CONTENTS FEATURE: A new year's resolution you can keep SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news NET NOTES: Captivating web sites FEATURE: Resolve to limit the 'devoid dozen' adverbs in your writing      The advent of a new year is cause for celebration—not only because it brings the hectic holiday season to a close, but also because it brings out the best in people. For a few days at least, untold numbers of people resolve to stop smoking, start helping out more around the house, resist the impulse to drive aggressively, improve their eating habits, begin contributing money toward retirement, start arising earlier to avoid rushing to work, or start exercising.      The new year's resolution is a custom as old as recorded civilization. Evidence has shown that Babylonians who lived 4,000 years ago made resolutions—the most common of which was a promise to return farm tools that they had borrowed.      While research does not reveal whether Babylonians made good on their promises, we do know that resolutions in modern society have a high casualty rate. Many well-intentioned people fail to honor their new year's resolutions because the goals they set are too lofty. If you've had difficulty keeping resolutions in the past, consider making a more easily achievable goal. Consider learning to express yourself more decisively by restricting use of adverbs that are weak or needless.      Adverbs, many of which end in "ly," are words that add descriptive information modifying verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, prepositions, clauses or even entire sentences. The practice of inattentively splattering speech and writing with vacuous adverbs has become prevalent. We've compiled a list of 12 limp, overused modifiers that we call the "devoid dozen"—one for each month of the year. Actually. This term, which means "based in fact," is rarely needed. Yet it appears in sentences such as, "Frank can set next Friday as the deadline, but I doubt that the crew actually can complete the work by then." The statement appears to be saying, "I don't know if they can actually complete the job by then, but maybe they can sort of get it mostly done, kind of." A job is either complete or incomplete; the qualifier "actually" contributes nothing. Its elimination results in a more assertive statement: "Frank can set next Friday as the deadline, but I doubt that the crew can complete the work by then." Basically. Step right up and hedge your bets! Writers unwilling to make a firm declaration turn to this poster word for equivocation, in sentences such as, "Basically, I think it's a functional plan." You either regard the plan as functional or you don't. Make a decision. If an endorsement needs to be accompanied by qualifications, explain your reservations: "I think it's a functional plan that will meet all of our expectations with a few aesthetic refinements." Completely. "I completely understand," Stephanie assured Warren. The intensifier "completely" is superfluous. If Stephanie only partially understands a problem, her understanding is incomplete—in which case, she would not understand. Essentially. Anyone who makes a statement such as, "Essentially he's doing a fairly good job under the circumstances" should be careful about falling while doing all that backpedaling. Underlying that guarded, restrained rhetoric lurks an insolent denunciation: "The insipid fellow is on the verge of achieving a barely tolerable level of mediocrity." If job performance cannot be endorsed without qualification, it's inadequate. But if results are meeting defined standards of acceptability, say so forthrightly: "He's doing a good job." Definitely. The autistic character that Dustin Hoffman portrayed in the motion picture "Rain Man" demonstrated the uselessness of the adverb "definitely" by habitually inserting it into his utterances. It serves no purpose in statements such as "Our market share is definitely increasing" or "I definitely prefer this steak sauce" or "We definitely need to revise our personnel policies." Delete "definitely" and let the remainder of the sentence speak for itself. Fairly. This polite but cautious word is generally interpreted as meaning "somewhat," as in "Joanne was fairly angry." But it also could indicate that Joanne was more than mildly irritated. Was she incensed? Embittered? Smoldering? Seething? Indignant? Irate? Infuriated? Or raging? Precision would be far more polite than understatement. Honor Joanne's anger by using a definitive adjective. Incidentally. This adverb, which means "by chance" or "casually" or "unrelated to the main subject," is the preamble to a rude interruption. The writer or speaker who invokes the adverbial interjection "incidentally" is so much as saying, "I just thought of something and even though it bears little relationship to the current topic of discussion, I'm going to distract you with it because I'm much more interested in what I have to say than in anyone else's thoughts." Quite. Timid writers use adverbs to equivocate, feigning gentility to evade declarative statements. A description of a production schedule delay as "quite longer than anticipated" could be interpreted either as a brief setback or as a calamitously long delay. But such vagueness is transparent, revealing that the writer either lacks conviction in his statements, failed to estimate the length of the delay, or is trying to camouflage the truth. Really. The meaning of a sentence such as "Tim really wants to move to Idaho" is unclear because "really" can mean "in truth" but it's also used to indicate intensity—the equivalent of "greatly" or "desperately." It also can be used to express astonishment—"No fooling, screwy as this sounds, Tim said he wants to move to Idaho. I'm not making that up!" Unless that's your intention, delete "really" to get to the point: "Tim wants to move to Idaho." Relatively. The first cousin of "comparatively," the adverb "relatively" should be used only when weighing one item or concept against a standard. In the statement "Relatively speaking, the color of the tile is inconsequential," the adverbial phrase "relatively speaking" is unimportant and can be deleted without changing the meaning of the sentence. Declaring that "the tile color is inconsequential" is a more powerful, definitive statement without the "relatively speaking" appendage. Totally. Leave this word to teen-agers. The statement "I totally agree" contains twice as many syllables as necessary. "I agree" needs no additional affirmation, because you either agree or disagree with someone else's position; no middle ground exists. If you agree with most, but not all, aspects of someone else's position, then you disagree with it. Very. Perhaps the most overused adverb, "very" can be eliminated by thoughtful choice of a more descriptive accompanying adjective. Instead of "very large," use "enormous." Replace "very old" with "ancient." In place of "very loud," try "booming" or "clamorous" or "deafening."      Writers use these and other pervasive adverbs as intensifiers in an effort to accentuate a point. However, their inclusion often results in less emphatic statements than if they had been omitted. Instead of enlivening writing, they choke it.      This is not a call to exclude intensifying adverbs from your speech and writing; their use is often justifiable. But each time you're tempted to place one in a sentence, question whether or not its use contributes to meaning. If it doesn't, delete it.      And while you're on your best behavior, check to see if you still have any gardening tools that you borrowed from your neighbor. Yes! EditPros can help you identify superfluous adverbs and purge them from your documents. SPOTLIGHT: EditPros clients in the news Bytware's StandGuard software earns IBM certification      IBM Inc. has granted "ServerProven" certification to the StandGuard security and anti-virus software developed by Bytware Inc., an EditPros client based in Reno, Nev.      Bytware's StandGuard Network Security and StandGuard Anti-Virus offer benefits not available today from any other vendor of products for the IBM iSeries midrange server platform. Bytware's approach to securing the iSeries, as well as its exceptional customer satisfaction record, were pivotal in IBM's decision to award ServerProven status to the StandGuard products.      StandGuard Network Security enables users to easily set up and enforce security policies. Complementing external firewall security, StandGuard Network Security protects corporate assets on iSeries servers, and prevents unauthorized access and deletion of confidential and critical data.      StandGuard Anti-Virus is the first and only iSeries server-based virus detection product available. Incorporating the latest generation of McAfee's scanning engine, StandGuard Anti-Virus scans the iSeries for viruses and performs advanced cleaning and notification procedures.      For more information, visit Bytware's Web site or call (800) 932-5557. Net Notes: Captivating Internet resources Luciferous Logolepsy (obscure words) http://www.kokogiak.com/logolepsy/      The number of obscure and archaic words lingering in the English language exceeds an acataleptic (incomprehensible) total of 9,000 terms, many of which are documented and defined in this Web site developed by Alan M. Taylor, a Web site developer in Seattle. With the mission of "dragging obscure words into the light of day," the Luciferous (illuminating) Logolepsy (obsession with words) site has a search function through which to identify obscure words by terms found in their definitions. Entering the search term "dull," for example, yielded eight results: the adjectives "banausic," "inficete," "lurdane" and "torpid"; the verbs "hebetate" and "obtund"; and the nouns "hebetude" and "oscitance". The site inadvertently includes a term applicable to Saddam Hussein—"latebricole" (an adjective meaning "living in holes"). Broadband Reports (DSL information) http://www.broadbandreports.com      Described as "the 'bible' for information on DSL, cable and other high-speed Internet services," this site can help you compare the reliability of vendors of broadband Internet and data services. It contains service and equipment reviews, performance analyzing software applications and a function enabling you to determine if DSL service is available for your home or office location. DisabilityInfo.gov http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/      This comprehensive information resource for the 54 million people with disabilities was created in response to an executive order by President George W. Bush under the New Freedom Initiative. Employment, education, housing, transportation, health, income support, technology, community life and civil rights resources are available at the site, which also may be accessed in a high-contrast version for people with visual disabilities. YOUR TURN: Ask the "grammar coach" or subscribe      We invite you to submit your questions to the "grammar coach," and we welcome you to subscribe to this monthly newsletter—which we'll send to your e-mail address at no charge. 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