When I was a young mom and grad student with two little boys ages 5 and 3, I took them with me everywhere I could (sometimes even to classes I taught). We often … [Read more...]

Twice so far, the University of Northwestern-St. Paul where I teach has hosted the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association annual championships … [Read more...]

Spoonerisms are verbal errors in which speaker accidentally transpose the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, usually to humorous effect, as in the … [Read more...]

April showers bring May flowers—or so we’ve been told. One source traces that phrase to an 1886 saying which might have deeper roots in a 1610 poem. Another source … [Read more...]

You may have seen this great post about Acryologia shared on Facebook. But wait, there's more; and I make no apologies. I love delightful word misuses and have a … [Read more...]

My post on using the Oxford Comma (or not) made me examine other punctuation. From speech class, I know that commas are visual directions to take a breath when … [Read more...]

While critiquing a friend’s work, I questioned her comma usage so checked the definition of the Oxford Comma. Here’s what I found. “The Oxford comma is used before … [Read more...]

Valentine’s Day is a happy occasion for receiving flowers, chocolates, sweeter words, and maybe good books. If you’re a book lover, there are few things finer—and … [Read more...]

Paraprosdokians are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected, and frequently humorous. (Winston Churchill loved … [Read more...]

We have words in our everyday vocabulary, with roots in history, that have grown larger than life. Jezebel was the Phoenician wife of King Ahab who urged Israel … [Read more...]