1128: Discourse Markers Jan 10, 2018

One possible way to sound more conversational in writing without necessarily switching into the second person or asking questions is to use what are called 'discourse markers'. These words include 'well', 'oh', 'ya know', 'I mean' etc. (feel free to comment others) and have many functions in a conversation. In addition to indicating the beginning or the end of a piece of dialogue, drawing attention to new information, indicating that the next idea is either reported or otherwise not necessarily facts held confidently, and making sure that someone is listening at all, speaking generally, these discourse markers allow the speaker to show the listener how to interpret the message. These all can help to make a conversation feel more personal not only because they are less formal but also because they convey more information about how the speaker considers the information in the first place. And, oh...well, ya know, you should really check out the Patreon for Word facts: https://www.patreon.com/wordfacts