Writing, speech and education…

Another day recently… I was in the elevator and I was witness to this comment…   “I haven’t been sleeping well lately.. I don’t know if it’s something in the air….??”   Seriously, What?  What is in the air? What IN THE AIR is making people not sleep???   As a technical writer I laugh at these comments people make because we’re all guilty of it… figure of speech… slang…   I have a good friend named Connie who is Chinese so English is her second language.  What happened with her is a constant reminder stuck in my head about why figure of speech and slang are useless in communication… We were discussing location of the buildings we worked in and I explained to her that my building was kitty-corner from hers.  She looked at me completely puzzled and said, “what is kitty corner????”.  I said.. ” diagonally”.  She then responded … Read More