Some dear friends of ours have twin girls. They look alike, for sure—they are twins, siblings—but because I know them well, I see the differences, however slight. I can tell them apart, and I know which name goes with which girl. Words twins are the same. They look alike, with…
Remember those public speaking classes we all took in high school and college? I remember my nervousness more than my speeches. But the preparation tips must have stuck for all of us, because most speeches have the thoughts categorized and presented one by one, starting with something like: “First of…
Happy National Running Day! The NRD campaign asks us to complete this phrase: “I run . . .” My answer? Although I run for lots of reasons, this weekend I run to raise money for Avishi, one of the girls I met on my trip to India with As Our…
Words that sound alike are easy to mix up, especially when you are speaking quickly or you are under pressure. Our brains grab for one word but spit out its second-cousin-once-removed—the words are related, but do not have the same meaning. Today’s Which Word Wednesday features one such word pair,…
Lynne Truss—author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves—compares herself to the little boy from The Sixth Sense. She says that instead of seeing dead people, she sees dead language. I can also see dead language. I also see lifeless punctuation. It’s the little things that make my ears itch, like the…
Long before prescriptivists were lamenting the onset of mobile phone text-speak, there were abbreviations like laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) and USA (United States of America). Abbreviations come in two flavors: acronyms and initialisms. This week’s Which Word Wednesday looks at…
When I was in junior high and high school, TV shows and movies highlighted the awkward lives of the socially inept. These were lovable-yet-dorky characters like Sarah Jessica Parker’s Patty Greene in Square Pegs. At that time, being nerdy or geeky was not something to strive for. Today, being quirky…
A few months ago, as I was editing content for a client, I came across the word healthful. I don’t see that word very often, and I wondered how it differed from healthy, so I decided to do a check on it. Since then, I’ve known the difference between the…
As a writer, I often weave the words of others into my creative work. Each time I speak of these inserts, I get stuck. What do I call them: quotes or quotations? I know there is a difference, but I can’t remember what that is. It’s the perfect mystery for…
If we lived in isolation, there would be no need for Which Word Wednesday. (And how sad our Wednesdays would be!) With no one to talk to, everything we thought or spoke aloud to ourselves would make sense. There would be no miscommunications or misunderstandings. It is in community that…
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