If you spend any time on Facebook, then you’ve probably had the experience of knowing a whole lot about someone, even though they’re just a friend or relative of a friend. And meeting them can be a little weird, or even a slightly creepy...
Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a set of Topical Limericks from the worlds of media and entertainment. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Media Limericks” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett. And...
Grant recommends two blogs about writing well and copyediting: Merrill Perlman writes The Language Corner blog for the Columbia Journalism Review, and Philip B. Corbett of the New York Times reports on actual grammatical and usage mistakes in that...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a limericks news quiz. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Limericks Quiz” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette. And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re...
What’s your choice for 2010’s word of the year? Mama grizzly? Starwhacker? Who could forget vuvuzela? Martha and Grant discuss the five-oh in Hawaii 5-0, and whether the tagline “I approve this message” is grammatical. Also...
Vic from Indianapolis, who works at a newspaper, bristles at colleagues saying I’m efforting that, as in having reporters efforting a photo or asking whether the paper is efforting something. The verb effort has been heard before and may have a...