Re: Who is an ESL writer?

[Richard Hamilton <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net>]

On Mar 29, 2013, at 3:00 PM, McLauchlan, Kevin wrote:

> So, if I was writing with homegrown spelling (favour, colour, metre, theatre, and many more), rather than following my employer's style for USA spelling (and a really indefensible positioning of terminal punctuation with respect to closing quotation marks, but don't get me started) would you label me as ESL?
> 
No, I'd label you as someone who can't/won't follow his employer's style:-). Seriously, though, this helps to point up the vagueness of the term ESL. It seems to me that it should probably only be used to describe courses for people who truly are studying English as their second (or third...) language.

BTW, I agree with you on punctuation and quotation marks. American English is inconsistent and indefensible on that point. So, I'll agree to change to that style as soon as the British agree get the order right on that whole "re" "er" thing and get rid of all those excess 'U's:-).

Cheers,
Richard
-------
XML Press
XML for Technical Communicators
http://xmlpress.net
hamilton -at- xmlpress -dot- net


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