and can lead to confusion.
Other Comma Uses
Commas are used around words that introduce a sentence or expressions that interrupt the flow of the sentence. Things like “Well,” or “No,” at the beginning of a sentence. Same thing if you have a phrase like “by the way” or “however”.
Writing dialogue is a big one for comma usage. I’ll cover that in more detail in the future as I’d like to do a series on writing dialogue properly. But introducing direct quotes requires a comma before the opening speech mark. For dialogue tags after the quotation, the comma comes at the end of the last word of the quote.
Commas need to be used to separate a statement from a contrasting statement in a sentence, or a statement combined with a question. You would also use it before and after something like ‘e.g.’ or ‘etc.’
Don’t Underestimate the Importance
Commas are an essential punctuation, important for preventing confusion in writing. A well-known example is this sentence: “Let’s eat grandma.” Oof, cannibalism is rather frowned upon these days. “Let’s eat, grandma.” Much better. If you want proof of how important a comma is to the meaning of a sentence, try this one on for size.
“A woman without her man is nothing.”
Where do you think you could put a comma and how would it affect this sentence?
“A woman, without her man, is nothing.”
“A woman, without her, man is nothing.”
The first version suggests that a woman is nothing unless she has a man. The second suggests that a man is nothing without a woman. So comma placement really does matter if you want your reader to get the right meaning for a sentence.
Thanks for reading, I hope this has been helpful. For more details and rules about commas, check the Blue Book of Grammar section here. It even has a quiz to check your knowledge. For more writing content, subscribe to my blog. I cover writing, proofreading and editing subjects, as well as analysing stories in various media. I also have a YouTube channel where I play video games and discuss the stories, lore and world-building. For more punctuation rules in dialogue, see this post.
