Big picture?

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Because I wrote my doctoral thesis on communicative patterns in a digital subculture. 

The research methods I used to collect my data for that project, and the layered sociolinguistic and anthropological analytical strategies I employed to draw my conclusions, have broad applicability for a number of contexts.

 

Here are two of the big ones: 

• the instruction of rhetoric (e.g., teaching college writing, which I do a lot)

and

• marketing/PR (if you want to define an audience, anthropology is your best friend; if you want to examine how they communicate in order to engage them more effectively, you're going to want some linguistics)​

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My "brand" name is a Sherlock Holmes joke –– he's a "consulting detective," and Scotland Yard calls on him when there's a mystery their team can't solve. 

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I'm a consulting academic. I teach college courses, but only part-time. In-between, I'm here for all those gnarly mysteries of communication –– in the classroom, in the comments, at the keyboard –– that have you scratching your head.