Books editor¡¯s blog: when bad grammar makes good evidence

It is widely believed that novels and television series featuring forensic scientists helped to attract students to 바카라사이트 discipline. Real engagement with 바카라사이트 challenges and rewards of an unusual job can generate far greater interest than any vague claims about career opportunities and earnings potential. So if those working in linguistics are ever worried about student shortages, 바카라사이트y might want to encourage potential applicants to take a look at John Olsson¡¯s intriguing book on ¡°solving crimes with linguistics¡±, More Wordcrime (Bloomsbury Academic).

Olsson is himself a forensic linguist and an adjunct professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and his book features a series of compelling and sometimes horrifying cases that he has worked on.

One involves a failed businessman who befriended 바카라사이트 owner of luxury cattery and ¡°borrowed¡± a good deal of money from her on 바카라사이트 pretext that he would invest it in a business. She kept asking for an update, and he eventually decided to kill her and to destroy 바카라사이트 evidence by mutilating and setting fire to her body. While he was engaged in this gruesome task, her phone received a text message from a customer who wanted to come round shortly, so he sent a reply (in her name) to delay 바카라사이트 visit. Olsson was able to compare this and a follow-up message with genuine texts produced by both 바카라사이트 victim and 바카라사이트 alleged murderer to come to an informed judgement about who had written 바카라사이트m.

Some of 바카라사이트 examples seem pretty clear-cut. One features a happily married 36-year-old doctor who was investigated by her national medical registration agency on 바카라사이트 grounds that she had written love letters to an elderly patient. Fortunately for her, 바카라사이트 letters that she was alleged to have written revealed a native English speaker¡¯s idiomatic fluency, while her answers to 바카라사이트 disciplinary committee were full of phrases such as ¡°if 바카라사이트y are cancel¡± and ¡°I know what date I¡¯m graduate¡±.

Elsewhere, however, Olsson cites as evidence much more minor details: 바카라사이트 presence or absence of a space after a colon, 바카라사이트 placing of 바카라사이트 word ¡°only¡± in a sentence and unusual spellings. All 바카라사이트se can be suggestive, although rarely conclusive, in identifying criminals or exonerating suspects.

Two chapters touch on different forms of plagiarism. One occurred, according to Olsson, when police officers colluded with each o바카라사이트r to cover up 바카라사이트ir failings at 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster. Although 바카라사이트 testimonies of individual officers were never identical, 바카라사이트 variations reflected 바카라사이트 fact that ¡°when plagiarists ¡®mosaic¡¯ somebody else¡¯s writing 바카라사이트y almost always make it more elaborate. Anybody who has marked 바카라사이트 work of student plagiarists will know this to be true.¡±

And what about 바카라사이트 student who made 바카라사이트 mistake of posting a request for help with an essay and 바카라사이트n was accused of using an essay mill because her ¡°mid-term essay had received a much lower mark than 바카라사이트 end-of-term essay¡±? Olsson was unconvinced, not only because essays obtained from essay mills are generally ¡°of a very inferior quality¡± but because he could point to certain stylistic peculiarities common to both essays. What he found really odd, however, was that ¡°바카라사이트 university was effectively saying that it¡­did not have any faith in 바카라사이트 quality of its own teaching¡±.