Dear Hans:

Thank you for including my comments about humor in technical writing and TeeCee in the March issue. I rather think that TeeCee will quickly become the mascot of TC-Forum. ....

Another subject: Spelling. (And this is, perhaps, directed into the hands of my very good long-standing friend, your Language & Style Editor, Ron Blicq.) There are several ways of spelling English – the English/Canadian style, and the American style. Both are correct.

Thirty-four years of producing the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace & Electronic Systems has taught me that a very good way to convey the flavor of the nationality of an author is to permit the variations in spelling and grammatical construction to be reflected in the final journal appearance of a contributed item.

An example: Color vs. Colour. The reader can, perhaps subliminally, conclude from the selected spelling, something very definite about the author.

When I see the word ‘defense’ (American spelling) as ‘defence’ over Tom Warren’s name, it just strikes me as incorrect. I wonder if the editor will change my ‘humor’ to ‘humour’ in the next paragraph! I would be interested in your readers’ comments.

Please also note that I prefer to use the final sentence period outside of the quotation marks for clarity – I know that this may raise some eyebrows, but I feel that [‘humor’.] is clearer than [‘humor.’]

Thank you for listening. I look forward to the next, always interesting, issue.

Dear Hans:

In his letter commenting on editing style in TC-Forum, David Dobson states: "There are several ways of spelling English – the English/Canadian style, and the American style." He is correct, except for one assumption: that Canadian spelling is the same as English (British) spelling.

Editors in Canada are probably affected more by the spelling nuances prevalent in their country than editors in any other English-speaking country. Historically, Canadians learned to spell the British way. But geographically, Canadians have been influenced by their very large and influential neighbour to the south, the United States. In what other country can children say that last year’s teacher insisted they spell ‘harbour with a ‘u’, but this year’s teacher marks them wrong if they insert the ‘u’!

So what do Canadian writers and editors use as a Canadian style guide? If they turn to the Funk and Wagnalls Canadian College Dictionary, they find the spellings are almost entirely US-based. By comparison, if they delve into a very recent arrival on the scene—The Canadian Oxford Dictionary—they find the contentious words are spelled the British way. (However, the C.O.D. does state definitively that words like ‘tire’ [for a wheel] and ‘program’ [without the extra ‘me’] are entrenched in Canadian standard English).

Alternatively, they can turn to the Canadian Press Style Manual, which is used by most newspapers in Canada. But even it contains anomalies, spelling words ending in ‘or/our’ with the American ‘or’ (as in labor and neighbor), and words ending in ‘er/re’ with the British ‘re’ (as in centre and theatre), as if its editors couldn’t reach a consensus!

So what can we do? Personally, I decide where my report, proposal, letter, or article is going, and spell and punctuate it to suit that market. If I am writing to a company in Dallas, Texas, I spell the American way; if I am writing a technical paper for a British or Australian journal, I spell the British way. And if I am writing to an audience entirely within Canada? Until recently I used the Canadian Press Style Manual. However, now The Canadian Oxford Dictionary with its thorough examination of the Canadian language has arrived on the scene, I am encouraged to adopt it as my personal style guide.

So let’s hear from you: I would like some strong arguments in favour of one spelling over the other!