RedPen Editing
All well and good?

First, a bit of grammar!

• Adjectives describe nouns (and pronouns).
  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
• Adverbs mainly add to a verb, telling us how/when/where.
  The fox ran quickly.

Some adjectives (not all!) can be turned into adverbs, simply by appending -ly.

• quick, quickly

Adverbs can also be applied to adjectives and other adverbs.

• The fox ran quickly. (‘quickly’ modifies the verb ‘ran’; explains how the fox ran)
• The fox ran very quickly. (‘very’ modifies the adverb ‘quickly’; explains how quickly)
• The fox ran away very quickly. (‘away’ modifies the verb ‘ran’; explains where the fox ran)

Now, to ‘good’ and ‘well’. Concentrate …

• ‘Good’ is an adjective:  Jack is good at his job.
• ‘Well’ is an adverb – given in answer to the question ‘how?’: Jack did the job well.

It gets more complicated!  For the senses (looking, smelling, tasting, feeling) check who/what is doing the looking, smelling, tasting, feeling.

Use ‘good’ if it’s describing a noun ie is being used as an adjective.

• Jane is looking good today.
• The dinner is smelling good.

Use ‘well’ if it’s describing the act of looking, smelling, tasting, feeling.

• Jane felt well enough to return to work.

Another tip:

• If the question is about emotional well-being, use ‘good’.
• If it’s about physical health, use ‘well’.

How are you?

• I feel good.
• I am well.