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Something You Should Know About Language

Techniques To Be A Better Writer

September 1, 2011

 

Interview with Sandra Lamb, author of the book How to Write It: Complete Guide to Everything You'll Ever Write

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Have you ever had to write something and had trouble saying what it is that you want to say? Well, here’s some help

 

Sandra Lamb:
Think through your message all the way from beginning to end and be able to state what you are going to write in 1 message sentence.
 
Sandra Lamb

Why Written & Spoken Language Is So Different

August 29, 2011

 

Interview with John McWhorter, author of the book What Language Is: And What It Isn’t and What It Could Be

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Language is more about speaking than it is about writing.

 

John McWhorter:
Because writing came along only about 55 hundred years ago whereas speech has probably existed for about 150 thousand years – so if language had only existed for 24 hours then writing came along at about 11:07pm.
 
John McWhorter

Foreign Words We Mispronounce

August 24, 2011

 

Interview with Chris Warmash, Publishing Director of Living Language www.LivingLanguage.com

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Mispronouncing foreign words is hardly a crime but it is interesting to discover the correct pronunciations of words many of us have been mispronouncing when we go to a restaurant. The big one is bruschetta.

 

Chris Warnash:
Because it’s got that “sch” in there and that looks like the German way of spelling “sch” but it’s actually pronounced “brusketta” but you can just say “brusketta”.
 
Chris Warnasch

Why Humans Read So Well

August 15, 2011

 

Interview with Mark Changizi, author of the book Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Humans have been reading and writing for only a few thousand years a relatively short time in human history and yet we are incredibly good at it.

 

Mark Changizi:
If you were an alien and you watched us every day what humans do, you’d think that we evolved to read because we’re good at it - but we know we couldn’t possibly evolved to read. 
 
Mark Changizi

Reading Body Language - Part 2

June 10, 2011

 

Interview with Joe Navarro, author of the book What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People

 

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Mike Carruthers:
To some degree you already know how to read body language - every human being does.

 

Joe Navarro:
Our species assesses for danger first and then assesses for hierarchy second and then we look for other things like emotions and so forth.
 
Joe Navarro

Reading Body Language

June 9, 2011

 

Interview with Joe Navarro, author of the book What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Body language, if you learn to read it, can tell you a lot about someone.

 

Joe Navarro:
Our bodies reflect what we think, what we feel, and what we intend.

 
Joe Navarro

Slang

October 22, 2010

 

Interview with tom Dalzell, author of the book The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Slang has always been part of American language and culture.

 

Tom Dalzell:
One thing that slang often does is turn the world upside-down where good is bad and bad is good. So, something that's "ill" or "sick" or "bad" are all good.
 
Tom Dalzell

How Numbers Get Twisted

October 4, 2010

 

Interview with Charles Seife, author of the book Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception

 

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Mike Carruthers:
You have been the victim of something called “proofiness”.

 

Charles Seife:
“Proofiness” is the art of using bogus mathematics to distort the truth rather than to bring it out.
 
Charles Seife

Our New Cultural Revolution

September 24, 2010

 

Interview with Patricia Martin, author of the book Rengen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer - and What It Means to Your Business

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Even though the economy continues to struggle a bit there is a cultural and creative renaissance going on in this country.

 

Patricia Martin:
Let's look at the enrollments in art school, up twenty-five to forty percent depending upon the school - and that's compared to ten years ago. More students are applying to art schools than they are business schools, today.
 
Patricia Martin

Speaking With Power

September 10, 2010

 

Interview with Meryl Runion, author of the book How to Use Power Phrases to Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, & Get What You Want

 

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Mike Carruthers:
When you're talking to people, using the right phrases at the right time can make you a powerful communicator.

 

Meryl Runion:
One of my favorite power phrases is one that someone shared with me at a seminar I was teaching. It was a customer service situation and someone was being very hostile towards her.
 
Meryl Runion

Our Changing Language

August 31, 2010

 

Interview with Patricia O’Conner, author of the book Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Its always bothered me when people pronounce the word "nuclear" as "nuculear" - however…

 

Patricia O'Conner:
The newest Merriam Webster's dictionary now includes that as a standard pronunciation - it's not the leading one, it's not number one but it's in there.
 
Patricia O'Conner

Umm, Ahh & Ya Know

July 23, 2030

 

Inteview with Michael Erard, author of the book Um. . .: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Um, ah, ya know - when you listen carefully to people speaking, you hear those three things a lot - um, ah, ya know…

 

Michael Erard:
That's a phenomenon called speech disfluencies and they happen because we need to plan what we're going to say next.

 
Michael Erard

Using Body Language Effectively - Part 2

 May 12, 2010

 

Interview with Tonya Reiman, author of the book The Yes Factor: Get What You Want. Say What You Mean. The Secrets of Persuasive Communication

 

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Mike Carruthers:
Body language can be very useful in business.

 

Tonya Reiman:
You know for instance if you’re going to interview a client one of the things you want to be able to do is to be able to see their feet – you want to be able to see their legs. So I would say take them to a place where you’re either sitting on the same side of them or on a couch.

 
Tonya Reiman

Tonya Reiman, author of the book The Yes Factor...

Using Body Language Effectively

 May 11, 2010

 

Interview with Tonya Reiman, author of the book The Yes Factor: Get What You Want. Say What You Mean. The Secrets of Persuasive Communication

 

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Mike Carruthers:
You know that your body language says a lot about you so why not make it say good things?

 

Tonya Reiman:
You want to have good posture because if I walk into a room and my shoulders are slightly slumped over I’m not going to give the impression that I feel confident, instead I’m going to give the impression that I’m kind of trying to hide.

 
Tonya Reiman

Tonya Reiman, author of the book The Yes Factor...

The Problem Of Misunderstanding

January 28, 2010

 

Interview with Nance Guilmartin, author of the book The Power of Pause: How to be More Effective in a Demanding, 24/7 World

 

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Mike Carruthers:
What I said may not be what you heard, that type of misunderstanding happens all the time.

 

Nance Guilmartin:
And the faster we go the more behind we get when we don’t take a moment to confirm our understanding and it’s causing us a lot of snafus that take more time to clear up.

 
Nance Guilmartin

Nance Guilmartin, author of the book The Power of Pause...

 

Common Language Mistakes

 January 1, 2009
Interview with Joannie Feierman author of Action Grammar: Fast, No-Hassle Answers on Everyday Usage and Punctuation

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Mike Carruthers:
Whether we're writing to someone or speaking to them, there are some common grammar mistakes people often make.

 

Joannie Feierman:
Most of the problems stem from one issue and that is whether the word to use is me, myself or I.

 

Myths About The English Language - Part 2

May 27, 2009
Interview with Patricia T. O'Connor, author of Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language

www.grammarphobia.com  

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Mike Carruthers:
Do you remember hearing in school that it's not correct English to end a sentence with a preposition?

 

Patricia T. O'Connor:
As in "I'm all tied up, I can't come today I'm all tied up" - it's a ridiculous myth that we have to sometimes stand sentences on their heads to avoid it.


Patricia O'Connor & 
Stewart Kellerman

Myths About The English Language

May 26, 2009

Interview with Patricia T. O'Connor, co-author of Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language


www.grammarphobia.com
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Mike Carruthers:
Did you know that English people didn't use to have an English accent; they used to talk like us. For instance we say "vase", the British say "vaaase."

 

Patricia T. O'Connor:
The pronunciation "vaaase" developed in the 19th Century - they used to say "vase." We know this because of poetry.


Patricia O'Connor &
Stewart Kellerman


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