Stealth Words: A Writer�s Overlooked Weapon
by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston The title did it. Compelled me to halt the project I was intent on and head straight to the library. I was familiar with The Secret Life of Bees and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but The Secret Life of Pronouns? What on earth could these unremarkable little words be doing behind the scenes that warranted such attention? According to the author, social psychologist and language expert James Pennebaker, pronouns belong to a class of words identified as function or style words. Besides pronouns, function words include the short, forgettable ones we tend to skip over when proofreading�the prepositions, conjunctions and articles. But these �stealth words,� unmemorable as they may be, says Pennebaker, are �windows to the soul.� And our use of them is as revealing as our fingerprints, leaving a trail of clues about our gender, personalities, social and emotional states. His examples and illustrations are so compelling I feel...