STOP SOPA & PIPA

I can't figure out the HTML to blacking out my blog for today, and all the websites that could teach me how to do it are blacked out! So I'm just going to post this instead.

• Excellent explanation from Stanford Law as to why SOPA and PIPA must be stopped and rewritten.
• Google infographic showing the numbers and variety of people protesting these bills.
• Sign the petition or write your federal representatives.

A Compilation of Word Lists for 2011 & 2012

The end of one year and beginning of the New Year always means that people will come up with different types of lists to try to capture an image of what happened. There are lists of popular gadgets, amazing scientific discoveries, best selling cars and, of course, words.

Every year, there are at least a dozen different major word lists and countless more minor words lists. So inspired, even made my own top words of 2011 for True to Words. Here is a compilation of some of the best word lists for 2011, as well as predictions for 2012.

Global Language Monitor's Top 10 Words of 2011
Employing a technology known as NarrativeTracker, the Global Language Monitor analyzes English language usage on social media, the Internet, the blogosphere and in the top 75,000 print and electronic global media sources in order to select the 10 most used terms of the year.

American Dialect Society's 2011 Words of the Year
In its 22nd annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society determined the most useful, creative, unnecessary, outrageous, euphemistic and other words for the 2011 year. This is a fun list!

Most overused LinkedIn profile words of 2011
The online professional network LinkedIn analyzed the resumes of its 135 million users to determine that the term "creative" is most overused term on profiles in the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Dang, creativity is one of my favorite words!

Most Annoying Words of 2011
Once again, the Marist Poll has revealed the word or phrase considered to be the most annoying in casual conversation. For the third consecutive year, “whatever” is the "winner" of this title for 2011.

Top Ten Most Politically Contentious Terms of 2011
The intro sentence says it all: "The year 2011 was tumultuous for politics. With both ends of the political spectrum deeply committed to their ideologies, the rhetoric and vitriol each used to attack the other side’s priorities have been more contentious and polarizing than ever."

Banished Words For 2012
In 1976, Lake Superior State University in Michigan released its first "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness". Here is your list for 2012!

Top Words of 2012 Predictions
The Global Language Monitor not only analyzed the popular words of 2011, it made predictions for what the most-used words of this year might be. Are you prepared to peek into the future of language?

Top 10 True to "Words" of 2011

Thanks to the fun of Wordle, I have discovered how word counts can be interesting when applied over periods of time or publications. For the first time, I have created my own "Top Words of 2011," based on the posts published on True to Words throughout the year. Here they are, in descending order.

1. post
2. language
3. word
4. new
5. year
6. people
7. write
8. time
9. first
10. world

These words make sense, considering this blog covers language and communication topics across geography and time. I look forward to seeing how this list might change in the coming years.

True to Words' Top 10 Posts of 2011

Gotta jump on the bandwagon for end-of-the-Old-Year/beginning-of-the-New-Year blog content. But I like doing these, so nyah! Without further ado, the top 10 most-viewed blog posts for True to Words in 2011.

10. Gender Stereotyping & Word Clouds: A Random Post

One of my attempts at a mini-post, inspired by The Achilles Effect, "Word Cloud: How Toy Ad Vocabulary Reinforces Gender Stereotypes". Eye-opening, for the informal research and for introducing me to how fun word clouds could be.

 9. Bad Ad Placement Example #2

Part of my Blogging New Year's Resolutions for 2011 included doing more "Bad Ad Placement Examples." I did exactly one last year, but it still counts as a continuation of a previous topic, right? Right. This one happened to be placing headlines about Osama Bin Laden's sea burial next to "Catch of a Lifetime" ads for Chevy and an unusually unappetizing ad for a Fish and Chips special.

 8. 27% of Congressional Communication is Taunting

I loved this post about a Harvard University analysis of Congress' language toward each other that showed nearly one-third of their communications are taunting in nature. I would love to see the results of a new analysis, as I think this percentage has gone up significantly, in inverse proportion to how little our "leaders" have accomplished in the meantime.

 7. Got Milk, Got Controversy

All I can say is that a long-running, successful ad campaign took a turn for the sexist last summer and the whole blogosphere was a buzz. Because I had written a piece on the Got Milk? campaign before, of course I had to jump on the bandwagon. If nothing else, I hope this fiasco taught some brands the importance of message testing. Seriously.

 6. Iron Age Hilltop Communication, Recreated

Another blog blurb! Probably the blurbiest one I've ever written. About an unique experiment that "shed light" on how Iron Age people communicated across distances about 2,500 years ago.

 5. Language Barrier: Finger Lickin' Good

A second installment on the Language Barrier series! Another 2011 New Year's Resolution success! This post talks briefly about KFC's 50-year-old successful ad campaign, and how the brand stumbled when it first entered the Chinese market due to a mistranslation of the famous tag line.

 4. Prairie Dogs Use Language to Describe Predators

There have been studies that show humans aren't the only species to have sophisticated language systems. This one talks about how prairie dogs communicate with each other. Really interesting to know that animals can warn each other about danger so specifically!

 3. Body Language: Wordless Communication

A Valentine's day post about a type of communication that talks volumes, but is often overlooked. Indeed, actions truly do speak louder than words!

 2. Friday Photography - New Background Wallpaper

I revamped my blog design in 2011 to more closely reflect the subject matter, as well as my tastes and style. Unfortunately, when I did so, it suddenly looked too much like other people's blogs. So I made my first background wallpaper!

 1. Longest Words in the English Language

This post was so much fun to write, even if it was a formatting nightmare due to some words being longer than a paragraph long. One was so long, I didn't include it in the post, I only linked to it. It is also one of only two posts with the distinction of having been clicked more than any page on True to Words, even the main page! (The other is Friday Photography - Graffiti is Like Modern Day Cave Painting)

There you have it! The top posts for 2011 at True to Words. Can't wait to see what it will be next year!

Honorable Mention: New Online Toy: Scoop.It




Top 10 Posts for True to Words' First Year
True to Words' Top 10 Posts of 2010

Third Anniversary ~ True to Words

Today is the third anniversary of the first post ever published at True to Words. Happy birthday, TTW!