Writing Wrongs

Series 2 - Episode 7 - Part 1

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions of murder, gang violence, knife crime, and a violent attack on a young pregnant girl. *
This month, Dr Nicci MacLeod and Professor Tim Grant explore the analysis of Urban British English (UBE) in court. In the first of this two-part episode, Tim discusses a case from 2009 in which he analysed chat logs between two Grime music producers, Maniac and Snoopy Montana, who were accused of conspiracy to murder Maniac’s pregnant girlfriend. Tim drew on corpus linguistics to explore the non-standard variety of English the two used in correspondence with one another to better guide the court on the meaning of the language present in the data.
For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit
https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs
Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!
Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensiclinguistic goodies here:
https://medium.com/@AIFLblog
If you have been affected by any of the themes in thisweek’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
https://www.helpguide.org/find-help
Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta
Sound: Mark Round, Sam Cook
Visual design: George Grant
Additional Voices: Frankie Vu, Aston students

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions of murder, gang violence, and knife crime. * 
 
 STOP! This episode is the final part of a special two-part episode. Make sure to listen to part one before enjoying this episode. 
 
In part two of this special on Urban British English (UBE), Dr Nicci MacLeod and Professor Tim Grant discuss Nicci’s role in a 2021 murder case involving the suspect’s use of the term ‘killy’. Despite the prosecution’s expert defining the term as “the feeling of wanting to kill,” Nicci’s deep dive revealed a more common meaning of the term: ‘close friend’.  
  
  
For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs   
  
Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!  
  
Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog   
  
If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:  
  
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/   
https://www.helpguide.org/find-help   
  
Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta  
Sound: Mark Round, Sam Cook  
Visual design: George Grant  
Additional Voices: Frankie Vu, Aston Students 
  
  
Resources  
  
Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer  
  
Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer  
  
Johnathon Green’s Dictionary of Slang: https://greensdictofslang.com/   
  
Linguistic experts as semantic tour guides by Dr Larry Solan: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250014956_Linguistic_experts_as_semantic_tour_guides

Series 2 - Episode 6
* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions ofharassment and stalking. We’ll explore themes related to verbal and emotional abuse, intimate partner abuse, highly offensive communications, and fraud.
Listener discretion is strongly advised, as some content may be distressing. *
 
August 2020, Darlington, North East England. A woman begins to receive vast numbers of abusive messages, which she believes are coming from her ex-partner Stuart Bell. It was not a straightforward matter for the police to establish whether it was Bell who was behind the messages.
Investigating officer Kerris Dawson approached Dr Nicci MacLeod for help.
 Join hosts Professor Tim Grant and Dr Nicci MacLeod in unravelling the linguistic features that contributed to determining the authorship of the abusive messages.
 For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs
 
Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it duringan upcoming episode!
 
Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog
 
If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:
 
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
https://www.helpguide.org/find-help
 
Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta
Sound: Mark Round
Visual design: George Grant
Additional Voices: Mark Round, Sam Guerin
 
With special thanks to Robbie Love.
 
 Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer
 
Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Series 2 - Episode 5
Terror in the State of Denmark - Conversations from a List of Resolutes

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions of religious extremism, radicalization and plots of violence or terrorism. *
 
Joined by Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen, hosts Nicci and Tim discuss a counterterrorism investigation from Denmark. In this case, linguistic analysis proved vital in unraveling implied meanings in text messages between a young man of Kurdish background, suspected of planning to travel to Syria to join ISIS, and another man, suspected of trying to recruit him.
 
Through an analysis of 192 written chat messages from March 2015 between the two individuals, Tanya shares how themes of money, battle and war, and urgency in planning played a role in advancing a Danish police investigation. Listen to discover more.
 
For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs
 
Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!
 
Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog
 
If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
https://www.helpguide.org/find-help
 
Production Team: Angela Walker, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera
Sound: Angela Walker
Visual design: George Grant
Additional Voices: Mark Round, Peter Kiddle
With our thanks to Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen
 
Resources
Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer 
Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer
Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen’s home page: Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen - Research Profile

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions of violent murder, grooming and child sexual abuse, and online extremism. *
 
This month, Writing Wrongs comes to you live as a part of the ESRC 2025 Festival of Social Science, from the West Midlands Police Museum at the Old Steelhouse Lane Lock-up.
Our hosts are joined by colleagues Dr Emily Chiang and Dr Ralph Morton to discuss the past, present, and future of forensic linguistics. This is a preview of their (along with Prof Malcolm Coulthard) forthcoming book titled Forensic Linguistics in the United Kingdom: Origins, Progress and Prospects, which will be available in 2026 from Cambridge Elements.

In the episode (about 40 minutes in) we discuss the Jenny Nicholl case and how their language differs - this is a transcription of the slide that the live audience could see:
·      I am    |    Nicholl’s preference = im    |    Hodgson’s preference  = i am 
·      I have    |    Nicholl’s preference = ive    |    Hodgson’s preference  = ave 
·      my/myself    |    Nicholl’s preference = my/myself        |    Hodgson’s preference  = me/meself  
·      off  |    Nicholl’s preference = off        |    Hodgson’s preference  = of
·      to    |    Nicholl’s preference = [word]2[word]        |    Hodgson’s preference  = [word]2+space[word]
·      see you    |    Nicholl’s preference = cu    |    Hodgson’s preference  = cya
·      phone    |    Nicholl’s preference = fone    |    Hodgson’s preference  = phone
·      shit    |    Nicholl’s preference = shit   |    Hodgson’s preference  = shite
·      am not    |    Nicholl’s preference = ‘m not   |    Hodgson’s preference  = ain’t
 

We were also thrilled to be joined by many of our Wrong’uns (our loving nickname for our fans) for this recording session! It was so lovely to get to meet you and hear your stories. Thank you for your support!
 
For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs
 
Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!
 
Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog
 
If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:
 
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
https://www.helpguide.org/find-help
 
Production Team: Angela Walker, Loretta Milan, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera
Sound: Angela Walker
Visual design: George Grant
Additional Voices: Lesley McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Dana Roemling, Marie Kreft, and Alexander Oldknow
With our thanks to the ESRC and the West Midlands Police Museum, Dr Zoe Adams, Dr Daniela Schneevogt, and Karolina Placzynta
Resources
Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer
 
Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer
 
Dr Emily Chiang’s home page: Emily Chiang - Aston Research Explorer
 
Dr Ralph Morton’s homepage: Ralph Morton - Aston Research Explorer