Welcome Wrong’uns to this special episode of Writing Wrongs in conjunction with another Aston Originals podcast: CorpusCast with Dr Robbie Love!

Nicci, Tim, and Robbie revisit some of Writing Wrongs’ bestclips involving corpus linguistics. Take a trip down memory lane as our hosts call back to S1E3, S1E7, S2E1&2, and S2E6&7, and grill Dr Love about the ins and outs of the use of corpus tools in forensic linguistics.

Erratum: Robbie's upcoming performance of We Will Rock You is at the Alexandra Theatre, not the Hippodrome as Nicci mistakenly says. Tickets available here.

VOTE FOR US IN THE TRUE CRIME AWARDS 2026!

For a list of our sources and more informationabout this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at writingwrongs@aston.ac.ukand 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

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Prof Malcolm Coulthard, Dr Issy Clarke, Dr Andrea Nini

With our thanks to Dr Robbie Love

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant- Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: NicciMacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Robbie Love's home page: Robbie Love - Aston Research Explorer

*Warning: this episode contains potentially distressing discussions*

In the series finale, Nicci and Tim will be answering some of the questions that you have been sending in over the course of Season 2. From general questions about forensic linguistics to a deep dive into past episodes, we will be reviewing what season 2 has been about.

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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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

Visual design: George Grant

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Resources

* 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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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 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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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

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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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