Things have been quiet here for awhile, as I’ve been trying to make my final changes to the Ph.D. thesis (or, for those of you in the U.S., “dissertation”). Things are pretty much to the point of being ready to submit, with only a few more paragraphs to add, and the spell-checking having consumed the last several hours. Yes: several hours of spell-checking. Why, you might ask?
I’m required to write using U.K. spelling. The vast majority of my literature comes from authors writing using U.S. spelling. Thus, running a spell-check isn’t a trivial task. For example, these words jump out as being problems, and I need to see whether the word is used in a quotation or if I’m using it in my own writing:
| judgement | judgment | behavior | behaviour | |
| artefacts | artifacts | favour | favor | |
| organise | organize | grey | gray | |
| candour | candor | centre | center | |
| organisation | organization | rigour | rigor | |
| socialise, computerise, anthropomorphise, conceptualise, polarise, optimise, paralyse… anything ordinarily spelled -ize | ||||
Those are just the ones I kept track of, before I gave it up as a bad idea to try to detail all of the words which are spelled (or, ya know, spelt) differently.
Once those last couple of paragraphs are done, though, I can begin to prepare for the viva, and we can start sending out the applications for teaching positions. We’ve still no idea where we’ll end up, but we’re casting the net fairly wide at this point.
-D
Nice clean, new look here — recognize the header photo as fairly recent and lovely, right?
Although I never quite went the official distance with a dissertation, I do remember spell checking my thesis without the agony of a different set of English rules. Best to you on that and the options for teaching positions. San Diego is quite lovely — Could always benefit from more foodie friends.
Thanks! Yep – they’re from recent trips.
San Diego is definitely in consideration, believe me: we’re tired of being cold!
Or for goodness sakes so much darn detail there for you making your final step for that PHD. Actually I think I spell U.K. at times 😆
Nan
Neighbour, flavour, colour. I have been dealing with the same thing, only backwards, for years. Us Canadians have held on to some of the old British spellings (why? not quite sure, maybe to have that 1% of separation from you Yank’s 😉 ) Spell check is both a blessing and a curse.
Yes – and to make it even more complicated, there are some spellings which are acceptable but are more common in one or the other location. It’s … odd.
What are you writing about?
Candor… grey… organization…. is it management?
Love your new blog look!
Basically, I’m writing about the reasons people give for deleting or preserving digital objects, and whether there’s any consistency across demographic features, industry sector, etc. I’ve found that everybody does information management their own way, and that general-purpose computers don’t help people enough in their decisions because computers don’t encourage a thoughtful system of information management.
Hopefully you end up in a place with both warm weather and reasonable spelling expectations. Good luck with the viva prep!
Spelt! Honestly.
Glad to hear you’re at a point where you can worry about pesky things like spelling, though…seems to imply the end is in sight!
that would drive me crazy to try to keep up with the U.K. spelling. Yikes! I like the new look/changing headers.
I spent my 4th and 5th grade in a UK environment. It has caused me lifelong spelling problems due to that early imprinting. Although I have struggled to eliminate “u” from my ‘or’ words I never realized my grey/gray ponders originated from those years.