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We have the results!

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Dear friends,

Last week we sent out a simple survey to tens of thousands of A Way with Words listeners and fans.

Our goal: to find out your consensus on the state of the English language: negative, positive or neutral?

We said we’d wait a few weeks to reveal the results. But why wait? We have an answer!

Pie chart with 72% positive results.The results were very positive! Seventy-two percent positive! That’s great! That means a large majority of you clicked on the button for “The English language has wonderful diversity! We should find delight in and learn more about its ever-changing features.

That makes us so happy!

Here’s why: our primary goal has been to change the way our listeners — you included — talk and think about language, including grammar, dialect, new words, and more.

We’re trying to get you to:

  • make positive assumptions about the language of other people
  • dig more deeply into what really makes language work
  • act like researchers who gather lots of data for and against your ideas about language
  • tell others about what you’ve learned
  • enjoy yourselves!

If that sounds like something you can get behind (and we know it is — we have the poll results now!) add your voice to ours by giving to support the program today.

Let’s see if, together, we can convince the 28% who voted “neutral” or “negative” in the survey that there’s no reason to worry — English is on a great path and we’ll show you the way.

Best wishes,

Martha Barnette  &   Grant Barrett

Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett,
co-hosts of A Way with Words

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