From a reviewers point of view

[sapper]

As a reviewer I get to look at numerous amounts of websites, forums and blog, all these have one or two things in common, and they are a real bugbear to me, even this site suffers from it in parts, so lets get a few things aired and dry.

Capitalisation
Capitalisation should only take place at the start of a sentence, or when a noun is used, for those who have not studied "real English", a noun is the name of person, place or thing.
So using a capital in the middle of a sentence for any other reason (other than as an acronym), is very poor grammar, so can we please see an end to "This Is My Topic", and "Lets Get Ready" styles please.

Justification
Justification is the means by which all the words are neatly lined up to one edge, it was first used in accounting, and book writing, most languages in the west are LH justified, not many languages are RH justified, none are centered, the other type of justification if "full", that is both edges of the document are neat and in straight line, not like this forum, doing this makes long passages of text easier to read, that's why it is used in books and columns of newpapers.

Spelling
The language we use is English, not American, it is English, it was developed in England from Saxon and Olde English, the language itself has imports from France, Germany and Latin, yet our colonial cousins across the water still insist on being different and using a "z" instead of an "s" as in criticise, they also insist on moving "e's" to where they shouldn't be as in "theater" instead of "theatre", using American style spelling is again in my eyes poor grammar, and if you use it, as far as I am concerned it is spelling mistake and is treated as such in reviews !.

Sapper has various qualifications in English language and English literature

 

[master412160]

Very nice post Sapper! +rep.

 

[VirusZero]

While I agree that the language is indeed titled English, I find it poor form to dictate whether one should use the "American" or "European" English. (Unless of course you are in an English class in either the USA or England. In which case then yes, it is proper to correct people. Otherwise? keep it to yourself because it is not an issue. If you want to make it an issue then the issue is yours and no one elses.) The meanings of the words, in my personal experience, do not change if you write "realise" as opposed to "realize". And both are legitimately recognised forms of the English language. To decide to attempt to enforce one standard or the other for all, I think, is asinine.


Being a Canadian myself and having been taught the European English, yet being so close the the American English I find that sometimes when I am writing a post I do slip and place a "z" instead of an "s" and I do not feel this to be a huge issue on a forum/blog. I'm neither in an academic setting nor a professional capacity so extremely high standards are not of utmost importance. (If I were writing my important documents though I would then pick a style and use it consistently for all documents. But which style I picked would not largely matter to me because I am fairly comfortable with both.) Legibility and flexibility, however, are important to me. Especially given the fact that my audience is global and so I want people to feel comfortable using whichever they prefer so I'm not about to make one or the other compulsory for sake of appearance.

 

[Gytix]

I tend to agree with you in some senses Sapper, one word that usually gets me annoyed is "Colour" & "Color", I'm not sure why; but American spellings annoy me for some reason. It's just unnecessary to change them, of course people grew up in America learning it that way, but it's just so pointless.

 

[Hissae2]

While I agree that the language is indeed titled English, I find it poor form to dictate whether one should use the "American" or "European" English. (Unless of course you are in an English class in either the USA or England. In which case then yes, it is proper to correct people. Otherwise? keep it to yourself because it is not an issue. If you want to make it an issue then the issue is yours and no one elses.) The meanings of the words, in my personal experience, do not change if you write "realise" as opposed to "realize". And both are legitimately recognised forms of the English language. To decide to attempt to enforce one standard or the other for all, I think, is asinine.


Being a Canadian myself and having been taught the European English, yet being so close the the American English I find that sometimes when I am writing a post I do slip and place a "z" instead of an "s" and I do not feel this to be a huge issue on a forum/blog. I'm neither in an academic setting nor a professional capacity so extremely high standards are not of utmost importance. (If I were writing my important documents though I would then pick a style and use it consistently for all documents. But which style I picked would not largely matter to me because I am fairly comfortable with both.) Legibility and flexibility, however, are important to me. Especially given the fact that my audience is global and so I want people to feel comfortable using whichever they prefer so I'm not about to make one or the other compulsory for sake of appearance.

I completely agree. Both are correct in a worldwide forum. If you're restricting members to one specific country then you can correct them but forcing American members to use British grammar will just push them away. +rep to you VZ.

I am disappointed to learn you take points away from people in reviews for using a spelling just as correct just because you use the other. That's not right.

 

[Gytix]

Put it this way, as long as people use correct grammar, where ever their from it's perfectly ok; even if it annoys "me" that's not to say it's wrong.

 

[Geoffrey]

Good post, capitalization errors are one thing that bug the crap out of my on forums and in forum descriptions especially.

And some countries actually write with RH justification? I can't imagine writing right justified. lol.

 

[CyberFreak]

In my opinion, the use of UK English and US English is not an issue. People should use whatever one they use where they live and therefore the one they are most comfortable with. I think consistency is more important. Some sites (including us) have areas where both are used. This is a problem of having staff from locations where they use different versions of English.

 

[sapper]

In my opinion, the use of UK English and US English is not an issue. People should use whatever one they use where they live and therefore the one they are most comfortable with. I think consistency is more important. Some sites (including us) have areas where both are used. This is a problem of having staff from locations where they use different versions of English.

If I see a .co.uk site then I expect English spellings, if it is a .com or .net, then I look at where the domain is registered, if it is a UK registration then again I expect English (UK) spelling.

 

[Richard Hayes]

But what if certain staff on a British site (under your terms) are American and are taught in their schools American English, which to them is a correct form of spelling do you still knock points off as if you do it is pretty harsh even from me.

The world is becoming a smaller place and the English language is changing to adapt to the times and I feel it is very trivial to pick points for using American English.

Question to your TL, in the reviewers guidelines is a reviewer allowed to knock points of depending on how someone spells something and the sites country of origin, if I was to request a review and an American writer wrote something but I lost points because it was in American English I would not be best pleased.

As an ex-reviewer it is a hard enough job trying to do reviews while being honest and fair without going this OTT. You are just making a rod for your own back here.

 

[Jake]

Man....
Didn't know the review team was turning as bad as some other people that I know here (not mentioning names). Let's go back a few years! Please?! 🙁

 

[Gytix]

Isn't the domain registered in Co. Louth, Ireland?
In which case, shouldn't we be speaking Irish?

 

[Jake]

^ LOL.

I enjoyed that.

 

[sapper]

Reviews are an opinion, we do not work on a points system, that was stopped because we though the points system was unfair and difficult to use, the star system we have now is a lot fairer.

To be honest when doing reviews there are a lot more important things to consider than the amount of spelling or grammar mistakes, and generally the comment would only be "grammar and spelling is generally good/bad/poor/" and a couple of instances would be pointed out, I can't remember pointing out an American spelling as an instance of a spelling "mistake".

As I said IMO there are for more serious things out there to worry about with sites, American spelling is just a real bugbear to me, one because it is called "English" and it's not, and Two because Americans think it's the "correct" way to spell certain words, and it's not.

 

[sapper]

But what if certain staff on a British site (under your terms) are American and are taught in their schools American English, which to them is a correct form of spelling do you still knock points off as if you do it is pretty harsh even from me.


The world is becoming a smaller place and the English language is changing to adapt to the times and I feel it is very trivial to pick points for using American English.

Question to your TL, in the reviewers guidelines is a reviewer allowed to knock points of depending on how someone spells something and the sites country of origin, if I was to request a review and an American writer wrote something but I lost points because it was in American English I would not be best pleased.

As an ex-reviewer it is a hard enough job trying to do reviews while being honest and fair without going this OTT. You are just making a rod for your own back here.

American English came about due to the illiteracy of the pioneers, and the amount of races that colonised the USA in it's formative years. Or so I was taught.

 

[Migi]

As a person studying English from a country not using English as the mother tongue, I personally don't mind as a member or as a reviewer. As long as the message gets through the visitors and members, usage of American English or British English is fine. I'm more biased to use American English as that is what I was taught of I believe. I learned more through internet, and that was a good learning. Other than that, no problem. No one is perfect with grammar, I am included too, so at least in this part I can overlook it.

It is a matter of opinions, after all. 😉

 

[Deleted member 1609]

Good post, capitalization errors are one thing that bug the crap out of my on forums and in forum descriptions especially.

And some countries actually write with RH justification? I can't imagine writing right justified. lol.

Many languages like Hebrew and Arabic are read and written right to left.

 

[Tressy]

Just like some other members, I don't think American or British spelling matters a lot as long as it is consistent. I use British spelling myself because it's what we're taught to use, but I have friends who use American spelling as well.

 

[Leon.]

Unless you are multiple personalities, though, the title should correctly read: "From a reviewer's point of view". Of course, even if you were multiple personalities, the apostrophe would be necessary after the s.

...

Sorry :# I had to. But in all honesty, I agree with you that spelling and proper grammar are important.

 

[sapper]

Unless you are multiple personalities, though, the title should correctly read: "From a reviewer's point of view". Of course, even if you were multiple personalities, the apostrophe would be necessary after the s.

...

Sorry :# I had to. But in all honesty, I agree with you that spelling and proper grammar are important.

Interesting thought, in this case "reviewers" is possessive so an apostrophe is not needed, an apostrophe should only be used to indicate a missing word or letter, to indicate the possessive, or in the case of unusual words.
By not using it, in this case, I grammatically correct