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BrainGain Magazine started this Word Nerd series in March 2016. Since then we’ve written about Americanisms, the secrets to writing a good sentence, to best way to insult someone, accents, and other oddities of this common language we speak. For this edition, we thought about the series itself, and its name. We thought too about […]

In 2008, Andrea Lunsford and Karen Lunsford conducted a national study on undergraduate writing in the US. The study was called “Mistakes Are A Fact of Life.” It revealed the most common errors made by college students in essays, papers, and other submissions. Even today these errors are common and continue to attract negative attention […]

Perhaps you’ve come across tips like, “Show don’t tell” or “No ideas but in things.” You’ve probably considered these tips were best used by those interested in writing poetry, features, or stories. It’s true that a poet needs to give “airy nothing” a “[l]ocal habitation and a name (Shakespeare).” But, say you’re a lawyer writing an important brief, you would do well to keep your senses in mind. Great writing is concrete. US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor advises lawyers in her memoir, “It is the particulars that make a story real.”

via GIPHY With this Word Nerd, we’re bringing you a splash of positivity. These are five words that describe the love we feel for things and experiences. A few words on this list have the suffix of ‘philia’ – which is the Greek word for fondness. This is the opposite of – any guesses – […]

via GIPHY It might have been a challenging year – with being locked indoors, and missing out on many summertime activities. For some that means beaches and for others, it means mountains. However, summer is a synonym for all things sunny. So, in this edition of Word Nerd, we bring you your summer fix. These […]

Have you ever been addressed as a man if you’re a woman or vice versa? And this was not because of your voice or appearance but simply because the other person could not be bothered to research or just felt free to assume? On the other hand, have you ever made the same mistake? Image […]

 There is no question that Amanda Gorman, with her elegant and measured performance of ‘The Hill We Climb’, headlined the Presidential inauguration. We were all moved by her words & mesmerised by her rhythmic gestures. And, one of the sections that cheered the loudest were those who are interested in reading, practicing, and publishing […]

Yes, we get that languages evolve and change. But the internet has accelerated this evolution into chaos. Tbh, we mostly love the jargon, which makes our preferred method of communication these days really easy. Also, deploying the right slang is a great way of branding oneself on the internet. It can even make us look […]

Halloween has become an iconic celebration up there with Valentine’s Day and Christmas Eve (I thought more people would be scared by ghosts, goblins and Heidi Klum’s Kali … No? Just me? Alright then). But where did all of it come from – Marvel heroes roaming the streets with Elsa, Anna and the sheeted ghosts? […]

Anuradha Phukan, studying for a Master’s in Management at the Durham University Business School, UK, writes about her lockdown experience. Anu at the Durham Cathedral I was born in Noida, grew up in Digboi and Guwahati in Assam, and worked for 2 years in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Due to my father’s transferable job and my passion […]