Should I blog in American English or in British English? That’s the question some of us bloggers have. Even Darren Rowse from ProBlogger asked this question back in 2007. He is Australian by the way.
This question still poses a dilemma to me even now. Growing up, I learnt British English and it’s my first language even though I’m racially a Chinese.
I am a little OCD, so swinging between American English and British English gets on my nerves sometimes. Regardless of which variation I use, I get a little annoyed that I have to choose one over the other.
Common American English vs British English examples in my blog posts:
- “Favourite” as opposed to “favorite”.
- “Fulfil” or “fulfill”.
- “Colour” or “color”.
- “Monetise” as compared to “monetize”.
- “Travelling” vs “traveling”.
- “Realise” vs “realize”.
You get what I mean right? How do you guys decide?
If you’re American, then it’s probably a no-brainer for you to blog in American English. If you’re English, then British English is normally the way to go.
How do you decide?
What are the factors that you should take into account when blogging in one variation over the other?
#1 Target audience
Your target audience may affect your decision in choosing one variation over the other. A slight majority of my readers are Americans, so I tend to write in American English recently. If your readers are mainly American, you may want to write in American English. Stick to one rather than swing every time.
#2 What are you good at?
If you are already good at British English and have difficulties in changing to American English, you may want to stick to the former. It’s not that of a big deal to choose one over the other and changing it may cause additional difficulties for you.
Takeaway
This issue of American English vs British English has always been at the corner of my head. I wanted to address this issue and perhaps obtain some insight from you guys on this matter. What do you guys think? Do you swing around or stick to one?
Regardless, I believe that it’s not a big issue and you will do well blogging with either.
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