Tips for writing essays for UK/US universities
When writing an essay, it is important to consider whether you
are writing according to US guidelines and spelling systems or the
UK system. There can be many differences between these two systems
related to spelling, references, or just general
vocabulary.
US and UK
spelling
Regardless of which country your university is in, when it comes
to writing your essay in English you will either use the US system
or the UK system. Present day spell checking software is extremely
efficient but it is always recommended that you check the spelling
in your essay yourself. In the table below you can see some of the
most common mistakes which are made by ESL students when writing in
one particular type of English.
|
Dilemma
|
US
|
UK
|
|
Whether to use z/s
|
Organize, Organization, Generalize, Analyze
|
Organise, Organisation, Generalise, Analyse
|
|
Whether to use or/our
|
Color, Flavor, Neighbor, Behavior
|
Colour, Flavour, Neighbour, Behaviour
|
|
Whether to use l/ll
|
Labeled, Traveled, Modeling
|
Labelled, Travelled, Modelling
|
|
Whether to use s/c
|
Practise
|
Practice
|
|
Whether to use er/re
|
Center
|
Centre
|
As well as spelling, there are a number of other features which
may be used in US essays but not in UK essays.
Referencing
One of the most important aspects of an essay is the referencing
style. If you are writing an essay for a US university, the odds
are they have very different requirements from the UK. Many
American universities require students to use a different style
guideline. Having said this, there can also be a lot of
similarities between US and UK essays so the best way is to make
sure you are extremely familiar with the style you should be
following.
Vocabulary
choice
Americans obviously use many words which are not used very often
in the UK. If American vocabulary is used in a UK essay it may not
be the end of the world, but in some cases this can create
confusion. Below we can see an example of when a UK essay may
incorrectly employ Americanisms:
He made this discovery whilst majoring in
Mathematics
He made this discovery whilst studying for a degree in
Mathematics
The term college is another interesting example of US versus UK
vocabulary choice. Indeed this has a slightly different meaning
in the UK when compared to the US. If you were to refer to
someone's college years in an English essay, you would be talking
about the period of education prior to their degree whereas in a US
essay this would be referring to an institution which awards
degrees. If you are careful then vocabulary choice should not
really be a problem. More often than not, if an ESL student is
using UK English then he/she will be very familiar with English
vocabulary.
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