MS Word is arguing with me and for a split second I questioned myself and now I'm not sure. Thanks in advance.
MS Word is often incapable of understanding fairly straightforward English. If you don't believe me, take any page from a published book, and run it through the spelling and grammar checker a few times, accepting all its suggested revisions.
You'll almost certainly end up with incomprehensible garbage.
"I'm actually an alien", he said matter-of-factly.
"As a matter of fact, I'm actually an alien," he said.
Not, I think, quite the same.
She said, "As a matter of fact, ...
this would put your cliche onto the character and characters do use cliches.
or
She said, as if it were an obvious fact.
I usually use "in fact" and "factually".
And for the record, yes MSWord is horrible at spelling and grammer. Spellcheck is sometimes nice for catching typos, but the grammer check is basically worthless, and does its best to turn any semi-complex sentence into a random assortment of garbled clauses.
quote:
I am using it more to describe how she was saying it and she's 4 years old, she wouldn't say "as a matter of fact."
But what she was saying was a fact.
There's a difference between "what she was saying was a fact" (which would be "she said, truthfully") and saying that she said something "matter-of-factly" (which would normally mean she'd said something that would otherwise have been emotional or outlandish, but was spoken in a level, casual, conveersational tone). If you're using "matter-of-factly", it is strictly an adverb, strictly a modifier of the "said" verb, and does not say anything about the content of her speech.
For example, the sentence:
quote:
"I'm an alien, you know," he lied, matter-of-factly.
That reminds me, I haven't checked Partially Clips in a while.
quote:As it is describing how she said something, that she is 4 doesn't seem relevant to the use of matter-of-factly or "as a matter of fact," since she doesn't say that phrase.
I am using it more to describe how she was saying it and she's 4 years old, she wouldn't say "as a matter of fact."
But what she was saying was a fact.
If I saw: "You can't be serious!" he said matter of factly.
I would get a pen and scribble out everything after "said" and pretend it never happened.
[This message has been edited by MightyCow (edited May 20, 2006).]
quote:
So quietly, very matter of factly, that first probe went out to the two nearest stars, unmanned, to gather data and return, a task in itself of considerable complexity.
Just thought I'd chime in with that.
So if you want to use "matter-of-factly," go right ahead. Maybe it's just a phrase you're going through.
quote:
I don't like it. Adverbs should be used with spare But for real, I only use them when nothing else will do. But if your story is engrossing, the eye might skip past it.
Whose eye?
It's a well-known fact that you can get adverbs right past any unpracticed naïf. It's really only authors that get up in arms about them. Overuse will just cause readers to develop a vague feeling of disquiet about the lack of action in the story, if that. J.K. Rowling has personally murdered the "no adverbs" rule and thrown it in a dumpster, but nobody really minded.
I use adverbs mostly in dialogue, where I often have to micromanage the pace. It's especially important when the characters are saying funny stuff. Nothing kills a humorous line faster than a ponderous phrase tacked on the end.
In this instance, I'm hard-pressed to think of an exact equivalent to "matter-of-factly." "As if stating nothing but facts" comes close, but doesn't quite capture - at least in this case - the innocent surety I imagine in the face of a little girl. I might use it for adults. It's also quite clunky, and it definitely wouldn't belong in the middle of a quick exchange.
Think about what you are tying to express and find something better.
As is cold-blooded, down-to-earth and straight-forward.
They are not phrases, they are a type of compound word. As with all words, it is up to you whether you use it based on the question: Does it deliver the intended result?
AND as with all words, should you decide it is not the right word for this application, it can be found in the thesaurus too, and has plenty of synonyms.
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited May 25, 2006).]