Before You Read

The Dude Map is a visual and interactive text that challenges that idea that word usage or slang is “right” or “wrong.” Instead, the words we use are often bound in

• time (Would you call a friend “Daddy-O”?),
• space (Do you stand “in line” or “on line”?), or
• situation (What would your professor do if you stood up and yelled “Defense!” in the middle of class?)

Introduction by the editors

The Dude Map

by Nikhil Sonnad

View The Dude Map and ask yourself how you could remake this map with different words like Coke, soda, and pop.

What times, spaces, or situations (i.e. contexts) affect the words you use?

Sonnad, Nikhil. “The Dude Map.” The Commons: Tools for Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric (2nd ed.), edited by Jill Parrott and Dominic Ashby, Eastern Kentucky University, 2026.