Talk:Work (physics)/Archives/2013/April
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British or American English?
At present, Work (physics) has a mixture of spellings for the unit of measurement: metre and meter, and newton-metre and newton-meter. In two places it has the British spelling metre, and in four places it has the American spelling meter. The matching article Energy uses the British spelling metre throughout.
The current mixture of spelling is unacceptable and we should decide on the preferred option and then tag the article appropriately. I am in favour of matching the convention currently used in Energy and using the British spelling metre. Dolphin (t) 08:42, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
- That sounds reasonable. There will always be people that revert the spelling no matter what is decided here. Dger (talk) 22:20, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
- That problem can be minimised by using one of Wikipedia's banners that advertise which variation is to be used throughout the article. Dolphin (t) 05:47, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
This page is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. 
This page is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
- That problem can be minimised by using one of Wikipedia's banners that advertise which variation is to be used throughout the article. Dolphin (t) 05:47, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
- Indeed, but my experience is that very few articles use these. I sometimes have to go back into the article's history to see how it started. Dger (talk) 15:24, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
- Thanks for your support. I have edited Talk:Energy to add the British English banner, and Energy to add a semi-visible request that British English be used in future editing. See diff1 and diff2.
- I propose the same be done to Work (physics) and Talk:Work (physics) when we have reached a consensus on which version of English should be used, or after a week, whichever occurs first. Dolphin (t) 23:41, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
- The earliest version where there was a distinguishable British vs. American spelling, used the British spelling. This usually means the British spelling takes precedence. I propose that the article be rewritten with British (i.e., international) spellings of the metric units. Dger (talk) 03:05, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
- I have changed "meter" to "metre" in three places - see my diff. Can you see any other examples of American spelling that need to be changed to British? Dolphin (t) 06:13, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
- The earliest version where there was a distinguishable British vs. American spelling, used the British spelling. This usually means the British spelling takes precedence. I propose that the article be rewritten with British (i.e., international) spellings of the metric units. Dger (talk) 03:05, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
- I added the "British English" banner at the top of this Talk page. I also added the invisible tag "Use British English" at the top of the article - see my diff. Dolphin (t) 08:01, 2 April 2013 (UTC)