Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

1159. This week, we look at "civic clarity" with writing instructor Roy Peter Clark in a newly edited version of our 2020 conversation. We look at the ethical code of clear communication and why "civic clarity" is more important now than ever. We also discuss the strategy of "writing short" for social media and how to navigate the difficult process of cutting a draft to find your focus.

1158. This week, we go full Winter Olympics, tracing the origin of "ski," "luge," "toboggan," and more. Then, we look at why we say "Celsius" instead of "centigrade."

1157. This week, we look at AI em dashes with Sean Goedecke, software engineer for GitHub. We talk about why artificial intelligence models frequently use em dashes and words like "delve," and how training on public domain books from the late 1800s may have influenced these patterns. We also look at the role of human feedback in shaping "AI style."

1156. This week, we look at the pronunciation chaos surrounding "forte" and "pianoforte," from the French fencing term meaning "strong point" to the Italian musical direction meaning "loud." Then, we look at "playing the dozens" — the African American insult game with a mysterious origin.

1155. This week, we look at whether it’s actually true that Inuit languages have hundreds of words for snow with Dr. Charles Kemp. We look at how researchers used a database of 18 million volumes to find out how our environment shapes our vocabulary using the Nida-Conklin principle. We also look at a surprising finding about words for rain being abundant in non-rainy regions.