Word Shots, The Podcast

In this episode, we look at how two non-native English speakers damaged their writing by using perfectly "legal" English words that no English speaker ever heard. Listen to the episode here: Or subscribe in iTunes. Full transcript (headings aren't in audio): Last week I talked about who gets to decide whether something that might be a word is in fact a word. And I suggested that the right answer is not the makers of dictionaries, but the best writers. Are Dictionaries Valuable? Now, that may have prompted the question whether I believe dictionaries are valuable at all. The answer is that I’m sure they are valuable. Reference books on words and grammar and usage are valuable. Some are more valuable than others, of course, because some are better than others. This week I’m going to talk about two specific instances in my career as a writer and editor in which a dictionary did not provide the right solution to the problem I faced. First, though—spoiler alert—since I’m going to tell you that you can poss