Americans....

[meridian_rose]

I received a review on an older fic - it's always nice to get comments on older fics, and fics in small fandoms, and this was both. However the writer was under the impression that there were "minor spelling and grammar" errors. Now this is a fic that I edited before posting to AO3, but which has never been beta read. So I copied and pasted the AO3 version into Word to have another look.

I found I'd used portacabin when I mean the propriety term Portakabin. Fair enough. Maybe it was because I used some non-standard words within the dialogue, "lemme see" rather than "let me see" as a nod to a character's speech patterns. I couldn't find any other errors. Then I thought, oh-oh.



Changing the text from UK to US in Word showed up a whole lot of "errors", eg favourite, neighbour. However these are not errors in my work. I try to have characters use the correct terms "elevator" rather than "lift", for example, if the character is American. But I'm British, and I write a variety of characters, fandoms, and original works, and I am not going to start spelling words without a u in them "Because America".


Team America: World Police. "It's okay, we got the terrorists!"

Do I need to have the spelt vs spelled debate again?



#yesIknow #notallAmericans #BritishEnglish

Comments

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

Bleh. What a condescending comment, too - 'you'd be good if only you could spell better'? Definitely offensive. Really, after the success of Harry Potter, you'd think we Americans would be more used to British English - although I think I may have both a British and an American spelling version of at least one HP book.

Frankly - as a reader - spelling doesn't bother me so much as improper grammar, and even that I can ignore if it's just one tiny typo.

[meridian_rose]

Oh, yes, being told I'm "doing it wrong" when Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes are so well-known just boggles the mind.

Hi, the way! Glad to see you around again :D Looking forward to the Legendland Battle 20 (even though I'm crushed it's the final one!)

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

Me too (sad it's the last LL battle), but I might not have come back to it otherwise, so happy, too :)

I'm trying to get all my screencaps organized to prepare for any graphics challenges, which is a daunting task!