On e-formality

SATURDAY, 14 JUNE 2014
Reposted from David Crystal’s blog ‘DC blog’
On e-formality
A correspondent writes to ask about the register to be used in emails. He wonders if a formal style is possible, such as (in applying for a job) beginning with ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ and ending with ‘Yours faithfully’, or the like. He says he has never encountered such an email.

On the job: ‘darl’ and ‘old mate’

On the job: ‘darl’ and ‘old mate’
Posted on 10 April 2014 by Julia Robinson
by Christina Greer*

Like many students, I have supported myself through university by working in various hospitality jobs. We learn pretty quickly how to adapt our behaviour and language to different situations on the job. We talk to our co-workers in one way, our manager in another, and there are many ways in which we can address customers, depending on such things as their sex and age, the formality of the venue, and whether they are in a group or alone.

Our intention is to be polite and to avoid giving offence. Wait staff are constantly, though not necessarily consciously, adjusting their language in the work place to suit the customer.

Time to change the language we use about mental health

Time to change the language we use about mental health
The world has moved on since the days of ‘Bonkers Bruno’ headlines, but we still need to mind our language
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Sun+Bruno
The front page of the Sun on 23 September 2003 covering Frank Bruno’s depression – early and late editions. The first headline reads ‘Bonkers Bruno locked up’ in the later edition on the same day it reads ‘Sad Bruno in Mental Home’
It’s political correctness gone mentally unstable. That’s right, you can’t say anything these days – and here’s yet another article telling us what language we can and can’t use. Cue eye-rolls and tuts.

Actually, I want to share with you my own journey into madness. That is, mental health and language – and the advice available about how we strike a balance between the “political correctness gone mad” brigade and those who prefer to communicate with a little more consideration

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Fair Dinkum pollies, enough with the slang

With the election running faster than a ‘roo on the hot desert’, the Australian slang and euphemisms have been coming thick and fast. For a politician it is clearly a calculated move: during the recent televised debate, Tony Abbott dropped the term ‘fair dinkum’ four times before Gillard started using it back in an ironic sense.