Lucy Ferriss is writer-in-residence emerita at Trinity College, in Connecticut.
Stories by This Author
The Review | Essay
How educators around the world keep hope alive in a hopeless place.
Lingua Franca
Very few American college students grasp fundamental concepts like the difference between the past perfect and the imperfect, says Lucy Ferriss. Should language teachers skip all that?
Lingua Franca
Lucy Ferriss, teaching in France, examines a phrase that, like woke or like in America, has infiltrated everyday speech.
Lingua Franca
Lucy Ferriss applauds the sentences of Flaubert, Solnit, and Stein: They create for the reader not just an understanding of an idea, but the emotions that accompany the idea.
Lingua Franca
Lucy Ferriss reflects on how women talk, and are talked about, and why men who exhibit the same speech characteristics don’t get as much criticism.
Lingua Franca
If you thought of Shakespeare, as Lucy Ferriss did, he indeed used the phrase, but it’s medieval, and the worm may not be the invertebrate you think it is.
Lingua Franca
Kentucky’s governor mocks the study of French as career preparation. Maybe what bothers him, writes Lucy Ferriss, is the opportunity to open doors beyond a job description.
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Examining the emoji wardrobe, Lucy Ferriss finds it surprisingly female-oriented. Why not make it less sexist for men, too?
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Is a fixer a good guy or a bad guy? Lucy Ferriss looks at the history of the word, which she always thought of as pejorative. In 2018, it no longer raises eyebrows.
Lingua Franca
Can we flip “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia” to read, “I see the reason why it would be Russia”? Lucy Ferriss doesn’t think we can. It’s like claiming that “she is not unhappy” means she is happy.