From akirlu, through filkerdave....

[kniteracy]

I give you Zed's Dead: A Transatlantic Writing Essay.

It's a gentle nudge in the other direction from the complaints English writers make about Americans not getting it right when they write about English people or set things in England:

Every now and then a British writer attempts to write in an American voice, and, well, ow. Dearies, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but some of you need a little teensy bit of help.

Trust me: From my comfortable-in-both-worlds point of view, it's extremely funny

Edit: Alas, the author of this post has friendslocked it. The public entry in her journal reads that she has been advised to edit it for publication and so has taken it off public status.

Comments

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

It's pretty entertaining from my perspective

I have more problems with American actors who can't do credible British accents being cast as Brits (there are some who are superb imitators of Brits, but casting seems to be pretty indescriminate), as well as Brits who can't do credible American accents being cast as Americans...

Though I confess it has to be pretty bad for me to spot it that way around.

Teddy

[resourceress.livejournal.com]

It is very funny, thanks for sharing the link!

[lothie.livejournal.com]

My guilty secret used to be that I read Jackie Collins novels (I don't anymore; she's really gone downhill lately), and now and then she'd slip up and insert Britishisms that we Merkins (*snicker*) just don't use. Examples:

"I'd sooner do X than Y"
"I've put on a pound or two"
"I really fancy a drink"

So cute. ;)

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

It also seems to have been friendslocked. Oh well.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. :( It wasn't friendslocked yesterday when I linked to it. I don't know what happened. I gathered that it was at first friends locked, then people asked her to unlock it so they could link to it, which she did. *sigh* Now I wish I'd asked for permission to copy/paste the text. :(