Standard written English

Standard written English refers to the preferred form of English as it is written according to prescriptive authorities associated with publishing houses and schools; the standard varieties of English around the world largely align to either British or American English spelling standards. As there is no regulatory body for the English language, there is some disagreement about formal or standard usage, though there is enough agreement that the written form of English is relatively transcendent of dialectal variation. In addition to being used in written media such as books and newspapers, it is also the basis of Signed English. John H. Fisher, author of The Emergence of Standard English, observes that in Spanish, Italian, French, and English, the written languages became standardised before the spoken languages, and that these provide frames of reference for what is considered standard speech. He said, in an interview for the Children of the Code project: There are grammatical constructions and words that one uses in speech that one generally avoids in written compositions. Even in the most colloquial of online chats, interjections such as 'like' are rarer than in speech. Stephen Fry stated his view on the exclusivities of Written English in an anonymous essay on Wodehouse: Wodehouse uses this aspect of the written language when the name 'Psmith' is explained on the page as being 'Psmith' with a silent 'P' as in 'Pshrimp.' This humour cannot be translated into the spoken word. http://www.zabancity.com/forum/showthread.php/2443-Ten-Tips-to-Write-in-a-Formal-Style?p=2941#post2941