Living Language: Reading, Thinking, and Writing

by Alleen Pace Nilsen

This book fulfills the promise of its title by revealing the excitement of language study, the constancy of language change, and the impact of language on our everyday lives. Sixty-one reading selections not only provide models and inspiration for writing but also help develop critical reading skills, data analysis, vocabulary enlargement, and facilitates communication. Including visuals, interesting details about language change, and other histories of words. The organization of the book leads the reader from personal, subjective writing to objective and academic writing. Treating current and popular topics, this book addresses all types of reading materials, such as news stories, headlines, letters-to-the-editor, a video script, a sweepstakes offer, cartoons, and road signs through the lens of language. Chapter titles include You and Your Names; Labels of Primary Potency; Language for Fun; and Changing Words in a Changing World. Anyone with an interest in the dynamics of language.

490 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 1998

About the author

Alleen Pace Nilsen is in the Humanities Division of Arizona State University's Emeritus College. Together with Don L.F. Nilsen, she has authored an abundance of books including Literature for Today's Young Adults (2012), Pronunciation Contrasts in English (2010) and Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor (2000). She is one of the leading pioneers in humor studies, and has received a lifetime achievement award from the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor and the International Society for Humor Studies.