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OnWords: Tone

When senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake recently announced they were not running for reelection, they both noted the tone, the manner in which the current president communicates. This is all fine and...

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OnWords: National Conversation

Our friends in the media love to use the term “national conversation” about anything newsworthy and controversial. Lately we’ve had national conversations about sexual harassment, race, and the rights...

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OnWords: Snowflake

A popular idea about the way water freezes notes that all snowflakes are unique, beautiful latticeworks of crystals revealing themselves when magnified and properly attended to. This notion has led...

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OnWords: Compassion

I hear the word “compassion” in surprising places these days, such as in health service delivery, education, and even those who study communication patterns.

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OnWords: Public Apology

Recent sex scandals have seen an uptick in public apologies. Some people are more satisfied at the sincerity of these attempts at amends than others are, but the public apology remains an important...

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OnWords: Word Of The Year

Late in December each year, authorities on language such as those who curate the Oxford English Dictionary release their word of the year. I use the word “curate” purposefully to describe what those...

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OnWords: Non Gender-Specific Pronouns

If there’s one thing I’ve come around to over the years, it’s the non-gender-specific pronoun.

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OnWords: On Defining Our Terms

I remember reading Plato as an undergrad and being interested in the way Socrates took pains to define his terms in the dialogs. Western philosophy has continued this tradition, and by the 20th...

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OnWords: No Words

Alert listener Ryan Philbrick noted the current trend of using the words “no words” when one is overcome with emotion. Indeed, there are plenty of words one can use in these situations, from...

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OnWords: On Language And Reality

Various theories of language, notably the Sapir-Whorf theory support the idea that language creates reality for language users. And while some visual artists and musicians might argue the point,...

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OnWords: Mission Accomplished

Recently, our president used the words “mission accomplished” to describe military action in Syria. The phrase immediately brought up a famous faux pas: George W. Bush slapping the same term across an...

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OnWords: Identity

More fundamental than the issue of so-called identity politics is the definition of identity itself. My work in the mental health field has me facilitating workshops on culture and its impact on work...

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OnWords: Is Unacceptable

At some point we’ve all heard or said that something or other (quote) “is unacceptable.” “Is unacceptable” is one of those phrases that seep through the language and bubble up seemingly everywhere. But...

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OnWords: The Metaphors of Agriculture

Late spring and early summer is wheat harvest season in Kansas, and it has me thinking about how deeply agricultural metaphors interweave into common speech. This is maybe a bit surprising, considering...

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OnWords: 'Our Most Vulnerable'

“Our most vulnerable” is a term we use to transfer an audience’s pity from others and onto whoever isusing the term. Consider its use: when we label groups such as the homeless, the elderly, and...

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OnWords: Performance

Those of us who work for someone other than ourselves become so used to “performance reviews” that we seldom stop to consider what they mean. Though commonly used in human resources circles, the word...

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OnWords: Letters (and Numbers) for Words as a Stylistic Choice

I ran across a phrase online the other day that I hadn’t seen in a while: “What, U mad?” with the letter “U” substituted for the word spelled “y-o-u.” I don’t normally hang out where this phrase is...

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OnWords: Kowtowing To The Language Of Power

When Wichita State University’s Education Department recently changed its name to the College of Applied Studies, it may have aligned them with university goals, but it was a blow to plain language....

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OnWords: Narrative

It has always bothered me that grant proposals always require “narratives.” Grant narratives are generally so highly structured that they could not possibly resemble narrative as we commonly use the...

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OnWords: Plaques And Statues

Recent debate over removing Confederate statuary from public spaces illuminates the intersection of words and other forms of expression. The civil rights activists who have succeeded in getting...

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