ABSTRACT
If forensic linguistics was to be summarized in one sentence, it would be that it is the science of author identification. Even people who have not heard of an idiolect, have experienced its power. It can be felt in the fact that, at times, one can pick up the phone and within a few words know who is speaking. While crucial for forensic linguistics, the idea of an idiolect is not always universally endorsed, within the discipline, which can be quite a conundrum. In time, the uses of forensic linguistics were expanded to include analyses of ransom notes, phone calls, appeals to the public, and communications claimed to be by missing persons, among many others. Many good reasons exist to focus on these not only as loci of investigation but also as elements of further study to fine-tune the techniques.
