Final answer:
The task involves identifying modifiers in English writing and assessing their effectiveness. Modifiers should create vivid imagery without causing wordiness. Key English figures like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams emphasized the importance of brevity and precision in using descriptive language.
Step-by-step explanation:
The identification of modifiers in a given paragraph is a task within English literature analysis, focusing on the effectiveness of descriptive language. When evaluating modifiers, it is important to look at both word modifiers, like adjectives and adverbs, and phrase modifiers, which include adjective and adverb phrases. In the context of editing and improving writing, one may need to determine if the modifiers enhance the visual rhetoric, provide concrete details, or if they contribute to wordiness and should be edited out for brevity and clarity.
As an example, let's consider the sentence: 'The old manor house was covered with creeping green Wisteria.' Here, 'creeping' and 'green' are separate modifiers describing 'Wisteria.' The effectiveness of these modifiers lies in their ability to create a vivid image, but becoming excessive involves a judgment call on the balance between description and conciseness.
Reviewing and editing sentences for wordiness involves removing superfluous words without losing meaning or impact. This process should retain concrete nouns and action verbs. In the context of the sample sentence 1a, unnecessary words are omitted in 1b to create a less wordy version: A bright light shone on the ocean waves.
Effectiveness of modifiers is also reflected in the advice from poets like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, who emphasized the importance of using only necessary words and cutting out the superfluous to achieve skilled craftsmanship in writing. Ultimately, the goal is to maintain rhythm, meaning, and reader engagement without overwhelming them with excess language.