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Re: American English

Subject: Re: American English
From: Al Geist <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:33:11 -0500


Dick Margulis wrote:

Hemang Antani wrote:

Hello all,

I am a technical writer working in India for an Indian software product
company. I am asked to write in "American English".

Can you guide me what is "American English", or "writing for an American
audience".

Is it about use of specific terminologies or about sentence structure or
something else.


I am curious, though, why you applied for and accepted a position that requires a language skill you lack. Was this a result of a simple misunderstanding or did you assert that you had the skill while knowing you did not?



There is another possibility. The employer may not have realized or cared about American English or writing for an American audience, figuring that English is English. If you knew "English" and had an understanding of the programming, then that was good enough. It's like us (Americans) thinking that Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Chilean Spanish is the same as the Spanish spoken in Spain.

Now....if everyone would just speak/write in Esperanto.

Al


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Follow-Ups:

References:
American English: From: Hemang Antani
Re: American English: From: Dick Margulis

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