No, I don't know!

[AdminAssistant]

Shards, I'd say you just had a bad experience and a craptacular teacher.

I took Speech in high school, and, well, there's the acting degree... A speech or public speaking is just a performance. In fact, I wouldn't be opposed to requiring a semester of public speaking and a semester of acting. We all act every single damn day. Anyway.

When I lecture, I don't use a lot of complicated language or a formal style. My lecture style is a very informal, sit on the table and lemme tell ya a story. It's the best way to communicate information, truly. Now, I have a lot of idiosyncracies (however you spell it), because I'm not only from the South, I'm from Arkansas - so my accent is a lovely blend of Mississippi Delta redneck and Ozark hillbilly. Because I've had voice classes and stuff I know which words to fix to not be so noticable ('pen', 'will', any long vowel sound). But the twang never goes away and neither will "y'all" or "fixinto". But I try.

[linguist]

Shards - that sucks!!! The big one!

What gets to me is 'awhile' and 'alot' in text... those words don't exist. It's 'a while' and 'a lot'...ya know.

merriam-webster would disagree with you on "awhile".

[Slytovhand]

merriam-webster would disagree with you on "awhile".

Ok, you're right... it is a valid word... my bad

But it is being used incorrectly - it is an adverb, where ppl use it as a noun/adjective contraction.

[McDreidel09]

Lt night, I was at the SO's house and watching a football game. They talked to the winning team's quarterback. He kept saying "Ya know?" A LOT.

I started laughing because I thought of this thread.

My SO and his dad thought I was insane.