The science of the plot twist. Irregardless. Spug.
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.
The "irregardless" segment was written by Susan Herman, a retired U.S. government multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and instructor.
The "plot twist" segment was written by Vera Tobin, an associate professor of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University. It originally…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.