Crispin Thurlow is Professor of Language and Communication in the Department of English at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

‘In 1956, the French philologist Marcel Cohen suggested that language practices could usefully be understood as a form of work. Finally, decades later, we have a volume which takes up this idea seriously, exploring what language work/language as work tells us about questions of value, the social construction of reality, and social inequality in contemporary conditions. You won’t look at a keyboard – or a pen – the same way after you have read this book.’Monica Heller, Editor of the Journal of Sociolinguistics‘This pioneering volume on the production of high-end wordsmithery explores previously unengaged aspects of the political economy of language. In detailed examinations of the work of journalists, PR writers, marketers, linguists, and others, we see their word-craft in ways that clarify their critical and often invisible roles as semiotic brokers.’ Bonnie Urciuoli, Hamilton College (Emeritus), USA

• List of ContributorsChapter 1 – The (Grubby) Business of Words: What ‘George Clooney’ Tells UsPart 1: Language Work and the Business of WordsChapter 2 – Unequal Language Work(ers) in the Business of WordsChapter 3 – The Linguistic Business of MarketingPart 2: Wordsmiths and Professional Language WorkChapter 4 – Unwriteable Discourse? Co-crafting the Language of Science NewsChapter 5 – Voice Work: Learning About and From Dialect CoachesChapter 6 – EAT, LOVE and Other (Small) Stories: Tellability and Multimodality in Robert Indiana’s Word ArtChapter 7 – Judges as Wordsmiths: Crafting Clarity and Neutrality in Summing-up for JuriesChapter 8 – Making (up) the News: The Artful Language Work of Journalists in ‘Reporting’ TabooPart 3: Linguists and Political Economies of Expertise Chapter 9 – Framing Elite Knowledge in Shifting Linguistic Economies: The Case of Minority Language TranslationChapter 10 – Beyond the Academic ‘But’: The Pleasures and Politics of Collaborative Language Work in the Publishing IndustryChapter 11 – The Commercialisation of Linguistic Expertise in the Asylum Vetting ProcessChapter 12 – Engaging with School Principals as Language Policy WorkersIndex

Crispin Thurlow is Professor of Language and Communication in the Department of English at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

‘In 1956, the French philologist Marcel Cohen suggested that language practices could usefully be understood as a form of work. Finally, decades later, we have a volume which takes up this idea seriously, exploring what language work/language as work tells us about questions of value, the social construction of reality, and social inequality in contemporary conditions. You won’t look at a keyboard – or a pen – the same way after you have read this book.’Monica Heller, Editor of the Journal of Sociolinguistics‘This pioneering volume on the production of high-end wordsmithery explores previously unengaged aspects of the political economy of language. In detailed examinations of the work of journalists, PR writers, marketers, linguists, and others, we see their word-craft in ways that clarify their critical and often invisible roles as semiotic brokers.’ Bonnie Urciuoli, Hamilton College (Emeritus), USA

• List of ContributorsChapter 1 – The (Grubby) Business of Words: What ‘George Clooney’ Tells UsPart 1: Language Work and the Business of WordsChapter 2 – Unequal Language Work(ers) in the Business of WordsChapter 3 – The Linguistic Business of MarketingPart 2: Wordsmiths and Professional Language WorkChapter 4 – Unwriteable Discourse? Co-crafting the Language of Science NewsChapter 5 – Voice Work: Learning About and From Dialect CoachesChapter 6 – EAT, LOVE and Other (Small) Stories: Tellability and Multimodality in Robert Indiana’s Word ArtChapter 7 – Judges as Wordsmiths: Crafting Clarity and Neutrality in Summing-up for JuriesChapter 8 – Making (up) the News: The Artful Language Work of Journalists in ‘Reporting’ TabooPart 3: Linguists and Political Economies of Expertise Chapter 9 – Framing Elite Knowledge in Shifting Linguistic Economies: The Case of Minority Language TranslationChapter 10 – Beyond the Academic ‘But’: The Pleasures and Politics of Collaborative Language Work in the Publishing IndustryChapter 11 – The Commercialisation of Linguistic Expertise in the Asylum Vetting ProcessChapter 12 – Engaging with School Principals as Language Policy WorkersIndex