What’s a modifier? An adjective or adverb. Your fourth grade teacher tried to get you to use them, lots of them, to make your writing “descriptive.” Trouble is, descriptive writing like that usually winds up cluttered with a bunch of words that don’t “buy” the author much. especially adverbs, which are not our friends. Instead of calling on modifiers to strength your prose, try looking for active verbs and concrete sensory details (nouns). Avoid general and vague terms wherever possible.
Writing Tip for Today: Go through a piece of writing and circle all the modifiers. See how many you can replace with active verbs (He walked quickly might be stronger as: He ran.) or more specific CSD, Concrete Sensory Details. (The beautiful, elegant car was in the showroom. The Jaguar XKE gleamed in the showroom.)