Rejected for use of non-American English

[Crew Cut]

Is anyone else having this problem?

My stories are consistently getting rejected for use of non-American English.

The latest example is I have been informed that "Counsellor" is spelt Counselor, "counselling" is spelt "counseling".

Not where I come from. It is standard English and Australian English to use a double "l" in both those words (and others, eg jewellery".

Obviously my computer is set to Australian English.

Is it a policy of this site that stories can only be posted in American-version English?

 

[FlyontheWall99]

I don't know if it is policy that all submissions have to be in American English, but from a non-American I can simply say, change your dictionary over on your word processor and spell check it in American English. Easy ....

I write in English-English (errr???) but before I submit I change over the WP dictionary and change the spelling. It usually isn't too much of an extra burden. I've always submitted in American English because I always figured that was the site grounding .....

Back to writing .....

Fly ....

Oh yeah, to answer your question, no never been rejected for not using American English ....

 

[oggbashan]

I write all my stories in British English and I have never had a problem with submitting stories.

I do state on my profile that I write in British English. Perhaps you could put a header on your stories "This story is in Australian English, mate. Take it as it is or you are a drongo."

You will have to update the slang because I left Australia forty years ago and still read Banjo Paterson and C J Dennis. I prefer C J Dennis' National Anthem to "Advance Australia Fair".

Og

 

[Chicklet]

I do state on my profile that I write in British English. Perhaps you could put a header on your stories "This story is in Australian English, mate. Take it as it is or you are a drongo."

This is a good idea.

Crew Cut, think of this, though...if Laurel put your story up with your Australian-English, and most people who read your story were from the USA, you've got two problems. 1) your readers are hardly literate so every word with the double L looks wrong to them and 2) they're too crass not to send you fifty feedback emails each from "anonymous" telling you how bad a speller you are while spelling each word wrong: "U r a vry bad speeler. By a dicktonary."

= )

The header is a good idea. If Laurel still doesn't want the Australian-English after your header, then switching your processor to American-English or English-English is a good idea. It'll just spell check the words it wants to, you go about your business, and have a good day.

Hope I'm helpful at all. Doubting it though.

-Chicklet

 

[darkmaas]

I've been posting stories and poems in Canadian English and never had one rejected. I wouldn't counsel adjusting your spelling (any more than adjusting your accent), but a note in the little box at the bottom of the submission form should set things right.

darkmaas

 

[gauchecritic]

Just judging by some of the dreck that gets through. And some English-as-a-second-language stuff that manages it too, I really can't believe that a story would be rejected on spelling grounds. Does the rejection specify this? Click the tab to find out.

Gauche

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Chances are...

it had nothig to do with what type of English you wrote in, in terms of it having to be American English, but was more rooted in some misunderstanding. Perhaps Laurel was unfamilair with the rules of grammar that apply to whatever English you write in and mistook the differences in spelling as poor spelling or editing and refused the story on those grounds.

 

[Alex De Kok]

Dialect

I doubt it's the language, because the lovely Laurel accepted my Geordie-dialect piece. Of course it does have my second-worst score (apart from my one and only poem, about which the less said the better).

Alex

 

[PAUL C]

no problems here

I always write in English-English and have never had a problem with getting a story posted.

My oral tapes, well that's another matter.

 

[Quasimodem]

Laurel not only accepted my Canadian-English, which I appreciated.
She also accepted some of my personal spelling foibles, which I could have done without.

 

[pop_54]

Hmmmmmmmm

I'm with most of you here, never had a problem, I think laurel is very accommodating of other written dialects of English, as Quasi said she must be the minor errors of mine that have made the board.

By the way Quas I always thought Canadians used proper English more than anything near US version, appart from a few slang items I'd have thought Ausie English would be about the same.

Having said all this of course I do get the occasional feedback telling me my story was too British for someone's liking.
If they leave an addy I just politely reply, "It's because that's where the characters live".

I've never yet, neither will I ever change my way of writing or spelling to please any one group of people though, if they don't like English, tough shit.

 

[MlledeLaPlumeBleu]

I wrote an entire piece in dialect- Alabama, so thick you could quarter it, dredge it and tump it in a dutch oven for the fry-down- and it went over fine.

I think the disclaimer is the key to the city. I clearly stated at the beginning that spelling errors were intentional.


mlle

 

[MathGirl]

I write all my stories in British English and I have never had a problem with submitting stories.

Dear Ogue,
I find it interesting that Crew's story got rejected for "non-American English." There was a 'writer' on here recently who was from India and wrote some sort of Indian celebrity erotica, or some such. I looked at one of his stories, and it was .... unusual. The English language was treated rather harshly: E.g. drawn, quartered, beheaded, and a stake driven into its heart.

If something like that could be accepted, I must wonder if something more than "non-American English" was involved in the rejection of Crew's story.
MG
Ps. Around here, if a writer puts a few sheep and a garderobe into his story, it's automatically accepted. It has universal appeal, much like a story about a boy and his dog or a picture of a basket of kittens.

 

[destinie21]

I think the disclaimer is the key to the city. I clearly stated at the beginning that spelling errors were intentional.


mlle

course you'd have to put in a disclaimer otherwise they might just think you're some unlearned cousin marrying back woods yokel instead of the tongue in cheek laguage maestro that you are.

pS: this is a disclaimer. I have nothing against unlearned cousin marrying back woods yokels. Nor their lifestyle.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I write in Swedish English, and my stories are usually accepted.
*knocks on wood*