Swet Columns

April 23, 2007

Mind the Gaffe!

Reviewed by Kay Vreeland

Mind the Gaffe! by R. L. Trask. New York: Harper, 2001, 2006. 290 pages. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-0061132209; ISBN-10: 0061132209. $11.16; ¥1474.

Larry Trask led a double life—two countries, two careers, two wives—but he had one great passion for linguistics. Ranked by his peers with Noam Chomsky and Stephen Pinker, and author of classics on language, its history, and... more

January 19, 2004

Ideas into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing

Reviewed by Richard Weisburd [em]Ideas into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing.[/em] Elise Hancock. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. 176 pages, including front matter and index. ISBN 0801873304 (softcover). US$18.95.

Science is rapidly advancing in every direction. Over time, scientific writing is becoming increasingly complex, with ever growing numbers of technical words and concepts. Because of... more

January 12, 2004

The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind

Reviewed by Hugh Ashton The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind. Steven Pinker. London: Penguin, 1995. 494 pages, including preface, notes, glossary, and index. ISBN 0140175296 (softcover). £9.99.

SWET members are all professional language users; we are paid to express our thoughts, or those of others, in coherent terms. Our common professional tool is language,... more

October 29, 2002

Finding a Job vs. Finding Work

by Fred Uleman

Creating You & Co by William Bridges reminds me of the old adage that, “within every fat man is a thin man trying to get out.” There is a slender book in here that is well worth reading, but you will have to cut through a lot of fat to get at it. So let me give you... more