January 2017 Newsletter

January 26, 2017

 Breaking Up With Words | Conscious Style Guide

“A twinge of grief underlies certain shifts in language, for inclusive language in particular…. And it’s OK. It doesn’t mean we should run back to relationships which no longer serve us.”

 Euphemism Is Dead | Conscious Style Guide

“While ‘Call people what they want to be called’ is a good rule for writing about those who are marginalized, it becomes dangerous when it reinforces the power of those doing the marginalizing.” 

“Researchers found that when a caller used aggressive language along with second-person pronouns like ‘you’ and ‘your,’ customer service got markedly worse.”

“Men and women may communicate differently in some scenarios, especially informal ones like social media,” said [Brian Larson, assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Media and Communication]. “But this study suggests that if you put them in a professional situation with the same training and ask them to produce similar results, their work will be indistinguishable.”

“So-called aviation English was adopted as the international language of pilots and air traffic controllers in 2011. But in her new book ‘Aviation English,’ Dr Estival warns that some terms commonly used have been misunderstood, with fatal consequences.”

Why a “wedding” is so much more expensive than a “family gathering”: A Consumer Reports investigation in 2016 “found that vendors charge a ‘wedding markup’ to artificially inflate the cost of nuptial celebrations.”

“The Department of Transportation releases a plain-language toolkit to help citizens weigh in on all kinds of projects—so they can thwart the bad ones.”

“Most of the time, it’s better to just be clear and say what you mean. For everyone who doesn’t speak ‘corporate,’ here’s a helpful list of translations.”

According to Dame Athene Donald, professor of experimental physics and master of Churchill College, women are more likely to be described by rather passive and emotive words such as affectionate, tactful, sensitive and helpful. In contrast, men are more likely to be described by words that “stress the active sense of doing, rather than merely being, and words that might be correlated with strength.”

“Considering that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1 in 5 Americans have disabilities, disability rights deserve more than a cursory mention in the official Women’s March platform.”

“It’s up to all of us—especially people like Streep, who are in positions of privilege and power—to move beyond the redundant discussion of Trump mocking a disabled reporter and dig deeper into disability issues.”

“If there is any time that language should be parsed and analyzed, it is now.”—Gary Earl Ross, professor emeritus at the University at Buffalo Educational Opportunity Center

“Harvard University professor Randall Kennedy has traced the history of the N-word to understand the evolution of the infamous racial slur.”

“According to a 2011 study, a shocking 90% of Wikipedia editors have been men.”

The Conscious Style Guide newsletter rounds up the best news and blog posts from the world of kind, compassionate, mindful, empowering, respectful, and inclusive language. Note: Spotlighting an opinion is not intended as an endorsement. Please send news tips to [email protected].

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