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Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Latest episodes

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Sep 19, 2024 • 52min

What's new in the Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition), with Russell Harper and Mary Laur

Russell Harper and Mary Laur, editors behind the latest updates to the Chicago Manual of Style, dive into exciting changes in the 18th edition. They discuss how user feedback shapes style revisions, highlights the shift towards inclusive language, and address the fun inclusion of emojis in writing. The removal of place of publication in citations simplifies practices, and evolving capitalization rules stir debate among editors. Plus, they explore guidelines for citing AI technologies, showcasing the manual's adaptability in a digital age.
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Sep 17, 2024 • 17min

Do words like 'mandate' and 'cockamamie' come from words for men? Grammatical doppelgangers. A pair of teeth.

1014. This week, we debunk misconceptions about gendered language, tracing the etymology of words like "cockamamie" and "gynecology." We also look at the flexibility of English grammar, examining how common words like "that" and "up" can function as different parts of speech in various contexts.The "gendered words" segment was written by Samantha Enslen, who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.The "grammar leaks" segment was written by Edwin Battistella, who taught linguistics and writing at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, where he served as a dean and as interim provost. His books include Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others?, Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology, and Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels: Insulting the President, from Washington to Trump. It originally appeared on the OUP blog and is included here with permission.🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.🔗 Take our advertising survey. 🔗 Get the edited transcript.🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Dan FeierabendDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly HutchingsMarketing and Video: Nat Hoopes| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.References for the "gendered language" segment:Becker, Thomas. Autohyponymy: Implicature in Lexical Semantics, Word Formation, and Grammar. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 14(02):10 –136, June 2002. Forster, Tim. Are Gendered Words like “Mankind” Inherently Sexist? Babbel.com, March 1, 2021. Accessed August 7, 2024. Merriam-Webster Online. www.merriam-webster.com.Oxford English Dictionary. Oed.com. Available by subscription.Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/menagerieShariatmadari, David. Eight words that reveal the sexism at the heart of the English language. The Guardian, January 27, 2016. Accessed August 7, 2024.
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Sep 12, 2024 • 35min

What fiction writers know about avoiding stereotypes, with Alex Temblador

1013. How can fiction writers create diverse, authentic characters without relying on stereotypes? Alex Temblador, author of "Writing An Identity Not Your Own," tackles this question and more. Learn about the importance of community engagement in research, the pitfalls of overemphasizing certain character traits, and techniques for editing with an eye toward inclusivity. Temblador also shares her own experience applying these principles to her novel "Half Outlaw," offering a practical look at writing across identities.🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.🔗 Take our advertising survey. 🔗 Get the edited transcript.🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly HutchingsMarketing and Video: Nat Hoopes| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. 
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Sep 10, 2024 • 14min

'Tea' or 'chai'? Why we misspeak. Fellatone.

1012. Most words are different in different languages, but water from steeped leaves has only two main names: tea and chai. We look at why! Also, if you've ever mixed up words, like calling a butterfly a "flutterby," you'll love learning about what these slips of the tongue tell us about how we form sentences.The "tea" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com.The "slips of the tongue" segment was written by Cecile McKee, , a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona. It originally appeared on The Conversation and appears here through a Creative Commons license.🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.🔗 Take our advertising survey. 🔗 Get the edited transcript.🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly HutchingsMarketing and Video: Nat Hoopes| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.References for the "tea" segment:Ceresa, Marco. 2009. Tea: A very Short History. Daniel Leese, ed. Brill’s Encyclopedia of China.  Leiden: BrillJurafsky, Dan. 2017. Tea. In Sybesma, R. P. E., Wolfgang Behr, Yueguo Gu, Zev J. Handel, Cheng-Teh James Huang, and James Myers, eds. 2017. Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill.Tea Definition and Meaning. Merriam-Webster online.Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO. 2021. A cup of tea…or chai? Available at https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1639559/Mair, Victor. 2019. Sinographs for “tea”. Language Log post. Available at https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=41281Östen Dahl. 2013. Tea. In: Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) WALS Online.Säily, Tanja, Mäkelä, Eetu and Samuli Kaislaniemi. 2019. Cha before tea: finding earlier mentions in a corpus of early English letters (part 1). Oxford English Dictionary Academic Case Studies.  Available at https://www.oed.com/information/using-the-oed/academic-case-studies/the-oed-and-research/cha-before-tea-finding-earlier-mentions-in-a-corpus-of-early-english-letters-part-1/
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Sep 3, 2024 • 15min

The language of liars. 'Legendary,' 'famous,' or 'notorious'? Fish shapes.

1011. This week, we look at language patterns that may indicate someone is lying, such as how often they say "um" and the diversity of the words they use. Then we tease out the difference between being legendary, famous, infamous, and notorious.The "language of lying" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." A version of this story originally appeared on Psychology Today, and you can find her at valeriefridland.com.🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.🔗 Take our advertising survey. 🔗 Get the edited transcript.🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.  References for the "Linguistics of Lying" segmentArciuli, J., Mallard, D., and Villar, G. (2010). “Um, I can tell you’re lying”: Linguistic markers of deception versus truth-telling in speech. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31(3), 397–411.Bond, C., & DePaulo, B. M. (2006). Accuracy of deception judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 214–234.Hauch, Valerie, Iris Blandón-Gitlin, Jaume Masip, and Siegfried L. Sporer. (2014) Are Computers Effective Lie Detectors? A Meta-Analysis of Linguistic Cues to Deception. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19:4, 307-342.Fuller, Biros, D. P., & Wilson, R. L. (2009). Decision support for determining veracity via linguistic-based cues. Decision Support Systems, 46(3), 695–703.Verschuere, B., Bogaard, G., and Meijer, E. (2020). Discriminating deceptive from truthful statements using the verifiability approach: A meta-analysis. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 35, 374–384.
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Aug 27, 2024 • 17min

Cat Idioms. 'Summerween' and other blends. Bankery

1010. We'd never be accused of belling the cat, but we did let our curiosity get the best of us when sniffing around common cat-related idioms. Plus, little did we know that we're already in Augtober and Summerween! Grab a pumpkin-spiced treat and come on an adventure through the looking glass to learn about portmanteau words. The "cat idoims" segment is written by Susan K. Herman, a former multidisciplined linguist, editor, and instructor for the U.S. government.🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.🔗 Take our advertising survey. 🔗 Get the edited transcript.🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
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Aug 20, 2024 • 16min

Apostrophes have always been confusing. 'First' or 'firstly'? Trudy!

1009. If you think apostrophes are confusing today, wait until you hear how people used them 100s of years ago! Ammon Shea has some wild stories. Plus, should you use "first," "second," and "third" or "firstly," "secondly," and "thirdly"?Ammon Shea is the author of "Bad English," "Reading the OED."🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.🔗 Take our advertising survey. 🔗 Get the edited transcript.🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
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Aug 13, 2024 • 18min

When to use 'the' before a noun. Why rhymes help us remember. Opening a lime.

1008. We look at why you have to use "the" before some nouns and not others, and then we dive into the science behind why rhymes stick in our memory and how they can even influence our beliefs. The "articles before nouns" segment was written by Neal Whitman, an independent writer and consultant specializing in language and grammar and a member of the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, school board. You can search for him by name on Facebook, or find him on his blog at literalminded.wordpress.com.🔗 Share your familect recording via WhatsApp.🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.🔗 Take our advertising survey. 🔗 Get the edited transcript.🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 🔗 Join Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.
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Aug 6, 2024 • 18min

Why singers lose their accents. Why the 'I before E' rule is weird.

Joining the conversation are Adele, the British powerhouse known for her soulful ballads, and Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who captivated hearts on 'Britain's Got Talent'. Together with linguist Susan K. Herman, they explore why singers often sound American despite their accents. The discussion delves into the quirky 'I before E' rule and its multitude of exceptions. They also share insights on how accents transform in music, and the personal connection language has through charming familial mispronunciations.
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Jul 30, 2024 • 15min

Why 'I' takes plural verbs. Making names that end in S, like Harris and Biles, possessive. Marinate.

1006. We look at why the pronoun "I" seems to take plural verbs, and then we talk about a grammar topic that's in the news: how to make names that end in S (like Harris and Biles) possessive.| Share a recording of your familect story with me on WhatsApp, Threads, Instagram, or  Mastodon.| Edited transcript with links: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/names-possessive/transcript| Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.| Peeve Wars card game. | Grammar Girl books. | Please take our advertising survey. It helps! https://podsurvey.com/GRAMMAR| HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.

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