Welcome! Formerly known as Libertas et Memoria, this is my blog on law, politics, faith, culture and the joys of the Inland Northwest.
Friday, December 4, 2009
The problem with writing guides
Here's a very interesting critique of one of the oldest and most widely-used writing guides for American English. I have to confess to being a fan of Strunk & White's little book, although I prefer Christopher Lasch's guide Plain Style.
I am so used to British english and now I am getting confuse with the spelling of words. If you really look at my style of writing it would be more of Indian english because I will never be able to perfect either British or American english.
Well, there are other types of English besides British and American English. Filipino English -- spoken by more than 30 million people -- has its own way of doing things. I imagine Indian English -- spoken by at least several hundred million people, I imagine -- has its own way of doing things, and that's a good thing.
Indian English is just as valid a form of English as British or American English. The glory of English is that it is flexible enough to accomodate a variety of different cultures (and hence it becomes more prone to dialects) while remaining for the most part intelligible across the those cultures. British, American, Filipino, Indian -- all those forms of English are still English, but each embodies the brilliance and beauty of the culture in which it lives. Reason #1,354,345 that English rocks as a language!
2 comments:
Hi Mark:)
Very useful information.
I am so used to British english and now I am getting confuse with the spelling of words. If you really look at my style of writing it would be more of Indian english because I will never be able to perfect either British or American english.
Best wishes:)
Joseph
Well, there are other types of English besides British and American English. Filipino English -- spoken by more than 30 million people -- has its own way of doing things. I imagine Indian English -- spoken by at least several hundred million people, I imagine -- has its own way of doing things, and that's a good thing.
Indian English is just as valid a form of English as British or American English. The glory of English is that it is flexible enough to accomodate a variety of different cultures (and hence it becomes more prone to dialects) while remaining for the most part intelligible across the those cultures. British, American, Filipino, Indian -- all those forms of English are still English, but each embodies the brilliance and beauty of the culture in which it lives. Reason #1,354,345 that English rocks as a language!
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