Yes, there’s much truth in what you say. It can be too easy for people to write us off as dictionaries. Much as one person in a family might become the walking diary ;)

But here’s an interesting turn-around: Where I’m working now, we use a wiki for internal communication. Often, an interesting or tricky grammatical point is posted as a question or discussion point on the wiki. Especially as we have branches in Australia, UK and the States, and recently Poland too, there’s a lot of variety in our grammar and spelling.

And guess what: Of all the points that come up for discussion, the grammatical and spelling ones have the most traffic! It turns out that many many people are really interested in the ins and outs of language. There are quite a few closet linguists who bring up really interesting and obscure aspects of what might seem a simple question. E.g. why do the Americans use “z” where the Ozzies use “s” in words like “organise”. Turns out that even that old chestnut not as simple as it seems. Google it :)

So your tactic of showing people where to find their own answers sounds just right too.

Seeya, Sarah

But yes, sometimes I get the feeling we are a tick in the box for some companies.