Following up on our conversation about whether cursive handwriting should be taught in schools, 23-year-old Rachel from Newport News, Virginia, wrote to say she learned cursive in third grade, but has never used it since. This is part of a complete...
A San Antonio, Texas, woman wonders about the phrase to ask for your John Henry, meaning to ask for your signature. It’s a variant of the far more common phrase, to ask for your John Hancock, a reference to the bold signature of John Hancock, one of...
Some people are using the word fingature to mean that scribble you do on an electronic pad when asked to sign for a credit card payment. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Fignature” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hello, this is...
What does your signature say about you? In today’s world of PIN-codes and electronic communication, maybe not so much. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Reading Signatures” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett...
What do you call that embellishment at the bottom of old signatures, like the hash-marked line beneath John Hancock’s name? It’s called a paraph, originally used as a distinct mark to protect against forgery. This is part of a complete episode...
It’s a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it who or whom? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague’s email signature, but he’s not sure it’s 100% grammatical. The sentence: “There are some patients...
