Writing.Com General Discussion

In an international business, that kind of error is most likely an inconsistency introduced from feedback from a US contributor that wasn't caught in proofreading.

CMOS addresses the issue by giving preference to consistent spelling within a document, as in from a single dictionary. When a dictionary lists two or more spellings, the first spelling is the most common.
         Documents from non-US authors that are edited and typeset in the US will generally be switched to US spelling for consistency. There are some exceptions -- spelling in direct quotations is not changed, and archaic spelling from older works is generally not updated.

Whether or not to speak up is a separate issue, though.

Everyone is at risk of proofreading misses, so a casual mention -- There seems to be a spelling inconsistency here -- is more likely to get results than making waves with a grammar/style lecture that implies stupidity/ignorance.

It might not be worth mentioning, however, since internal business documentation also suffers under steeper cost/benefit ratios for fixing things, and an inconsistency that insignificant might not qualify for an update. Employee time may be the biggest cost -- yours, the author's, however many managers have to sign off on it, the person/people who'd actually make and verify the changes, etc. Even in external business documentation, that might not qualify for an update on its own, but would be included in the next version when sufficient changes had accumulated to tip the balance.

Not to mention the risk that if you are in a state of dudgeon when writing to the author, the likelihood of you making a grammatical or stylistic error in your message is quite high, which the author would probably find ironic.





Hope that helps.

Northernwrites___

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