American style of writing

In many threads on this forum, Ive seen people taking about how a Native writer can create better content than a person who doesnt have English as his mother tongue. People talk about a particular 'American style of writing'. Can anyone tell me about this? I am an Indian...and I am just curious to know whether you could have guessed my nationality if I wouldnt have told you about this, just by reading my post?

 

It's just about the phraseology and casualness used by Americans. When you learn a second language in school, you tend to learn the formal aspects rather than the daily use.

This, "English as his mother tongue" would indicate to me that you are not American. Of course, that wouldn't mean I was right, but it's not something Americans usually say...

 

By your post, no I wouldn't have been able to tell.

I wonder if some of what people are referring to are some slang type words / phrases, Americans use. Analogies, and basically just cultural American things that are common problems/situations? Sometimes (tho not always), articles written by people who's first language is other than English, it's just difficult to really connect with what's being written and the ideas conveyed. Just my 2 cents. I admire people who can speak more than one language.

 

From this post, No, it fits within the norm of US English writing. Usually with full articles I can guess an Indian, UK, and a few other regions. In most cases though, If I can't tell why should I care what your real mother tongue is?

Unfortunately, with most cases people who try to say they can write US English (here at DP), really can't. It is very easy to tell they are not a native speaker by improperly used phrases, words ect.

US English is also EXTREMELY regional. If I tried to pass myself off as a New Yorker, Texan (etc), or any of the sub cultures in the US (there are many in California alone), even if I know the phrases they would be able to see through it.

This makes it hard for any writer, it's best to try to stick to one (or a few) niche and learn how the people talk in that niche instead of trying to pass yourself off in every niche. Good writers in a niche can make far more per word than writers trying to do everything

 

That's nonsense. Most people at DP couldn't write to save their lives.

Never heard of it, unless you're talking about the use of American spelling and vernacular.

Of course not. There's absolutely no way of telling a writer's nationality without reference to vernacular and spelling. And even then, the vernacular and spelling might have been employed intentionally. For example, on my Web site, I write using American spelling, since most of my site's visitors are Americans.

You can tell that he's not an American from that single phrase?

 

You can't "tell" anything from a single phrase--especially since many people don't know how to write properly no matter what country they're from. That being said, it's not very often that you hear (or see) an American use that phrasing. Really, I should have quoted more:

"who doesnt have English as his mother tongue"

Of course, as I mentioned in my post, just because that phrase stuck out to me doesn't mean that I would be right, which is why it's so dangerous to prejudge.

 

Exactly. Nor from any number of phrases.

 

Hi Tanveer,

The difference really is the colloquial phrases that are commonly used by the Americans.

I once bought a software (written by the British) to teach me American English. (the accent mostly)

It kept repeating the phrase "far out!" incessantly.

Apparently, the Brits found the phrase really funny. (Go figure....)

 

There is a vast difference between American English, UK English, Australian English etc when it comes to the spoken word. Language is a living thing. It changes and evolves constantly in each country. I should imagine, given India's history with Britain, that the English spoken there is more formal and closer to the "root" Queen's English. American English, today, has evolved to such an extent that the general usage is far removed from the "Queen's" English. Nine times out of ten it is extremely easy to spot an article written by an American, rather than a British writer. That being said, as long as the language is properly written and grammatically correct, who cares?

 

i second acewriter! its the way of speaking that changes overtime, language is more or less the same. The only difference that can arise is in the use of slangs or spellings.

 

As Ace said, It doesn't matter, as long as it's written well and there are no mistakes.

You'll find that most of the writing on-line (for IM especially) is very basic and informal, making it easy for anyone to read and understand.

For this reason, you often can't tell if the writing's from someone who doesn't speak English as a first language.

Most foreign writers won't use English colloquialisms in their writing, when many UK & US writers do. This is usually a big give away.

 

Very well said IMO.

it comes down to small things like the use of the word "the" at times too, or just the way that words are structured in general. It's certainly a hard thing to teach.

 

When you say niche, are you referring to a marketing niche, like fat loss, or a regional niche that has a particular dialect, like the South Bronx?

 

Depending on your intended audience possibly both.
For a niche like "fat loss" a regional dialect is not really necessary. You are gearing toward a wide audience. There would be somewhat of a need in the marketing, probably a college level vocabulary would suffice as well as being familiar with the marketing terms used in this niche (shouldn't be difficult).

If you are trying to write an article to appeal to automotive buffs and you are only rewriting what you have read with no real interest in vehicles it is very likely to be evident to automotive enthusiasts, although you may be able to pass it off to casual car owners. That goes with most marketing niches.

 

Honestly, I am an american and I couldn't tell that you were an Indian until I read it.

 

I could tell you weren't American by what you wrote, though I wouldn't have been able to tell you what country.

How did I know? First, the phrase Y. L. pointed out. Second, your wrote "I am just curious to know whether..." That "curious to know" part is a phrase I've never heard anyone ever use like that. Both are kind of formal English, not conversational.

And I could probably tell because I lived outside the country for three years, and was a military kid, so I pick up on things. But I've never been all that good at identifying where someone was from, probably because I didn't overly care all that much. Well, except for people from Brooklyn or the Bronx; I know those accents very well. lol

 

To be completely honest, yes, I can tell that you aren't a "native speaker" and I could probably guess you were Indian just from the fact that I've known a lot of Indian people online and I've become accustomed to how they write and phrase sentences.

For one, you aren't using apostrophes in your conjunctions. A lot of Indian writers use apostrophes for pluralizing words (which is wrong) and leave them out in conjunctions such as doesn't.

The phrase "can anyone tell me about this?" is also one I've seen a lot of indian writers use. More American writers would probably say "can you explain this?" or "What's up with the 'American Style Writing?' You're just slightly overly formal.

Also you use the word "this" a lot which a lot of Indian writers do. I've found that using articles and pronouns just translates differently with a few of my Indian friends.

In addition, one of your sentences was bordering on run-on. Another clue to your nationality.

If you were from, say, the UK then I could tell your nationality from spelling and colorful slang terms (can't be arsed). If you were from a different country (usually more Philippines/Hispanic oriented) I could have told from short sentences as opposed to almost run-ons.

It's cool how each country interprets the English language, and I'm sure it's cool to them how we attempt to speak their languages.

Now, I'm a major grammatical and structural stickler, and I analyze sentence structure almost automatically, so even if I noticed, it's likely that few other people did.

 

thnx for pointing that out. Now, at least I know which areas to work upon.

 

@Sneakyheathen: Whoah! You've actually hit upon some typical Indian linguistic quirks, rather than just looking for typically Indian mistakes! Take a bow.

@tanveer: Not everything Sneakyheathen pointed out is a "problem area", and being Indian isn't a bad thing. As long as you write grammatically correct English that is easy to follow, you're good to go.

PS: Sneakyheathen, in what country would you place my English? Just curious to know, because I think my dialect of English is a strange conglomerate.