Happy New Year! Have you made your list of goals for 2012? (If you haven’t yet, I hope you’re working on it!)
Two goals on my list are sharing more links and blogging more frequently. So, here goes!
I read an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal this morning by Erin McKean, a lexicographer and founder of Wordnik, an online dictionary focusing on how words are used today. In the article, Ms. McKean tells us about new words (“humanzee”), word blends (“solomo”) and acronyms (“CARBS”) that were used in the paper during 2011.
All very interesting and got me thinking about how we choose our words for speaking and writing. My writing style tends to be very straightforward, which I credit to my journalism education (“if it bleeds, it leads” and “just the facts”). My speaking style, well, that’s a different story. My speech is sometimes more colorful than eloquent.
So, in 2012 I’m going to dedicate myself to improving in both areas — writing and speaking. Choosing my words more thoughtfully and hopefully, artfully. (Is that too many “-fullys” for one sentence?!)
What new words did you use or come across in 2011? Are you going to continue using them in 2012? What improvements are you considering for your writing and speaking styles in 2012?
