The Science of the Plot Twist. Irregardless. Spug.

<p>954.  Uh-oh, "irregardless" isn’t going away anytime soon. Take a deep breath while we dig into this hated word’s history, from its first appearance in 1795 to today. And then, do you love a good plot twist? In honor of National Novel Writing Month, we look at the psychology of surprises in fiction.</p><p>The "irregardless" segment was written by<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-herman-752aa5220/"> Susan Herman</a>, a retired U.S. government multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and instructor.</p><p>The "plot twist" segment was written by <a href="https://veratobin.org/">Vera Tobin</a>, an associate professor of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-the-plot-twist-how-writers-exploit-our-brains-95748">It originally appeared on The Conversation</a> and appears here through a Creative Commons license.</p><p>|<strong> Transcript:</strong> https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/irregardless/transcript</p><p>| <a href="https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/subscribe">Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates</a>.</p><p>| <a href="https://j.mp/3oooKmK">Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.</a></p><p>| <a href="https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/grammar-girl-s-peeve-wars">Peeve Wars card game</a>. </p><p>| <a href="https://bit.ly/GrammarPopBooks">Grammar Girl books</a>. </p><p>| HOST: Mignon Fogarty</p><p>| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or <a href="https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl">https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl</a></p><p>| Grammar Girl is part of <a href="https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/podcasts">the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network</a>.</p><ul><li>Audio Engineer: Nathan Semes</li><li>Director of Podcast: Brannan Goetschius</li><li>Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson</li><li>Marketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina Tomlin</li><li>Digital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings</li></ul><p>| Theme music by <a href="https://dashboard.simplecast.com/accounts/dd74e7bd-f654-43a6-b249