A professor who spent 25 years studying arthropods has some thoughts regarding our conversation about the phrase tight as a tick. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Technical Tick Tweak” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show...
An Omaha, Nebraska, woman reports that a customer emailed her after a sales presentation to correct her pronunciation of the word via, meaning “through” or “by means of.” In this case, the customer wasn’t right: via can be pronounced either VEE-ah...
Listeners weigh in on a call about what language to use with a co-worker who continually apologizes for being late, but doesn’t change their behavior. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “More Things To Say To A Late Coworker” Here’s...
It’s the art of constructive feedback: If you’re a teacher with a mountain of papers to grade, you may find yourself puzzling over which kinds of notes in the margins work best. Martha and Grant discuss strategies for effective paper-grading. And...
A crackerjack fellow is someone who’s excellent or first-rate. It’s most likely the same positive sense of crack found in terms like cracking good, crack team, and crack shot. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Crackerjack Fellow”...
After months of work, here it is: the new A Way with Words website. We took a lot of things into account in the renovation, but the biggest category of considerations has been what you, our listeners and visitors, needed. We not only gave you what...
