Delete the adjectives and [you’ll] have the facts.

The line is a piece of practical writing advice: adjectives often smuggle in judgment, mood, or persuasion, whereas nouns and verbs more directly convey what happened. “Delete the adjectives” urges a writer (or reporter) to strip away evaluative language—“beautiful,” “horrible,” “shocking,” “amazing”—and replace it with concrete description that lets readers infer conclusions from observable details. In that sense, it also gestures toward an ethical ideal of clarity and fairness: facts should be presented without rhetorical padding. The bracketed “[you’ll]” suggests the quote is frequently paraphrased, which may indicate it circulates as a maxim attributed to Lee rather than a stable, verbatim line from a specific text.