Judging English by Carol L. Wright
March 13, 2024 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group tagged as American English, British English, English, Noah Webster
As readers of English, it’s fairly easy for us to tell whether an author is from the US or the UK simply because of word choices or spelling variations between the two countries. The reason for this is partly that, at the time of American independence, spelling in English was not completely standardized. How one spelled a word depended more on local convention than a universally accepted right or wrong spelling. Even Jane Austen misspelled (by today’s standards) a word in the title of one of her juvenile works: Love and Freindship.
When American spellings were standardized in the early 19th century, by the publication of Noah Webster’s first American dictionary, the author was intent on exerting a bit of linguistic independence from Britain. Thus, many American words no longer conform to “the King’s English.” In his original 1828 dictionary, Webster presented simplified American spelling to more closely reflect common pronunciation. This is why some US words have one less letter than used in the UK (e.g. color/colour, harbor/harbour, or valor/valour). Americans also drop letters at the end of some words (such as program/programme) or reverse letters (as with theater/theatre). We might want to ask Webster, however, why there is still an I in Austen’s troublesome word friendship, and why he didn’t reform the spellings of tough, though, and through.
Ordinarily, a reader will pass over these differences in spelling without any difficulty. They generally make little difference in how we would say these words, so why should we allow the spelling to give us pause? I have wondered, though, why, in Webster’s eagerness to simplify American spelling, he made a change to one specific word: judgment.
No matter which side of the Atlantic we’re on, English speakers know that we have two consonants that can produce two different sounds: C and G. The letter C can be pronounced as either a K (hard sound) or an S (soft sound); G can be a hard Guh or a soft J. The vowel that follows these consonants informs us as to whether to give the consonant a hard or a soft sound. If the letter is followed by an A, O, or U, it has a hard sound as in carrot, color, current, gable, golf, or guppy. If, however, the vowel that follows the consonant is an E or an I, the consonant should be pronounced with the soft sound, as in cereal, circle, genuine, giraffe . . . or judge.
So far so good, right?
But even Webster was inconsistent. When adding -ment to the word judge, he dropped the e, spelling it judgment. But this makes no sense. If we must drop the E when making judge into judgment, shouldn’t Americans instead spell it as judjment to match how we pronounce it? Or should we just say it jug-ment?
This English idiosyncrasy annoys me a bit. But then, while reading a British author, I noticed something that appeared to me to be an error. The author spelled judgment with an E after the G: judgement. Is it unpatriotic for an American to accuse Noah Webster of getting it wrong? Well, if so—hold on—so do the British! It turns out, in Britain, both spellings, judgment and judgement, are considered correct, but the preferred spelling is . . . judgment.
As many English-as-a-second-language students will tell you, if you’re looking for logic in a language, learn something else. (And we haven’t even mentioned usage in the British Commonwealth.)
The good news is that no matter which side of the Atlantic you come from, or which standard English you use, the 2024 Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award competition will be happy to accept your story through our deadline of March 31, 2024. Stories of 2000 words or fewer—in English—are welcome. Our theme this year is “Holiday Stories” (holiday being defined as from US Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day). Winners receive cash and publication. To learn more, see the website at: https://bwgwritersroundtable.com/short-story-award-2/.
We hope you will consider entering your holiday stories and we look forward to reading them. And when we’re scoring them, we promise we will use our best judgement—er judgment!
A Few of Carol’s Publications
The 2024 Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award
February 13, 2024 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category Contests, From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group, Writing Contest tagged as Bethlehem Writers Group, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award, Marlo Berliner, Writing contest
The 2024 Short Story Award is now open for submissions!
The theme: Season’s Readings
Bethlehem Writers Group is seeking never-published short stories of 2,000 words or fewer for a chance to win.
Winners will receive:
First Place:
$250 and publication in our upcoming anthology: Season’s Readings: More Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales
Second Place:
$100 and publication in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable
Third Place:
$50 and publication in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable
Click here for submission rules
The Guest Judge is Marlo Berliner is the multi-award-winning, bestselling author of The Ghost Chronicles series. You can read an interview with Marlo here.
Other Books Published by BWG
Featured Author: Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC
December 21, 2023 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Contests, Featured Author of the Month tagged as #TheBWG, 2024 Short Story Award, Bethlehem Writers Group, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award, Fur Feathers and Scales, new release, Short Story Award
About Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC
The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC (BWG), is a community of mutually supportive fiction and nonfiction authors based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The members are as different from each other as their stories. BWG also publishes quality fiction through their online literary journal, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, and their award-winning A Sweet, Funny, and Strange Anthology series.
Each anthology has an overall theme—broadly interpreted—but includes a variety of genres. All but the first anthology include stories from the winner(s) of The Bethlehem Writers Short Story Award.
Their first anthology, A Christmas Sampler: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales (2009), won two Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Best Anthology and Best Short Fiction.
An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Intrigue is the latest in A Sweet, Funny, and Strange Anthology. This anthology was a finalist in both the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award and the 2023 Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion.
About An Element of Mystery
The Bethlehem Writers Group is pleased to present this collection of tales of mystery and intrigue—the latest in its award-winning series of Sweet, Funny, and Strange® anthologies. From classic whodunnits to tales of the unexplained, each of the twenty-three stories contained herein have an element of mystery that will keep you guessing and wanting to read just one more story.
We’re thrilled to have old friends, but new members of BWG, join us this year. Award-winning author Debra H. Goldstein favors us with a mystery set among volunteers at a synagogue entitled “Death in the Hand of the Tongue,” while “Sense Memory,” by the multi-talented Paula Gail Benson, brings a delightful mix of mystery and the paranormal that helps a young couple find their way to each other.
In addition, we are happy to bring you the winning stories from two of our annual Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award competitions: “Good Cop/Bad Cop” by Trey Dowell (2021 winner) and “The Tabac Man” by Eleanor Ingbretson (2022 winner).
You’ll also find stories from your favorite BWG authors, including Courtney Annicchiarico, Jeff Baird, Peter J Barbour, A. E. Decker, Marianne H. Donley, Ralph Hieb, DT Krippene, Jerry McFadden, Emily P. W. Murphy, Christopher D. Ochs, Dianna Sinovic, Kidd Wadsworth, Paul Weidknecht, and Carol L. Wright.
So get ready to be mystified . . . or intrigued!
Next up for BWG
BWG is working on their eighth anthology, Season’s Readings: More, Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales.
In connection with this anthology, they are hosting The Bethlehem Writers 2024 Short Story Award.
The 2024 Short Story Award opened on January 1, 2024. The theme will be Holiday Stories (broadly interpreted).
BWG is seeking never-published short stories of 2,000 words or fewer. First Place will receive $250 and publication in their upcoming anthology: Season’s Readings: More, Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales or in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
The final judge of the 2024 Short Story Award is Marlo Berliner, the multi-award-winning, bestselling author of The Ghost Chronicles series.
Books from Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC
It’s Holiday Story Time!
December 13, 2023 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group, Writing Contest
This time of year, wherever we turn, we encounter something that helps fill us with the holiday spirit. Whether it be decorations, music, TV movies, or maybe just a friendlier, lighter spirit among those we meet, there’s no escaping that we’re in the midst of the many popular holidays jammed into the last weeks of the year: Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve/Day, just to name a few. No wonder we’re exhausted by January!
Still, this is perhaps the easiest time of year to think about writing a holiday story. But what is it that makes a story a holiday story?
When I saw the movie Die Hard listed as one of the top Christmas stories, I was curious. I had never seen it, but with that kind of recommendation, I gave it a try. I was, frankly, disappointed. It’s a Bruce Willis action movie, exciting, and set at Christmas, but for me, it missed the mark for a true “Christmas story.” I’ve since learned that this is a long-standing debate among viewers.
That got me thinking about what elements would have made it seem more like a holiday story instead of just a story set at a holiday.
After some thought—and a lot of holiday story reading—I think there are four criteria that, working together, make a story a holiday story.
- The holiday that is anticipated, celebrated, and/or remembered during the story must be integral to the story. (Note that a “remembered” holiday often occurs during a subsequent celebration of that holiday and the memory has an impact on the current celebration.) Alas, Die Hard fails this test.
- It must include familiar events or traditions of the holiday celebrated or anticipated (even if those events or traditions are botched!) Hmm—the brief Christmas party scenes in Die Hard might be said to meet this requirement—or might not.
- More than one major character must be involved in the anticipation or celebration of the holiday, e.g. a family or community involved in the celebration. (Sometimes the other characters can be fantasy or non-human characters.) I don’t think you can count the Christmas Eve partygoers as “more than one major character” in Die Hard. Even Bruce Willis’s movie wife doesn’t fit that description.
- It leaves the reader with a sense unique to the holiday anticipated, celebrated, or remembered. Nope! I don’t think Die Hard can claim that. You leave that movie thinking about the action, not the warm fuzzies of the Christmas spirit.
This epiphany (another holiday!) comes at a good time. The Bethlehem Writers Roundtable is about to open its annual SHORT STORY AWARD competition on January 1. The theme for 2024 is . . . drumroll . . . HOLIDAY STORIES!
They are looking for short stories of 2000 words or fewer on any holiday between U.S. Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day to compete for:
- First prize—$250 and publication in the upcoming anthology, SEASON’S READINGS: MORE SWEET, FUNNY, AND STRANGE HOLIDAY TALES to be published in the Fall of 2024 or in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, the literary journal of the Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC.
- Second prize—$100 and publication in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
- Third prize—$50 and publication in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
- Honorable Mentions (if any) may also be offered publication in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
For more information, see the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable site at: https://bwgwritersroundtable.com/short-story-award-2/
Best of luck to all who enter, and . . .
Happy Holidays!
Books by BWG
Featured Author: Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC
December 1, 2023 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Contests, Featured Author of the Month tagged as #TheBWG, 2024 Short Story Award, Bethlehem Writers Group, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award, Fur Feathers and Scales, new release, Short Story Award
About Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC
The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC (BWG), is a community of mutually supportive fiction and nonfiction authors based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The members are as different from each other as their stories. BWG also publishes quality fiction through their online literary journal, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, and their award-winning A Sweet, Funny, and Strange Anthology series.
Each anthology has an overall theme—broadly interpreted—but includes a variety of genres. All but the first anthology include stories from the winner(s) of The Bethlehem Writers Short Story Award.
Their first anthology, A Christmas Sampler: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales (2009), won two Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Best Anthology and Best Short Fiction.
An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Intrigue is the latest in A Sweet, Funny, and Strange Anthology. This anthology was a finalist in both the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award and the 2023 Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion.
About An Element of Mystery
The Bethlehem Writers Group is pleased to present this collection of tales of mystery and intrigue—the latest in its award-winning series of Sweet, Funny, and Strange® anthologies. From classic whodunnits to tales of the unexplained, each of the twenty-three stories contained herein have an element of mystery that will keep you guessing and wanting to read just one more story.
We’re thrilled to have old friends, but new members of BWG, join us this year. Award-winning author Debra H. Goldstein favors us with a mystery set among volunteers at a synagogue entitled “Death in the Hand of the Tongue,” while “Sense Memory,” by the multi-talented Paula Gail Benson, brings a delightful mix of mystery and the paranormal that helps a young couple find their way to each other.
In addition, we are happy to bring you the winning stories from two of our annual Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award competitions: “Good Cop/Bad Cop” by Trey Dowell (2021 winner) and “The Tabac Man” by Eleanor Ingbretson (2022 winner).
You’ll also find stories from your favorite BWG authors, including Courtney Annicchiarico, Jeff Baird, Peter J Barbour, A. E. Decker, Marianne H. Donley, Ralph Hieb, DT Krippene, Jerry McFadden, Emily P. W. Murphy, Christopher D. Ochs, Dianna Sinovic, Kidd Wadsworth, Paul Weidknecht, and Carol L. Wright.
So get ready to be mystified . . . or intrigued!
Next up for BWG
BWG is working on their eighth anthology, Season’s Readings: More, Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales.
In connection with this anthology, they are hosting The Bethlehem Writers 2024 Short Story Award.
The 2024 Short Story Award opened on January 1, 2024. The theme will be Holiday Stories (broadly interpreted).
BWG is seeking never-published short stories of 2,000 words or fewer. First Place will receive $250 and publication in their upcoming anthology: Season’s Readings: More, Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales or in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
The final judge of the 2024 Short Story Award is Marlo Berliner, the multi-award-winning, bestselling author of The Ghost Chronicles series.
Books from Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC
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