Hey, Americans ...

[blamebrampton]

Do you ever use forms of cliché other than plain old cliché? Such as clichéd or clichés? I see it used in a manner that I would consider wrong so often that I am wondering if it is one of those wacky idioms that English develops up all around the world. Or it could just be young people today with their emo music and Twittering ...

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh, I HATE utlise/ze. It is such an ugly word. I always mark it up and ask the writer if they really want to construct a tone that reads as dull Public Service?

And yes, I have been merrily marking up the lack of the d and s as error when beta-ing, but then had the sudden realisation that perhaps it was kosher to use cliché for all three forms after all. And I do not like to stamp on words solely because they are Americanisms, as I would miss kosher, persnickety, and several others far too much. Though aluminum and acclimated can sod off ;-)

[suttonwriter.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I HATE utlise/ze. It is such an ugly word. I always mark it up and ask the writer if they really want to construct a tone that reads as dull Public Service?"

I once told a Business Writing class that anyone who used utilize would lose a letter grade from an assignment. Then one of the students pointed out that university policy wouldn't allow me. I've made my peace with it on grounds that at least it's better than utilization.

Just out of curiosity, how hard is it for you as a beta to switch from British to American spellings of words (like utilize/utilise)?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I am mostly good at switching between varieties of English, having to do it all the time for work, but I can find it very traumatising when caught between punctuation styles. You may have noticed that I go through periods of using single or double quotes for speech in my fic: they match exactly with the styles of mags and books I am working on as I simply cannot switch backwards and forwards.

That university had a bad policy, yours was better.

[suttonwriter.livejournal.com]

"That university had a bad policy, yours was better."

It seemed like it at the time, but it doesn't match how language works. Since I want my students to be able to adapt to different situations, I try to avoid making my personal language gripes reasons for lower grades.

That need for adaptation is probably why I've never noticed how you use quotation marks in your fic. It's like using commas with items in a series: some context say put one before the last items, others say no. As long as a writer is consistent and follows the rules of the context in which they write, I try to ignore it. (Plus, I try to read fanfiction for fun, not like an English teacher :) ).