Write Away e-bulletin

February 2012

This month, take our new words quiz – can you decipher what a boomerang child, a helicopter parent and a robocall are? But before you rush out and use them, make sure you read our blog post on the kind of language to use – and avoid – if you want your articles to go global.

Also: why you should never trust a thesaurus, the difference between shall and will and a 60-second fix on whether you dreamt that you learnt something or dreamed that you learned it.

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• Hit or myth: 'I shall' is more polite than 'I will'

  You may have a vague memory of once being told to use shall after I for formal occasions – but is that right?

• 60-second fix: learnt or learned?

  Is it learnt or learned? Spelt or spelled? Dreamt or dreamed?

• The thesaurus: a friendly warning

  The thesaurus: with consorts like these, who needs calumniators?