> Copyediting should reflect how people actually speak and write.
Why? Genuine question. Written language is always different than spoken language, and this is not unique to English. People make mistakes all the time when speaking, particularly native speakers. [0]
Upon initial reading, I would say one -could- say "was" or "were". But when I read it aloud, I found "was" was more natural.
In most situations this isn't that big of a deal, but we are talking about copy editors here...
> how people actually speak and write.
When I grew up religiously reading books, I wrote and spoke a lot more book-like than I do now. Which version of me is "how people actually speak and write"?
Is Standard American English "how people actually speak and write"? Or is it fine to use varieties of English like Appalachian English or African-American Vernacular English?
Who decides the above? English doesn't have a language council like Korean or French. There is no all-authoritative entity to ask.
Why? Genuine question. Written language is always different than spoken language, and this is not unique to English. People make mistakes all the time when speaking, particularly native speakers. [0]
Upon initial reading, I would say one -could- say "was" or "were". But when I read it aloud, I found "was" was more natural.
In most situations this isn't that big of a deal, but we are talking about copy editors here...
> how people actually speak and write.
When I grew up religiously reading books, I wrote and spoke a lot more book-like than I do now. Which version of me is "how people actually speak and write"?
Is Standard American English "how people actually speak and write"? Or is it fine to use varieties of English like Appalachian English or African-American Vernacular English?
Who decides the above? English doesn't have a language council like Korean or French. There is no all-authoritative entity to ask.
[0]: /r/boneappletea is both humorous and infuriating for examples of this. https://www.reddit.com/r/BoneAppleTea/comments/doscha/starch...