"R E" <ranma_e@hotmail.com> wrote:

I've often wondered about this.  I've written a few fanfics in my time, and 
sometimes I get C&C saying 'alright' should be 'all right', sometimes I get 
C&C saying the opposite.  I don't know if it's an American thing or just 
differing opinions between various writers.

"All right" is the standard and correct form. "Alright" is considered by
some to be an acceptable shortened form, and by others to be simply
incorrect. As far as I know, there's no American/British difference on
this. The "Pocket Oxford" dictionary lists "alright" but flags it as
"disputed." The American Heritage Dictionary lists it as a "nonstandard
variant of 'all right,'" and adds the following:


"Usage Note: Despite the appearance of the form alright in works of such
well-known writers as Langston Hughes and James Joyce, the single word
spelling has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since
similar fusions such as already and altogether have never raised any
objections. The difference may lie in the fact that already and
altogether became single words back in the Middle Ages, whereas alright
has only been around for a little more than a century and was called out
by language critics as a misspelling. Consequently, one who uses
alright, especially in formal writing, runs the risk that readers may
view it as an error or as the willful breaking of convention."

[Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language,
Fourth Edition, quoted at www.dictionary.com]


I can't imagine why people have been telling you not to use "all right,"
but, well, those people are just wrong, as you can confirm by checking a
dictionary yourself.


Gary Kleppe (C&C of this fic to follow... eventually....)
http://www.akane.org/gary/comics.html

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