[stinos]

> I’ll die on a hill

Meanwhile in multi-lingual laboritories all around the world where 'international English' is the language everyone uses, or attempts to, and 'experiment' is a word used multiple times a day, I keep hearing both. Which gives me the impression there might not actually a single right way anymore, or perhaps there never was (as in: could be British vs American or older brritish vs newer), and I stopped caring.

I realize there might still be people claiming their way is correct, in which case I have to ask: is there a single authorative reference? Only if there are no other references to be found claiming something else you can in my opinion be right, when it comes to language. Or else you have to narrow down your claim and specify a region, or a certain type of usage.

For example recently someone pointed out I'm wrong not using a comma after 'e.g.' or 'i.e.'. Which sounded strange to me, because I keep on reading that, including in redacted texts. That person then came up with one single textbook as reference, claiming it's the authority. I went looking around and easily found other texts, which definitely seemed to be reference-worthy material according to where they were used and referenced in turn. I never got a good answer to my question why I should believe that one book is 'the' authorative one and the others aren't so as far as I'm aware both forms are ok.

[6stringmerc]

Part of the issue are professional style guides for written English, and they vary. The biggest ones off the top of my head are AP, Chicago, and MLA. I love the Oxford comma as shown in the last sentence, but in the AP guide they do not use it and it is wrong to use it for their style.

English is the best and worst language we have currently on the planet because it’s such an amalgamation and continuing to evolve and branch in ways that are hard to keep up with sometimes. It’s hard not to end up chugy don’t ya know.

[stinos]

Part of the issue are professional style guides for written English, and they vary.

Probably, but what I don't get is: how could one be so blind to claim their style is 'right'? It's style ffs.

[jcims]

For me it’s like the debate about which way to set the hang on your toilet paper roll. There is no right answer and the fun is asserting that yours is correct.

[someweirdperson]

There IS a correct way. Check the manual that the manufacturer provided for the roll holding device. Using it incorrectly voids the warranty.

[stinos]

Hmm, that seems more like an engineering problem. Like: what's obectively the easiest way to be able to grab the paper? Surely only one answer :)