Hi!
I was wondering if you also use IPA when transcribing a pronunciation of a word. I find it quite useful and is very easy once you get used to "reading" it. I think this is the best way to describe how a word is pronounced. Some examples of IPA would be:

English [ˈɪŋglɪʃ]
forthcoming [fɔːθˈkʌmiŋ]
awkward [ˈɔːkwəd]
sheer [ʃɪəʳ]
threshold [ˈθreʃəʊld]
withstand [wiðˈstænd]

If you don't see these symbols is because your browser is not set correctly :? If you want more information about IPA, you can visit this site: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/ipa-unicode.htm

I have a Merrian-Webster dictionary (a bad one, I suppose ) and they don't use IPA, so I find it quite useless when I want to check the pronunciation of a word since they write things like:
awkward ['o-kw&rd] instead of [ˈɔːkwəd]
I guees this is Ok for natives, but at least for me it is completely useless.

What do you think about it ?