Ultimate Unofficial Guide

[ER <ression@hotmail.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "psychic_serpent wrote 

> I have only found a few odd things here and there in the American 
> editions, and when I checked them against my UK editions I found 
> that it was because of an awkward "translation" from British 
> to "American."

Styles are different, aren't they. The one I notice is the US "go get 
it" versus the UK "go and get it". We were taught to put the 
conjunction in. Do they take them out for the American editions?

>  If there 
> is some awkwardness in her British English, I need to bow to a Brit 
> to sniff that out.  It looks fine to me.

Seems fine to me too, though I'm no expert (hated English at school, 
hey I'm English, why would I want to take lessons in the damn thing :)

> 
> Well, I don't know about "talking down."  But I do think you're 
> making an assumption that the problem is with the schools in a 
given 
> country rather than with the individuals involved.  As one of the 
> people screening fanfiction for Fiction Alley (FA), I can testify 
> that I see just as many British English submissions with 
incorrectly 
> used apostrophes as American submissions. 

Absolutely - folk are much of a muchness all over the world. Though 
standards are slipping here (the UK) - I think it's because the 
people who are now teachers (sorry, education facilitators) are from 
the generation who were taught that spelling and grammar were not 
that important. So they don't understand it! I didn't enjoy it, but 
the teachers drummed it into me.


> I do agree with you that incorrect use of apostrophes has become a 
> rampant problem in many English-speaking countries.  At FA we 
> finally classifed this type of error as an "Unforgivable," meaning 
> that only a handful of this sort of error is necessary to doom 
>one's submission.

Greengrocers' apostrophes have been with us forever - "Apple's 2/6 a 
pound".


> I've also seen dreadful things in my local newspaper, the multi-
> Pulitzer-Prize-winning Philadelphia Inquirer).

It's spreading to major UK newspapers (e.g. The Times) - it's easy to 
see that many of them are using computer proof-reading now.

And on that theme, my favourite booboo in FanFiction comes from a 
story that had Harry and Hermione "sharing a picture of pumpkin 
juice". Don't you love computers :))


ER