Ever So Truly and Totally

I read an article recently--discussing writing lessons from famous authors--in which one of the quotes advised that one eschew the use of adverbs. "What horror," thought I, collector of words that I am. "Why disparage an entire grammatical category?"
Then I thought about the résumés that I have helped develop and the papers that I have edited. They were rife with phrases such as "Enthusiastically participated", "tirelessly pursued", "fervently studied", and "whole-heartedly applied".
The trouble with adverbs, I think, is that they are inherently superlative.  Adverbs' chief job is to modify modifiers (adjectives) or verbs, and thus it is difficult for them to supply distinctive, new information.  Thus in business and academic writing, they come off as flowery and a waste of breath.  In literary situations, the additional time required to read the adverbs can take away from the intensity of a situation and distract the reader from the narrative. Their very presence lessens the impact of what they are describing.
If one "enthusiastically participated" in a study, well, wouldn't one's enthusiasm be more efficiently and effectively conveyed with a more enthusiastic verb, such as "devote"?  And to say that one did something "whole-heartedly" conveys that one may think it acceptable to do that thing with less than one's whole heart. On a résumé such unnecessary qualification suggests that, at times, the applicant does her work with half of her attention and may care very little about her tasks.
The crucial point on adverbs, then, is this: use better words.
Writing is so much more engaging when the words are acute representations of their concepts. Modifying generic adjectives or verbs with exciting adverbs just to try to be creative short-changes the perfectly good, underused words with which English abounds!  Instead of "running quickly", dash!  Do not be merely "very happy"-- be ecstatic, or jubilant! Go forth and--rather than writing--scrawl, jot, scribble and compose with gusto!