Customer Reviews

Talking About People: A Guide to Fair and Accurate Language

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First impressions are everything in my business, and that's why I gave everyone on my staff a dictionary for Christmas last year. Spelling counts. And so does inclusive language. What do you do when the "Chairman of the Board" is a woman? It's a real pain to come up with inclusive alternatives, and up until now, I could never be sure that my solutions were right. Thankfully, this book is a breeze to use, and it doesn't hit you over the head with a bunch of politics. Just lots of precise, useful alternatives. This Christmas I'm giving everyone on my staff "Talking About People." If you're serious about making the right impression, you should buy this book!

As a communication instructor at a community college, I've used Maggio's Talking about People for years. It helps students of all ages realize not only that phrases and terms such as "rule of thumb," "jew down," and "lady" can be and often are used in offensive ways but also why. The historical background Maggio supplies for most of this dictionary's entries is thorough without being long-winded or boring. A student once asked me, "What--do you want us to think about EVERYTHING we say?" My answer, "Yes!" Because words are powerful.

I've searched for years for a book that was this thorough. Maggio has done her homework, so you don't have to do yours. Instead of referencing half a dozen books and the internet and the encyclopedia, I just grab Talking About People. Also, the book supplies serious information without being preachy.

Maggio's list of biased words includes many everyday words and expressions that are part and parcel of the English language. If everyone were to follow her lead, our language would be much poorer. In the quest to remove everything from the language that might give offense to anybody, Maggio ends up with a list of censorship guidelines. Publishers should avoid following her list, as it gives permission to censors of all stripes--whether from left, right, feminist, anti-evolutionist, crackpot--to say that something offends them and take it out of the language!