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British vs. American Spelling – Finding a Consistent Scholarly Voice in PhD Theses

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Oct 26, 2021 | PhD Success | 0 |

Chapter 5: Finding Your Scholarly Voice in Correct and Consistent Written English  

Most students who have advanced to the level of doctoral research will have a good idea of what scholarly prose should be – you may already, for instance, have published articles in reputable scholarly journals before beginning your doctoral research. However, a doctoral thesis places new demands on an author: the thesis is, for one, almost certainly the longest piece of writing you have ever attempted, so you will need to sustain an argument over several chapters and bring it to an appropriate conclusion. This involves introducing many factual details and threads of thought and tying them together in a variety of intellectually productive ways, and it also requires deep, logical and creative thinking. It will necessitate variations in your writing style to avoid prose that is repetitious and potentially dull to readers, but must nonetheless remain professional, clear and correct as well as maintaining consistency across numerous details. Whether English is your first language and you consider yourself an aficionado of formal writing or not, this chapter will prove helpful by providing you with advice on a number of matters that academic and scientific writers of English prose tend to find particularly challenging. It relies upon the best style guides and the general expectations associated with academic and scientific writing at the doctoral level and beyond. For further assistance with various aspects of scholarly writing, the open-access Purdue Online Writing Lab (1995–2015) may prove particularly helpful.

Depending on your English language skills and your confidence in them, you may want to use the information in this chapter as a guide to correct style while you write up your thesis or you may wish to consult it only after your thesis is drafted to ensure that you have not incorporated incorrect, inconsistent or otherwise problematic elements in your writing. Whatever the case may be, this and the following three chapters should be used in conjunction with the first part of this book on the requirements and progressive writing of a thesis, with the principles outlined here applied to the writing-up process as necessary. These chapters [1] are not intended to replace any university or department guidelines you are required to observe or any style guides recommended by those guidelines and/or your thesis committee, but they may well provide details and present options for resolving problematic matters not covered by such guidance. Accuracy is certainly the central key to much of what I have to say in these chapters, but if anything could be called an appropriate mantra to keep in mind as you write, it is ‘consistency, consistency, consistency.’

[1] Please note that some information and examples in Parts II and III of this book on writing formal scholarly English, formatting and presenting academic and scientific prose in appropriate ways, producing consistent and complete bibliographical references and using effective techniques for integrating direct quotations have been borrowed and adapted from Olson 2014a and especially Olson 2014b.

5.1 British versus American Spelling

There are two main forms of formal English: British and American. A thesis written in English should use one of these forms consistently, and university or department guidelines (or the style guides they recommend) may indicate which form of English is most acceptable. However, many doctoral candidates whose first language is not English and even some whose first language is may not be aware of the nature and extent of the variations between the two forms. Setting the default language to either British or American in a word-processing program such as Word can be helpful for catching and correcting many words, but this is far from foolproof. Most good English dictionaries will note spelling variations, but some dictionaries do not indicate in all cases whether the spelling variants provided are determined by the differences between British and American English. I therefore present the following list (based primarily on Butcher et al., 2006, and Ritter, 2005) as a guide to the most common variants.

The list above is by no means exhaustive or conclusive and, as its examples demonstrate, there can be considerable overlap in usage, with each form of English using the spellings more common to the other at times. However, if this list is consulted in conjunction with a good British or American dictionary that notes the variants common in the other form of English, most uncertainties can be resolved. If you find that certain words you need to use in your thesis prove especially problematic simply because it is impossible to decide which spelling is British and which is American even after consulting dictionaries and whatever additional online help might be available, there is a good chance that the spelling variants are not specifically linked to either form of English and so can be used in both. In such cases, the goal is to adopt and use one form of each word consistently throughout the thesis. Beyond the spelling variants listed above, there are a number of usages that vary between British and American English. Examples include ‘different from’ versus ‘different than,’ ‘got’ versus ‘gotten,’ ‘hire’ versus ‘rent,’ ‘petrol’ versus ‘gas(oline),’ ‘mobile’ versus ‘cell (phone),’ ‘first-year student’ versus ‘freshman’ and ‘aeroplane’ versus ‘airplane’ (with the British form first in each case). For some of these terms, an additional concern is whether or not the intended audience will understand them. Most academic and scientific work is written in the twenty-first century with at least the possibility of international readers in mind, so it can be helpful to use a term that will be universally understood (‘mobile phone,’ for instance, instead of ‘mobile’ or ‘cell’) or to provide a brief explanation on first use (that ‘petrol’ in Britain, for example, is the fuel known as ‘gas’ or ‘gasoline’ in the United States).

Why PhD Success?

To Graduate Successfully

This article is part of a book called "PhD Success" which focuses on the writing process of a phd thesis, with its aim being to provide sound practices and principles for reporting and formatting in text the methods, results and discussion of even the most innovative and unique research in ways that are clear, correct, professional and persuasive.

The assumption of the book is that the doctoral candidate reading it is both eager to write and more than capable of doing so, but nonetheless requires information and guidance on exactly what he or she should be writing and how best to approach the task. The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples.

The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples. PhD Success provides guidance for students familiar with English and the procedures of English universities, but it also acknowledges that many theses in the English language are now written by candidates whose first language is not English, so it carefully explains the scholarly styles, conventions and standards expected of a successful doctoral thesis in the English language.

Individual chapters of this book address reflective and critical writing early in the thesis process; working successfully with thesis supervisors and benefiting from commentary and criticism; drafting and revising effective thesis chapters and developing an academic or scientific argument; writing and formatting a thesis in clear and correct scholarly English; citing, quoting and documenting sources thoroughly and accurately; and preparing for and excelling in thesis meetings and examinations. 

Completing a doctoral thesis successfully requires long and penetrating thought, intellectual rigour and creativity, original research and sound methods (whether established or innovative), precision in recording detail and a wide-ranging thoroughness, as much perseverance and mental toughness as insight and brilliance, and, no matter how many helpful writing guides are consulted, a great deal of hard work over a significant period of time. Writing a thesis can be an enjoyable as well as a challenging experience, however, and even if it is not always so, the personal and professional rewards of achieving such an enormous goal are considerable, as all doctoral candidates no doubt realise, and will last a great deal longer than any problems that may be encountered during the process.

Interested in Proofreading your PhD Thesis? Get in Touch with us

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Rene Tetzner

Rene Tetzner's blog posts dedicated to academic writing. Although the focus is on How To Write a Doctoral Thesis, many other important aspects of research-based writing, editing and publishing are addressed in helpful detail.

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American English vs. British English in Research Manuscripts: A Free Guide

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This free guide provides an overview of the most common spelling differences in research papers when choosing American English or British English.

Updated on December 4, 2012

In a simpler world, English would be written the same way everywhere. However, when Noah Webster set out to create an American English dictionary in the early 1800s, he did more than just add new words to British English: he also revised the spelling of many common words to eliminate what he saw as unnecessary letters. His new spellings were adopted in the US but not the UK, and these spelling differences remain to this day.

The list below is intended to provide an overview of the most common spelling differences between British and American English. The words beginning each list are intended to establish overall patterns, whereas the words in italics towards the end of the lists are examples of deviations from the rule. Remember that you can choose between “English (U.S.)” and “English (U.K.)” in Microsoft Word when setting the language for your document. This change allows the spell check to help catch these differences in spelling.

Click here to download a list of American English and British English spelling differences for future reference.

-ize (-yze)/-ise

American/british.

characterize/characterise

prioritize/prioritise

specialize/specialise

analyze/analyse

catalyze/catalyse

size /s ize

exercise / exercise

The products of the catalyzed reaction were characterized using specialized equipment/The products of the catalysed reaction were characterised using specialised equipment.

behavior/behaviour

color/colour

favor/favour

contour / contour

Because of its decolorization behavior , this material is favored /Because of its decolourisation behaviour , this material is favoured .

center/centre

fiber/fibre

liter/litre

parameter / parameter

Five milliliters of the mixture containing the fibers was pipetted on the center of the slide/Five millilitres of the mixture containing the fibres was pipetted on the centre of the slide.

e/(ae or oe)

ameba/amoeba

anesthesia/anaesthesia

diarrhea/diarrhoea

leukemia/leukaemia

cesium/caesium

The patient with leukemia was given anesthesia before the procedure/The patient with leukaemia was given anaesthesia before the procedure.

defense/defence

practice (noun and verb)/ practice (noun) /practise (verb)

license (noun and verb)/licence (noun)/ license (verb)

defensive / defensive

advice (noun) and advise (verb) / advice (noun) and advise (verb)

The defense attorney had practiced law for over thirty years/The defence attorney had practised law for over thirty years.

-/e, -og/-ogue

aging/ageing

acknowledgment/acknowledgement

judgment/judgement

analog/analogue

dialog/dialogue

dying/dyeing (from die/dye) / dying/dyeing (from die/dye)

The aging analog -to-digital converter is slowly dying/The ageing analogue -to-digital converter is slowly dying.

-l/-ll OR -ll/-l

fulfill/fulfil

enroll/enrol

skill , skillful/ skill , skilful

labeled/labelled

signaling/signalling

propelled / propelled

revealing / revealing

The skillful student noted that the drop in enrollment may be signaling a problem with the study design. The skilful student noted that the drop in enrolment may be signalling a problem with the study design.

This list of differences between American English and British English is by no means exhaustive, but we hope that it helps give you an idea of the distinctions between the two styles of writing. For guaranteed correct word usage, trust one of our editors to edit your manuscript . If you have questions about any particular word, please contact us .

Casi Newell, PhD Candidate

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What is the MLA’s stance on the use of British spelling?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook . For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook .

MLA publications generally follow the American spelling preferences listed in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged . When you are writing a paper for a class in the United States, it is sensible to use American spelling, but in other contexts British spelling may be appropriate. Read our post on writing a thesis in British English .

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How to approach American English vs. British English spelling in a paper?

I am currently writing a paper, for which my title and core problem is spelled differently in American and British English.

I don't worry about my professor preferring one way of writing over the other, as I'm not residing in an English-speaking country, but:

After all, my paper is being written in English, even it won't be published. Thus I wonder:

Is there a "standard procedure" for such cases, at least in US Ivy League universities or in certain citation styles? (I am currently using APA, 6th (our prof. didn't prescribe any specific citation style) as it suits my personal preference of how a reference should be cited and displayed.)

I will definitely mention both words in the "keywords" area, but other than that I will go with one spelling, namely the American English one. The word is "harmonization", if that should be important.

Sorry for my lack of initial research, I found this SE question though.

• 44 Advice I was given on this is to use American spelling when in doubt. Because if you use American spelling, Brits will say "They are using American spelling". If you use British spelling Americans will say "Who is this moron who can't spell 'center'?". –  DJClayworth Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 15:57
• It might help to be more precise about your question. Is it "Should I use the American or British spelling for harmonization in the title of my paper that won't be published?" –  Fuhrmanator Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 16:17
• @Neal I don't know who misspelled British, wasn't me. ;) Happy to see that this question found some interest / upvotes. DJClayworth: That makes sense. Fuhrmanator: I sure agree with you! But I am really interested in the general conflict (what happens next time otherwise?) and more so I think the SE community is. My specific case is really not that interesting, it is just a starting point IMHO. –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 16:22
• I have to add: Unfortunately the OECD as well as the original publication(s) on which most of my research is based use the British spelling: dl.dropbox.com/u/16751/harmonisation.jpg Considering this, would this influence your stance? –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 10:15

8 Answers 8

Whatever style guide your use, citations should be cited exactly in the original spelling . Doing otherwise would defeat the whole purpose of citation: uniquely identifying an existing publication.

I could find no direct quote from APA to justify this (except that, well, they don't indicate that you have the liberty to edit the title of cited works!). However, multiple secondary sources make it clear, as for example :

Notes: Please "copy" the title of a book/an article/whatever (as far as the spelling of words such as "behavior"/"behavioral" are concerned) […] exactly as in the original .

Citation style guides tend to be more explicit for foreign language works, where most of them explicitly state (in some wording or another):

Give the original title, and, in brackets, the English translation

• 6 The question seems to be about which spelling the OP should use for their own title, and how to handle the fact that searches for on may not find the other, not in which spelling to use in their own references. –  user568 Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 15:10
• 3 The question in bold is: “Is there a standard procedure for such cases […] in certain citation styles?”… but I agree it's not entirely clear what is asked. –  F'x Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 15:13
• F'x it is true, I actually didn't think about the implication of "citation" vs.(!) "citation style". But after my recent look into the Chicago and other style, those "big players" meanwhile offer a whole "styling guideline" for the rest of the academic paper, unless I misunderstand and e.g. the "Purdue OWL" content is entirely "made up" and not founded on APA guidelines (cf.: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01 ). –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 16:26
• 5 This doesn't answer the question. –  DJClayworth Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 16:27
• 1 @grunwald2.0 you're asking someone to prove a negative :) The title is the title, and when you're quoting someone, you're not supposed to edit what you quote, period. (Or you mark it as such, and there are rules.) I've edited my answer to add what little relevant information I could find. –  F'x Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 10:12

I typically don't worry about this question as a writer . For what it's worth, I'm based in the United States, so I default to American English. I always spell check my papers, but in the more than 25 papers that I've submitted, I've never gotten any feedback about using American spelling rather than British spelling; this question is very relevant for me since many of my papers are on graph colo(u)ring . It may be useful to note that in the journals that I submit to and read, I've seen both American and British spelling. (I think many editors typically let the authors choose which they prefer.)

So my suggestion is this: choose either American or British spelling and stay consistent throughout your paper. Don't lose any sleep over this. It will not be the deciding factor in whether your paper is accepted .

However , for doing a literature review, I feel your pain...

• 1 Would you recommend adding keywords in the other language, or really stick to one or the other ? –  Etienne Racine Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 20:49
• 2 I would recommend sticking with one spelling per keyword. For human readers, there will be no confusion. For me, listing both alternatives would be a bit of an eyesore. Hopefully, if this becomes a significant issue, we'll see search engines that automatically check for spelling variants... (but I'm not holding my breath). –  Dan C Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 21:27
• 1 I would recommend using a single consistent spelling standard for the entire paper (except the bibliography, where you should always cite verbatim). American titles and British keywords in the same paper would likely raise eyebrows. –  JeffE Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 3:25
• Dear JeffE, interesting point of view! Why would they raise eyebrows? Keywords are certainly intended to help find and classify a document, or aren't they? Then again, this would be the ONLY exception from the rule (aside from my reference section) that I would make too. –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 6:39
• I strongly agree with "Don't lose any sleep over this." The people who write search engines do know about the issue. I just typed a search with the English word "colour" in the US version of Google, and the results included hits for the American word "color". –  Patricia Shanahan Commented Sep 6, 2017 at 14:33

If your question were about the -our/-or distinction, or the -re/-er distinction, it would be a real question, but with -ise/-ize there's no contest: go with the Z form, as it's accepted on both sides of the Atlantic .

The International Organization for Standardization favours British spellings, and uses the -ize form. (This is known as Oxford Spelling .)

• 1 Dear TRiG, thanks for sharing your extensive knowledge from the English SE and about Oxford Spelling (Wikipedia) . –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 5:08

For references, F'x is correct: citations should be given in the spelling used in the original publication.

Beyond that, however, when writing the main text of your article for submission to a journal (or for any other work submitted to a professional publisher), you should follow the style guidelines they set out. Pretty much every journal should have a statement about which set of spellings they prefer (usually based on its country of origin).

For instance, the textbook I am using to teach a course this semester is written by Americans but published by Oxford, a UK publishing company. The word "center" is spelled "centre," and so on.

• "Pretty much every journal should have a statement about which set of spellings they prefer" - this! But: "you should follow the style guidelines they set out" - that was basically my question: Do they? Are the specific examples, i.e. who can (if legal) point me to the section of a style-guide or an author guide of a major publisher, where this is specified? Because your example "they spelled it BE" is not an explicit rule set for authors, we just witness a matter of fact. Further, most papers won't end up in a (text)book, so I dare to say we're really just talking about the academia "niche". –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 16:29
• As an example, Taylor and Francis journals specify either UK or US spellings as preferred in their author instructions. ACS and AIP journals regularly prefer US spellings (ACS's style guide is published as a book). –  aeismail Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 14:25

I think this is really a non-issue. Any decent search engine will return hits for your paper, even if one searches for harmonisation (the spelling more common in Britain) rather than harmonization (the spelling used in the USA, and also valid, though less common, in Britain) as long as a literal search isn't used.

Example search .

I'm amending my answer to address the part of your question about whether specific journals require certain spellings. A Google search limited to the .edu domains finds lots of author guidelines that address this issue to various degrees, but nothing shows me that there's a single way to go.

• Thanks, good point, I noticed that meanwhile too. That was only part of my question though. And I think we will have to check on other search engines then just Google Scholar to verify that this is indeed the case. –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 19, 2012 at 16:30
• England is in Britain, in case you hadn't noticed. –  TRiG Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 1:14
• I should have said "American spelling" rather than "English spelling" in my first posting. Thanks for the sarcasm and the edit. –  Fuhrmanator Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 2:24

One key factor would be who you main audience will be.

If I was writing an article to be released in Spain i would not write it in French.

If you are writing for mainly Americans then use American English, and the same goes for if it will mainly be for British then go for English.

If this is for all people who speak English then the correct one to use would be British English (which is known as just English, not British English), this is due to the fact that American English is simply at the most basic level a dialect of British English.

Also English comes from England not "Britain".

• 3 I am neither writing for Britons nor Americans. (As) English is a WORLD language, I hoped (and frankly expect) that there would be a track of thoughts that extends beyond just the USA and UK! (And other major native English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, South-Africa etc.). –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 6:35
• I think you don't see those additional tracks of development because the spread of English to most other countries has been relatively recent, and therefore the trend was to default to whichever variant was the one first introduced (BE versus AE; BE is naturally more prevalent, given the extent of the British Commonwealth). There hasn't been really enough time linguistically for an entirely new set of usage patterns to arise. –  aeismail Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 12:14

If the intent of the writer is clear and the content is clear, who cares? As long as the message is clear, the writer has performed his duty. I know this is a short putt, but, bottom line, communication rules. If you can't be understood, why bother to try to be understood?

• 3 What about consistency throughout? e.g. 'optimisation', and 'optimization' -- If there are 5 occurrences of this word (3 of one, 2 of another one), then would not reader be unhappy about it. –  Coder Commented Sep 6, 2017 at 10:25

The best thing is to pick and choose the sensible spellings from both dialects. I'm Canadian, but I refuse to write neighbour , a synthetic spelling which has a superfluous letter. On the other hand, the American spelling center (rather than centre ) holds no advantage of brevity, and betrays only ignorance of the Latin root centrum in which tr aren't separated.

Regarding -sation endings versus -zation , these are a favored in a handful of languages like French, Dutch, German. However, not in others like Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Croatian, or Czech.

-sation is bad etymology. For instance the Online Etymology Dictionary gives us this for the word organization :

mid-15c., "act of organizing," from M.Fr. organisation and directly from M.L. organizationem (nom. organizatio), noun of action from pp. stem of organizare, from L. organum "instrument, organ" (see organ). Meaning "system, establishment" is from 1873. Organization man is from title of 1956 book by American sociologist William H. Whyte (1917-1999). Related: Organizational.

As you can see, the original Latin has a z . Since we don't gain any brevity, again, we should go with the spelling which respects etymology. In this case, it is the American one.

Forget borders: respect etymology and favor brevity, but do stop short of writing night and light as nite and lite .

I would hang a footnote on the occurrence of a word with a contentious spelling, explaining my position on spelling and that is that. Academics do not have to be tied to other people's conventions based on national borders.

• 3 English is not logical. Following logical (as opposed to nationally consistent) spelling rules will only frustrate the reader. –  JeffE Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 3:28
• Interesting part on "-sation is bad etymology.", yet my conclusion from this is to go with American English, as that was the question. I can't just create a new standard of English when publishing, I'm no linguist or language researcher. –  grunwald2.0 Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 6:38
• We are not discussing journals here, but there are journals that require consistency of spelling, so this "best of both worlds" approach does not work much in practice. Actually, some journals also specify which of American and British spelling to use. –  Andrés E. Caicedo Commented Sep 6, 2017 at 11:43
• Unless your paper is on etymology, nobody wants to see it cluttered with footnotes about spelling. –  David Richerby Commented Aug 15, 2018 at 22:57

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• AWELU contents
• Writing at university
• Different kinds of student texts
• Understanding instructions and stylesheets
• Understanding essay/exam questions
• Peer review instructions
• Dealing with feedback
• Checklist for writers
• Research writing resources
• Administrative writing resources
• LU language policy
• Introduction
• What characterises academic writing?
• The heterogeneity of academic writing
• Three-part essays
• IMRaD essays
• How to get started on your response paper
• Student literature review
• Annotated bibliography
• Three versions of the RA
• Examples of specificity within disciplines
• Reviews (review articles and book reviews)
• Popular science writing
• Research posters
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• Writing for Publication
• Salutations
• Structuring your email
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• Useful email phrases
• Language tips for email writers
• Writing memos
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• The writing process
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• Using invention techniques
• Research question
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• Developing reading strategies
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• Framing the text: Title and reference list
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• British English words that end in -re (e.g. centre, fibre, theatre) often end in -er in American English (center, fiber, theater).
• British English words that end in -our (e.g. colour, humour) usually end with -or in American English (color, humor).
• Verbs in British English that can be spelled with either -ize or -ise at the end (e.g. recognize/recognise) are always spelled with -ize in American English.
• Verbs in British English that end in -yse (e.g. analyse) are always spelled -yze in American English (analyze).
• In British spelling, verbs ending in a vowel plus l double the l when adding endings that begin with a vowel (e.g. travel, travelled, traveller). In American English the l is not doubled (travel, traveled, traveler).
• British English words that are spelled with the double vowels ae or oe (e.g. archaeology, manoeuvre) are just spelled with an e in American English (archeology, maneuver).
• Some nouns that end with -ence in British English (e.g. licence, defence) are spelled -ense in American English (license, defense).
• Some nouns that end with -ogue in British English (e.g. dialogue) end with -og in American English (dialog).

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American and British English: Quick Guide for Scientific Writing

The noticeable differences between these two varieties of English pertain mostly to spelling and punctuation. When you use American English, the commas and the periods go inside the quotes—no matter what. (Yes, it’s strange. We don’t know who started this trend, maybe the early Americans wanted to be rebellious toward the British in the early years of America’s history. There are also some subtle spelling differences that need to be addressed, either by changing them over (if you have the target journal) or by addressing the author asking what English conventions they prefer using. These differences can be spotted by using our handy guide to American vs. British English. Our guide below covers differences pertaining to spelling, grammar, and vocabulary.

(I) Spelling

This table, from our fellows at Oxford, should help with the spelling patterns.

Lose the ‘l’. You might’ve noticed from the table that the British add extra l’s to certain words (e.g., travelled or labelled ). But, for words that have a double-l before a suffix is added, the second l is eliminated when an -ly enters the picture. For example, Americans write skillfully , whereas the British write skilfully . (The word skill has a double-l before the addition of a suffix, thus this rule is applied to it.)

To ‘z’ or not to ‘z’. A common issue that is seen in the transition between American and British English is -ize vs. -ise (or -yze vs. -yse ). Below are some words that preserve -ise no matter which version of English you use.

advertise advise arise comprise compromise demise despise devise disguise enfranchise excise exercise franchise improvise incise merchandise premise revise supervise surmise surprise televise

Able to remain silent(e). The use of a silent ‘e’ in British English is common practice. You might see these pop up in spellings that have the suffix -able at the end. For example, likable (American English) vs. likeable (British English). This phantom ‘e’ also pops up in words like aging (American English) vs. ageing (British English).

Heading in the right direction. British English favors the ending -wards (e.g., towards ) while Americans use -ward ( toward ).

(II) Grammar

Some of these subtleties you might be more familiar with, but some may also surprise you.

Comments on the comma. This may come as a shock to you, but it’s the Americans who prefer the use of the Oxford (serial) comma, while the British opt to not use it at all. Hopefully this barbaric practice doesn’t change your opinion of their swarthy accents; they may be comma heathens, but just listen to the BBC.

Quoting the greats. There are a few things about quotes that need to be ironed out. With the exception of some scientific disciplines (like math or computer science), Americans put their commas and periods inside the quotes , no matter what. Your house could be attacked by rabid bears, and the great American grammarians would still not budge on this matter. On the contrary, unless it’s dialogue, the Brits put their periods and commas outside of the quotes.

Quote-ception. What you think you know about double quotes and single quotes is not what you actually know about them. Leonardo DiCaprio channelling aside, Americans use double quotes when they quote something, and use single quotes when they quote something inside another quote. For example, “Sir, I’m not sure you understand, but the word ‘tweet’ has nothing to do with computers. Are you from the future?” However, in British English, this would be reversed: ‘Sir...the word “tweet” has nothing to do…’ In other words, their default is to use single quotes, but to employ double quotes when there’s a quote within a quote.

Comma-gain? The use of the comma after abbreviations like e.g. and i.e. is an American convention. For example, Americans would write the following: “The clam, i.e., a common mollusk, is definitely tasty.” The British would write this: ‘The clam, i.e. a common mollusk, is definitely tasty.’

The perfect present. The Brits have a thing for the present perfect tense to express an action that happened rather recently or directly affects the current moment. For example, ‘I’ve just devoured a massive sandwich.’ Note the use of ‘just’ in this sentence. The use of just , already , and yet are staples in instances of the present perfect in British English. In American English, you can get away with saying, “I devoured a massive sandwich.” You may get some weird looks (usually in the flavor of “Who cares? I ate a salad.”), but it’s correct for manuscripts utilizing American English.

No stopping us now. Americans put periods (full stops) after abbreviations like Mr., Mrs., St., Dr. , and so on. Not so for British English folks: Mr, Mrs, St, Dr , ...

(III) Vocabulary

This is Spelling: The Sequel , but with an added twist.

Below is a handy table we’ve adapted to fit our need-to-know terms. Perhaps you are editing a cover letter or are working on a paper in transportation engineering; either way, these are often the terms that slip through the cracks.

Putting it mildly. A cultural habit, in both America and Britain, that directly affects writing in a scientific manuscript is the use of euphemisms. Scientific papers should not have them, no matter which version of English you are applying to the paper. No matter how clean “sacrificed” looks in the methods section of a paper, you should substitute it with “killed” or “humanely killed” instead.

You have successfully made it through our guide for British and American English! Congratulations! Now on to be as precise as possible in your quest for editorial perfection. No pressure or anything…

(Please retain the reference in reprint: https://www.letpub.com/author_education_american_british_english)

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Should I use American or British English in my thesis?

American vs. british english.

• Academic English

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Are there guidelines from the educational institution?

What if my study program has no requirements for this, always use academic english, extra tip: set your spelling checker to the right language, need help our editors will check your thesis.

You are writing your thesis in English. That part is obvious. But should you use American or British English? For example, should you use 'labour' or 'labor'? Each study program or thesis supervisor has its own guidelines for this. We can help you make the right choice.

Some universities and colleges have a clear guideline regarding which variant of English you should use for your assignments. Bear in mind that the preference of your thesis supervisor always takes priority. If your supervisor asks you to use British English, but the university website says otherwise, then you should still use British English. 

Some universities and colleges have a preference for a specific type of English. If you click on the links below, you can see what the following educational institutions think about this:

Erasmus University Rotterdam

University of Groningen

Eindhoven University of Technology

University of Twente

Universities and colleges that are not listed in this overview (and there are quite a few), have not expressed a clear preference for this on their website. In all these cases, ask your thesis supervisor whether you should use American or British English.  Many tutors do not have a strong view on this . They think it is important that you are consistent in the English you use. So, don't use American English and British English words interchangeably. If necessary, check a word in an online English dictionary if you are unsure whether you are using the correct variant.

Whether you write your thesis in American or British English, make sure that you always use academic English. This means that you use an academic style of writing for your thesis. You can read exactly what academic English means on our site. Also, beware of these common mistakes found in English-language theses.

Do you want to avoid accidentally using American words in your British-English text or vice versa? Don't forget to set your spelling checker in Word to the correct language style. Word then helps you to stay consistent with your use of American or British English.

Do you want to be sure that you have used academic English and that no awkward mistakes have crept into your thesis? Then, have the English editors of AthenaCheck check your thesis. They are native English speakers and experienced proofreaders. They can help you submit your thesis without errors, and in the right writing style. 

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The differences between American-English and British-English when writing your thesis

When you are writing your thesis, one of the first things you have to decide is what style of English you will use. The most common options are American, British, or Australian English. Although they follow many of the same rules, they also have some important differences – especially in relation to spelling. This article will help you make spelling choices that match the English you are using.

Why is it so complicated?

After winning their independence from the British, Americans used language as a way to create their own identity. This led to many variations in spelling and punctuation, among other things. Australia also developed its own written conventions, which lie somewhere in between those of the US and UK (although they tend to be more British). Of the three, Australian English is generally the most flexible.

Basic spelling differences

The following “cheat sheet” outlines the  preferred  spelling of some words that are commonly used in academic writing.

Past verb forms

Don’t forget: Consistency is key!

Each word should of course be spelled the same throughout your document. However, it’s also important not to use a mix of English styles.

In addition, the same spelling should generally be used for all forms of a word.

Which type of English should I choose?

Some universities have a preference, so you may wish to check your school’s website for guidance. If you are free to decide yourself, it’s best to pick the style that feels most natural to you. Once you have done so, make sure that this is the language that is set for your document (in Microsoft Word, select Tools à Language).

Further understanding the differences

If you want to know more about spelling and other grammatical differences between these styles of English, the below tables provide more details. Bear in mind that the rules are not always very firm: there are many exceptions, and conventions are always changing!

Spelling:  As can be seen, the variation usually relates to just one or two letters.

Punctuation:   Here the main differences relate to whether to use single or double quotation marks, and where to put other punctuation in relation to those quotation marks.

Verb forms:   The different styles of English do not always agree about whether singular or plural verbs should be used with certain nouns. There is also disagreement about some past forms of verbs.

Abbreviations:   There is also disagreement over how to use periods in abbreviations.

If someone is writing his or her document in British style of English, but he or she would like to cite some reference articles in the document. These articles were written in American English. Should be or she change the writing style for these articles or keep the original style?

As you know, citations/references are expressions specially worded by the author of the original text; therefore, the original form should be followed. For more information, please refer to “APA Style Book – Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Chapter 6.

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Meaning of thesis in English

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• I wrote my thesis on literacy strategies for boys .
• Her main thesis is that children need a lot of verbal stimulation .
• boilerplate
• composition
• corresponding author
• dissertation
• essay question
• peer review

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

thesis | American Dictionary

Examples of thesis, collocations with thesis.

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in a position that is safe from harm or from which harm cannot be done

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Master thesis, master's degree thesis or master degree thesis

I searched online and I understood that "master's degree" retains the apostrophe, while the relative thesis is commonly referred to as "master thesis". However, of the forms

• Master thesis
• Master's degree thesis
• Master degree thesis

Which one is wrong, which is right and which should be preferable to use on a thesis cover? I know that in English theses it's common to use the phrase "Thesis prepared for the Degree of Master of Science" but I can't do this. Thanks.

• possessives

https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/24377/use-master-thesis-or-masters-thesis

"Grammatically speaking, master's thesis unequivocally means a thesis of a master. Master thesis can be read the same way, but also as primary, principle or main thesis.

Stick with master's thesis."

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=master%27s+thesis&btnG=

• Your second link gives 1,770,000 results, while for "master thesis" it gives 4,400,000 results ( scholar.google.com/… ). –  Yaroslav Nikitenko Commented Apr 30, 2022 at 13:06
• 1 Correct. If you click through the search results you'll see that "master's thesis" also appears. The term has been aggregated to the "master thesis" search results. The n-gram search shows that "master's thesis" is more prevalent. books.google.com/ngrams/… –  bookmanu Commented May 17, 2022 at 13:44
• Indeed! I thought I shall change my CV now, but I see that I used "MS" there :) And in one place "master's thesis" correctly. The good thing is that it can be both lowercase (which I used) and uppercase (which looks more frequent). –  Yaroslav Nikitenko Commented May 17, 2022 at 15:13

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British or American English? -An investigation of awareness of the differences in British and American vocabulary and spelling

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Research in Language

lesley Curnick , Dan Frost , Una Cunningham , Alexander Kautzsch

Princess Lawer

British English is the variety of English taught in Ghanaian schools, but influences of American English due to different media exposure have affected students' use of English. The objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which University of Ghana students mix American English with British English and their ability to differentiate between the two varieties. It also sought to examine students' attitudes towards these two varieties of English. The sample group used in this investigation consisted of twenty students from University of Ghana. They filled in a questionnaire which investigated vocabulary and had a spelling dictation to investigate spelling. The study showed that all of the students mixed American and British features but could not differentiate between the two varieties. Though students chose British English as the correct form of English in Ghana, a majority of the students had a higher preference for American English. However, most of them thought that none of the two varieties was superior to the other. The study has shown that American English is gradually finding its way into the Ghanaian community and is affecting students' correct usage of British English.

PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge

Alison Edwards

This thesis revolves around two main research questions: ‘Should the English used in the Netherlands be considered a second-language variety or should it simply be regarded as learner English?’ and ‘Can Schneider’s Dynamic Model be extended to account for non-postcolonial, Expanding Circle contexts such as the Netherlands?’ Chapter 1 describes the motivations for the project and the theoretical and methodological framework. Chapter 2 explores the relevant models in the field of World Englishes (WEs) and identifies a lack of in-depth research on European settings in general and the Netherlands in particular, despite their dynamism in terms of the spread and development of English. Chapters 3 to 5 address three criteria established to answer research question 1, concerning the functions of, attitudes towards and forms of English in the Netherlands, respectively. Chapter 3, on the functions of English in the Netherlands, develops a comprehensive sociolinguistic profile covering the history of English contact, the present demographics of English spread, and the domains of education, science, business, advertising, public administration and the media. It reveals a widespread assumption of English competence in daily life in the Netherlands and increasing intranational use of English to construct cosmopolitan, scholarly or subculture identities. On this basis, the chapter concludes that English functions as a second language in Dutch society. Chapter 4 explores the second criterion for research question 1, attitudes towards English, by way of a large-scale questionnaire. Some results support the notion of English as a second language in the Netherlands; for example, it is acquired in wider society and not just within the confines of the foreign-language classroom. Others, however, are indicative of a foreign or learner language; in particular, BrE remains the main target model and ‘Dutch English’ is rarely viewed in a positive light. The chapter also identifies three groups of people: an instrumental group, whose participants regard English as personally important, but place great value on Dutch as well; and two peripheral groups: an anglophile group and an anti-English group. Chapter 5 focuses on the third criterion for research question 1, the forms of English in the Netherlands. It first outlines a range of potential morphosyntactic, lexical and pragmatic/discoursal features of Dutch English. Next, it describes the development of the Corpus of Dutch English, the first Expanding Circle corpus based on the design of the written components of the International Corpus of English (ICE). The chapter then presents a case study of the progressive aspect. The first part, a comparative corpus analysis, reveals no strict divide between Dutch English and the second-language varieties under investigation, yet marked differences compared to Dutch learner data. In the second part, a grammaticality judgement survey, some evidence of developing local norms is identified. The findings from chapters 3 to 5 make clear that, in answer to research question 1, the Netherlands cannot be said unequivocally to be either a second-language or a learner variety. It is acknowledged, however, that this is partly attributable to the categorical nature of the question. Therefore, Chapter 6 turns to research question 2, seeking to determine whether the developments in the Netherlands can better be explained by a developmental approach such as Schneider’s (2003, 2007) Dynamic Model. It identifies a number of developments in the Netherlands, both historical and present-day, that parallel the predictions of the first three phases of the Dynamic Model. However, as Schneider (2014) himself recently noted, these need to be selectively extracted from what is predominantly a colonial framework. The thesis concludes that this and other models need to move away from a colonisation-driven approach and towards a globalisation-driven one to explain the continued spread and evolution of English today.

These proceedings of the 7th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference include a front piece, 15 full length papers, 8 teaching tips and 10 reviews,

The results of the ANCOVAs revealed that using vocabulary learning software was more effective than using printed book on vocabulary learning, vocabulary breadth, and vocabulary depth of the participants. The results of the present study could help EFL course book designers, foreign language institutes, educational planners, material developers, teachers, and learners to provide a better context for EFL learning.

Despoina Panou

The present paper addresses the issue of English-Greek idiom translation in the news press and aims at giving a detailed description of the idiomtranslation strategies employed in the Greek financial press. To this end, 121 instances of idioms were examined, taken from a 101,202-word sample of 2009 news material translated into Greek. A new idiom classification was proposed distinguishing idioms into inward and outward, the former subdivided into cognitively and affectively-oriented idioms and the latter into general outward and business idioms. The results obtained indicate that business idioms accounted for the biggest percentage in the corpus examined whereas in terms of idiom-translation strategy, omission was the preferred strategy for both inward and outward idioms. With respect to the parameters that influence translators’ choices, it was argued that in adhering to idiomatic meaning, translators were prompted to take into account idiom and genre-related parameters. On the other hand, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, cognitive and genre parameters gained prominence when there was idiom literalization. Lastly, idiom omission seemed to rely on pragmatic, cognitive and genre parameters whereas idiom compensation largely depended on pragmatic and genre ones. On these grounds, a new idiom translation model is presented where it is assumed that an awareness of idioms’ sensitivity to genre conventions and a realization of the multiplicity of parameters that affect the choice of idiom-translation strategy are essential for appropriateness to be met in Greek financial news translation.

MD. F A R U Q U Z Z A M A N AKAN

This research paper attempts to focus on the main and major differences and idiosyncrasies of grammar and grammar related issues in British and American English. These differences have a great influence on learning and using the English language. In fact, British and American English are one language having two (slightly) different grammars. Although there is a popular notion about American English to be more simplified and flexible, we have to keep it in mind about the subtleties, complexities and identifications too. American English is now different from its British mother and we could say it is more than another dialect due to its importance as well as control over the world affairs at present. The fall of the then USSR, the US popular media, open market, globalization, the internet etc have made American English more powerful than ever before. But still today, the number of British English users is more than that of American English. Sometimes, it is noticed by and large that the misuse and the misconception in handling these two major varieties of English pose various problems. So, the main concern of this current paper is to remove the possible mistakes and confusions about the two different but related varieties of English, specially in most of the areas of grammar, syntax and the like.

Daniela Graf

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) research provides valuable insights for English Language Teaching (ELT). An ELF-based approach in ELT prepares students for global communication in English. The English language is used as a means of communication between speakers from a large range of first-language and socio-cultural backgrounds and with different experiences and levels of learning and using English. Research on ELF communication has shown that this English, mutually negotiated in each contact situation, is particularly flexible and fluid. The material and tasks in English textbooks should be adjusted to this use of English. On the phonological level, ELF research has focused on how intelligibility is established and maintained. The most influential work to date is Jenkin’s (2000) Lingua Franca Core (LFC), which presents a set of phonological features essential for intelligibility in ELF interactions. The LFC was a starting point for further, more process-based, studies. The results of these studies challenge established views on phonological proficiency. Phonological ELF research demands adjustments of teaching material. The empirical part of this thesis reviews the listening material and the pronunciation tasks in the textbook Global by Macmillan. Global is a recent six-level English course for adult learners of English for global communication. In the analysis, a selection of Global’s promotional texts is examined and contrasted to the conception of English reflected in the coursebooks and audio-CDs. The empirical investigation of the listening material primarily focuses on the linguistic background of the speakers and is complemented by an e-mail interview with a Macmillan representative. The pronunciation model underlying the course is examined, and the pronunciation tasks dealing with individual phonemes are compared with the LFC. Suggestions for working with the material in the ELF-based language classroom are given.

The Year’s Work in English Studies

Agnes Marszalek

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Soenmez - English Spelling (thesis, 1993)

Margaret J.-M. Soenmez, English spelling in the seventeenth century: a study of the nature of standardisation as seen through the MS and printed versions of the Duke of Newcastles A New Method ... (Ph.D. thesis, Durham University, 1993).

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