Citation standards and requirements both change over time. As increasing attention is being paid worldwide to the detail and accuracy of academic citations, university students are now being held responsible starting from their first term of study to a level of citation accuracy that formerly was often only required for the Master's degree and above. What does such a change in standards mean in practice?

This paper from the early 1990s was 'acceptable' under the more casual standards for informal undergraduate papers at that time, but would no longer meet 21st-century writing or citation standards. Indeed, some of the passages would have brought the student a warning under the current definition of "Type B Plagiarism" (see English Section Plagiarism Policy). Passages from the paper where citations would be required under current standards are highlighted in red, with explanations in endnotes. A few "loose writing" passages are also noted

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Spelling Differences Between British and American English

The differences in spelling between Standard British English (SBE) and Standard American English (SAE) are just one group of differences between these two variants of the English language. There are also phonetical, morphological, grammatical and lexical differences, as well as divergence in punctuation.

The roots of the differences are in the colonizing of the new continent, America, back in the 1600s.¹ The colonists from England brought the English language to America, so American English is based on Old English.

As the English settlers of America were isolated from England and therefore their language took little part in the changes going on in British English, American language began to diverge from British English. Despite the changes, it is said that American English is more conservative in maintaining some features (especially those of pronunciation) of the Old English.²

Normally, according to the results gained in geolinguistics,³ isolation of the speakers of a language little by little leads to differences so big that one can talk about not just two dialects of one language, but about two different languages. This, however, is not the case with SBE and SAE, probably because the geographical isolation is not as absolute as it was in earlier days.⁴ At least one can guess that the easier the communication between these two language groups is, the more it retards the tendency toward separate development. This, in my opinion,⁵ is the case with SBE and SAE.

As a mere hobbyist of the English language I find the spelling differences most interesting, (cf. note #5) not only since they cause non-stop trouble to a non-native speaker of English, but because even though there are certain principles involved, there are also many unsystematic differences concerning spelling (exactly the things which cause most difficulty for non-native speakers of English).

The main principles concerning spelling are simplification, regularization, derivational uniformity and reflection of pronunciation.⁶

Simplification is more popular in SAE than in SBE, even though it is common to both. Sometimes it is also understood differently in each. For example words derived from Latin and Greek with "ae" or "oe" are normally simplified to "e" in both SAE and SBE, but there is more vacillation in SBE,⁷ so that one can see both "mediaeval" and "medieval" being used. An example of SAE being more profound in this than SBE is the SAE form "maneuver" vs the SBE form "manoeuvre."

A simplification only existing in SAE is the removal of the "-ue" in words ending in "-logue," such as "dialog" — even though this phenomenon is not completely accepted in formal SAE. (cf notes #6&7.)

There are also some examples of simplification that only take place in SBE. SBE uses the form "skilful" where SAE has the form "skillful," and SBE often simplifies "-ection" to "-exion" in words like "connexion," etc. Here SAE uses the form "-ection," for it follows derivational uniformity. (cf notes #6&7.)

Derivational uniformity is a principle in which the derivative (i.e. the word that is derived from another word) maintains the spelling of the word from which it derives, as far as possible. For example, the noun "connection" (SAE) derives from the verb "connect" (SAE and SBE). So in SAE it's more common to maintain the original spelling⁸ (here: "ct" vs the SBE "x"). There are, however, exceptions, so that in the SAE form "analyze" (vs. the SBE form "analyse") the "original spelling" (< analysis) has been changed.

Regularization is a principle more widely adopted in SAE than in SBE. A well-known example involves words ending in "-or" and "- our". In SBE one can see "saviour" but "professor," but in SAE there is only the regularized "-or". However, one may find "- our" in SAE in words where it represents something "respected" or something of a higher quality. For example "glamour" 'sounds better' than "glamor" would. (cf notes #6&7.)

Sometimes the reflection of pronunciation is a reason for different spelling. For example pronunciation of "-gh-" causes differences in spelling. Here SAE appears to prefer the more "phonetic" form (SAE "plow" vs SBE "plough"). With this phenomenon one can also explain the above-mentioned SAE explanation of derivational uniformity ("analyze").

These four principles mentioned are not some rules on which a student/pupil can count when learning English, because there are exceptions. And furthermore, there are individual words that have different spelling in SAE and SBE, it not being possible to see them as exceptions to any of these principles, nor possible to find groups big enough to form another principle for them. Such words are, for example, "jewellery" (SBE) vs "jewelry" (SAE) and "pyjamas" vs "pajamas."

Anglicization (of French words, for instance) may cause differences between SAE and SBE, but there is no principle on which the differences would be based, as anglicization is popular in both. (cf notes #6&7.) Therefore one can see, for example (bank) "cheque" in SBE and "check" in SAE.

As a person who would like to learn to speak somewhat "perfect" English, I am sad to say (cf note #5.) that even though SAE and SBE have a lot less to differ them than things in common, it's almost impossible for a student of English as a foreign language to really LEARN these differences. It's more a question of learning some principles and then keeping one's ears open, listening to the native speakers, and MEMORIZING the rest as individual examples.

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NB: My main source in writing was "A Survey of Modern English" by Gramley and Patzold" (1992). I also used Baugh's "A History of the English Language" (1957) and my notes from the following two lectures: Introduction to American English by John Hopkins (University of Tampere, Fall 199x) and Geolinguistics by Kari Nahkola (University of Tampere, Spring 199x).⁹

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Notes on why highlighted passages do not meet current standards:

In the early 1990s this was considered a good paper, especially for a US-1 "1st paper" where topic choice and development was left to the student and citations were not a requirement. The paper has a clear point of view and a good development with useful information.

It is obvious that the student has used sources to write the paper. However, there is no distinction between facts or ideas which were taken from the source material and the student's own ideas. Neither is it clear from which of the sources, or from where in those sources, were particular ideas taken, thus making it impossible for readers of the paper to check the accuracy of the points presented or refer to the sources for more information on the points.

1. The second paragraph clearly comes from a source; thus this source should be cited. Whereas the first paragraph of the paper could be "common knowledge," at least for a university student of language and linguistics, the second paragraph's reference to specific "roots . . . back in the 1600s" cites a specific historical claim which is open to speculation. Did spelling differences really begin back in the 1600s, since the original colonists were first-generation speakers of British English, or did they only begin to emerge, for example, in successive generations of colonists? One would like to know what the source for this claim is, and how it was justified.

2. The use of "it is said" (which in any case is not good writing compared with "as Fred Smith noted in his classic Colonial Linguistics," or similar) implies that "someone else has said this somewhere else" and therefore the student is using borrowed words. Specify instead who said it and where they said it, and cite the source.

3. What does "the results gained in geolinguistics" mean? Briefly explain instead what results, how they were gained, and what geolinguistics has to do with this, and cite the source of your information so that readers can turn to it for further background.

4. When exactly were these "earlier days"? Specify instead the specific years or historical period. Always use references which are as specific or exact as possible, in place of vague referrals.

5. Papers should be written in the 3rd person to give more scholarly weight and authority. Writing in the 1st person in this case makes the idea sound like a personal opinion, as opposed to a fact or concept which is clearly supported by source materials. The sentence in any case is redundant in context. Thus, the sentence might be omitted or replace by something similar to "Thus the current trend in SBE and SAE is more likely to be toward uniformity than diversity."

6. Citing "the main principles" with such authority here suggests that they came from a reference source, as an undergraduate student would seldom have enough breadth and depth of knowledge to make such an authoritative statement on the basis of "common knowledge."

7. Similar to #6 above, this is too specific to be "common knowledge." The Latin and Greek examples might be considered common knowledge, but to specifically cite "more vacillation in SBE" implies extensive research that has been done to establish this idea, and that research (or the original claim based on the research) must be cited.

8. Contracted forms should not be used in academic writing. Instead of "it's more common" write "it is more common."

9. The sources cited should be clearly identified in a Works Cited" (APA "References") section, with each citation listed separately in proper format. The two books used should have complete publication data plus the page numbers from which different ideas were taken, or on which more information about the ideas can be found (there were no exact quotations from the books, so citation references to the ideas in the book may go to several different pages, whereas an exact quotation would always come from one specific location).

   Moreover, the two lecture series quoted should also give the dates they were given and the departments which sponsored them, among other things, and also specify which ideas were derived from which lecturers.