US/UK English?

[PennieJ]

Hello there...

I am new to Constant Content and am enjoying the learning curve! I had an article rejected today and one of the issues (although I freely admit there were proofing mistakes ) was the spelling of the word "unrivaled" (or "unrivalled" as I initially wrote - the accepted spelling here in the UK), which led me to wonder if I have to write exclusively in US English? I notice there are content requests from UK clients.

Would it be prudent for me to err on the side of caution and set my spellchecker to US English for CC articles in future?

Also I was admonished for the use of the word "noughties", which was referred to as a "joke term". The word is in common usage here in the UK (even in respected broadsheet publications such as the Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6466 ... hties.html) should I therefore assume that this is not the case across the English speaking world? How do I check which words are acceptable and which are not, can anyone offer me a good rule of thumb to go by in future?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[JD]

Pennie

Welcome! Sorry to hear that your first article was rejected. I'm not too sure why the word 'noughties' was referred to as a 'joke term', as it's included in the online Oxford dictionary (although you'll see that it says it's 'chiefly British', which may have led to the editor thinking that it's not widely used in any sort of 'serious' way): http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entr ... _gb0566670

You can write articles in UK English provided you remain consistent throughout, which from what you say you did!

Maybe the editor who reviewed your article didn't realise you were writing in UK English, hence the rejection for the words 'unrivalled' and 'noughties'. I'm wondering if you should perhaps include a note in the short summary with your next submission highlighting the fact that the article is written in UK English...?

Stick with it. Good luck.

Jane

[PennieJ]

Thanks for the reply Jane - thinking about it I did use the term 'vacation' in the piece, which is more of an American term - so I suppose was not consistent and can see how the confusion arose... much appreciated! Will work hard to get the next one to pass muster