Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Last week we sent out a simple survey to tens of thousands of A Way with Words listeners and fans.

Our goal: to find out your consensus on the state of the English language: negative, positive or neutral?

We said we'd wait a few weeks to reveal the results. But why wait? We have an answer!

The results were very positive! Seventy-two percent positive! That's great! That means a large majority of you clicked on the button for "The English language has wonderful diversity! We should find delight in and learn more about its ever-changing features."

That makes us so happy!

Here's why: our primary goal has been to change the way our listeners — you included — talk and think about language, including grammar, dialect, new words, and more.

We're trying to get you to:

• make positive assumptions about the language of other people
• dig more deeply into what really makes language work
• act like researchers who gather lots of data for and against your ideas about language
• tell others about what you've learned
• enjoy yourselves!

If that sounds like something you can get behind (and we know it is — we have the poll results now!) add your voice to ours by giving to support the program today.

Let's see if, together, we can convince the 28% who voted "neutral" or "negative" in the survey that there's no reason to worry — English is on a great path and we'll show you the way.

Best wishes,

  &   

Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett,
co-hosts of A Way with Words