Bare bones language
Forensic Linguistics
Competition Winners!
Mar 16th
Congratulations to J.C and Mark. You’ve both been emailed your prizes – I hope you can enjoy them!
Wording Your New Year’s Resolutions Right
Jan 1st
If, like me, you take the time out to make a set of resolutions, or even just one or two, it’s of vital importance that you focus on the intent and the ‘feel’ of the words you use. Though it sounds silly, using the wrong words may cause your perfectly good intentions to fail at the first post, because the language isn’t positive enough.
Setting yourself up to succeed
Positive mindsets aren’t just about harnessing and manifestation – they have a simple underlying key to their use and application – if you go into something believing you will succeed, you’re already one step ahead of where you’d be if you are preparing to fail. Failure is 90% mindset and 10% circumstances in most cases – while there are some things you can’t control, if you’re at least in a position to give your best, you KNOW if something doesn’t work, that you’ve done all you can, and it was out of your control. Placing yourself in control is as simple as creating a ruleset within the language you use to describe your ultimate goal for the year. Do that and you’ll find that you’re in the best position to create the best with your circumstances.
Positive mindsets aren’t about ignoring the possibility of failure – instead, they are about investing enough to give yourself the chance to find out if you WILL fail, instead of believing that you will automatically.
Success is more than just words – it’s attainable
Your success language should be part of your core corpus – in other words, you should use language that you would always, naturally, use. So choose words that you’re confortable using, because it will feed into your ‘can do’ mindset. That can do mindset will allow you to be your best always, which in turn, will allow you to achieve your goals with less confidence hitches.
Setting your words as markers for success
Whether you consider your goals a lighthouse, or a map, a marker on a longer path, or more practical, points to achieve before you reach *your goal*, your language, and the words within it should reflect the feelings within you – so finding your most positive reflections may take longer than January 1st, but if you can, sit down with your goals and edit them like you are submitting them for publication – and the publication’s guidelines insist that you use words that have positive or strong connotations only. And once you’ve polished them, print them and put them on your wall!
Competition Extended
Jan 1st
I thought that because we’d had a bit of a quiet month this month (because we moved) that I’d extend the competition by a month – so feel free to spread the word and earn your competiton entries!
Weekly Roundup – 1st Week!
Dec 13th
Our first week has been a BLAST – and I’m delighted to be able to share the first week of posts with you – from our launch competition, and beyond.
Featured
What is a corpus and why should I care?
Forensic Linguistics
Why my passion could make YOU money
Would you like us to talk about anything, or explain something that’s got your stumped? Just ask! I’ll queue it as soon as we can, and drop you an off-blog email to let you know we’ve queued it and when it’s appearing.
The Basics of Language
Dec 9th
There’s lots of different ways you can look at language – and it’s uses. You’d think that, given there are a set of structured, and accepted rules for grammar, that there would be only a few distinct features of language use, and that we’d struggle to create the ability to discuss, or track the use of language.
In truth, based on various reasons, from local dialect and rule understanding to unique features of the way we understand and apply language can create what could be considered a ‘unique’ fingerprint of language use in each of us. I outlined in a previous post, I mix up letters – either because I’m typing too fast, or because I’ve learned to spell it the wrong way round (and will discuss spelling and typographical muscle memory later 
), but others substitute words, or mix up common words, like bear and bare. Depending on the spell check you use, they may also slide past – some people think that the mixing up of these words on a regular basis is a sign of intelligence, while others believe that it’s important to look past this – but taking the language as a unit in it’s own right, without the ‘person’ behind it, and that specific feature makes for a unique marker in that body of words.
So this blog, in part *is* about grammar – it’s also about understanding the microcultures that spring up around or from various areas of life – from gangs, to Social Media. But the basics will always remain – the underlying rules that create our language will always be here.
Beyond the rules
Some people might ask – well, what about breaking the rules? What if I know the rules, and my style allows me to break them?
Again, they’re a specific feature of your writing – and as long as you’re not speaking from petulance (that you didn’t realize you were breaking the rules, and are trying to cover for it) and are consistent in the reasons you ‘break’ rules, it’s another identifiable element of your writing. And though, again, it may not be specific to you, it narrows your language use down into an area that could be tagged to you (and others). Find enough features, continue to narrow it down, and we’ll paint a picture of your language use that could be considered as yours, and yours alone.
What do you think? Agree with the idea that each of us have recognizable written or spoken traits? Interested in learning more?
What Is a Corpus and Why Should I Care?
Dec 7th
Key to Forensic Linguistics is the idea that there’s an identifiable set of words in everyone’s language – and those identifiable features are basically unique to ourselves.
An example is that I spell certain words wrong, and reverse several letters – My i’s and my e’s are always the wrong way round, so I have to spell check before posting. But, if you see information that I’ve posted ‘on the fly’, you may find that I’ve spelled because ‘becuase’ or their ‘thier’ among other things.
You might say that it’s simply a spelling mistake, and a very common one at that, but if you identify that as an element of someone’s written style, and they choose not to correct via spell-checking, you can sometimes identify people by simply that.
Other ways include using substituted words – mixed up words with similar definitions, or just completely the opposite words. That’s a basic idea anyway
Corpus = the internal dictionary we all use?
In some ways, you could consider the corpus as your internal dictionary. Each of us should have a unique one, or at least identifiably unique features in our corpus.
A more accepted definition of corpus is one of a wider context – a body of texts that make up a sample of the language that it’s supposed to represent, or similar. But I believe each writer has their own body of work, and therefore, their own comparable ‘corpus’ in some ways.
My first paper on the concept is coming soon, but hopefully this basic definition will help
Launch Competition!
Dec 7th
I thought we’d honor the launch of our site with a competition!
We’re going to provide two $20 vouchers (or equivalent at Amazon) for two readers as a runner up prize, and a consultation as a grand prize. We’re also offering five honorary prizes, again at random, for one article write and one article rewrite over a month. These articles can be ghostwritten, or a guest post, but YOU get to choose the subject.
A consultation?
One of the key tennants of Forensic linguistics is that each of us has a unique set of words we use – called a corpus. These corpus’ are what makes us, and are a key part of our image. If your language use isn’t matching up with exactly what you want to project, if your image and your language is somehow, out of sync, you can use our suggestions to fix it. So we’re offering ‘corpus makeovers’.
How to enter
It’s simple – just comment and say that you’re entering – with a question about something you’d like to understand or find out about. Get an extra entry with a retweet of this post (please use @ciscopywriter to count your tweet). Get a free mini crit if you post this competition to your blog, (copy the post vertabim and link back, or do your own write up) plus get an extra three entries – so you can get a total of five entries by spreading the word.
(EDIT 1:)
DOH! Forgot to add. Competition opens from the 7th to the 31st of December – with a ‘surprise’ drawing on a different post between the 20th and 24th. The draw will be on the 4th of January. Spread the word (please?)
Why My Passion Could Make YOU Money
Dec 7th
It’s important to introduce this early on in the blog, simply because online, you can’t waste your time with blogs that don’t ‘deliver’. So in the interests of supporting your reading ease, I thought I’d explain why this is such a key subject, and why my passion can make money for YOU, as a writer of any kind.
As a blogger – the understanding of forensic linguistics can…
- Give you a strong language USP – use of language is KEY to getting people to believe in your message.
- Support you in creating a strong presence online.
- Help you when you can’t find the words that may otherwise WOW your potential readers
As a writer – the understanding of forensic linguistics can…
- Cut down on editing – you’ll be able to create works faster, because you’ll appreciate the use of language more.
- Create a specific corpus for your own works.
- Free up your time by supporting you in creating a solid language system that you can build on.
How I can help
Forensic linguistics is a relatively new criminological science – and falls loosely under psychology for many reasons. I am studying it after I graduate from the undergraduate degree as a Masters degree, but until then, this blog is going to share with you the core facts and structures that forensic linguistics is built on, which in turn, should give you a solid way to understand your own writing.
WOOOOHOOO! We Launched!
Dec 7th
Well, here it is. I can’t believe we’ve launched, finally.
In the next few days I’ll explain why this is so important to me – why it’s sparked my passion, and what I’m thinking about doing with the site – plus information about the books I’m planning and more. Basically though, I’m here to ‘serve’ as your forensic linguist.
What is forensic linguistics anyway?
Forensic linguistics is, at (one of ) it’s most basic forms, the criminological study of language. It’s the way the police and those in legal institutions use language, and how linguists can help them. (though, to be fair, it’s all broad strokes, and isn’t really as pithy as I’d like )
My interest in it is specifically in tracking the unique areas of language that each of us have, and supporting the tracking and prosecutions of specific types of crime, alongside the more ‘mundane’ art of using elements of forensic linguistics and it’s understanding in our writing, every day, and in every document and item we create.
What you’ll find on the blog
Discussion about writing, discussion about copywriting, information on forensic linguistics, book reviews and white papers from the field, and writing and information about how I get into the career specifically. Hopefully you’ll also find conversation and information that you need to support your writing. I look forward to chatting with you about it.