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Posted By R McGraa
With so many ‘advisor’ and ‘adviser’ jobs advertised in SHP, for example, I wondered if we could set the record straight on the correct spelling. According to most sources both spellings are acceptable. However, as with all words that have alternate spellings, consistency is the key.
Let the debate begin.
Signed,
Confused H&S Advisor – or should that be Adviser?
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Posted By Tabs
and how does the spelling influence your abilities?
what does it matter?
English is completely unregulated so there is no "correct" spelling at all, merely common-use (to be entered into the Oxford English Dictionary a word only has to achieve common usage).
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Posted By Colin Reeves
The Oxford English dictionary does seem to be equivocal, although the origin is from the French word "aviser" so "er" has a touch more logic.
It is Friday isn't it?
Colin
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Posted By Derek Hunt
The general standard of grammar and spelling these days is so poor that I doubt many would notice.
You only have to take a quick glance at the discussion headings on this forum to see poor spelling and misplaced apostrophes all over the place.
In light of recent stories about the health and safety profession being out of touch, this at least appears to be one area in which we are in tune with modern life.
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Posted By Jay Joshi
Some of my postings have mis-spelt words etc, not intentional or otherwise--simply that I am not a fast typist and the use of the spell check is cumbersome on this forum. I try to recheck ,but do not always have the time !
What is more important in this forum, the accuracy and relevance of the posting or the spelling and grammar?
Those who contribute do so voluntarily and English may not be their first language.
This is not an English Language/Literature forum, but a health & safety one. Correct spelling and grammar is desirable, but in my view, not essential
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Posted By David Bannister
If I help, I am a helper; if I sing, I would be an excruciatingly bad singer; when I post here, am a poster....
BUT, I am also under contract to provide H&S services - a contractor!
Take your pick.
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Posted By Alan Hoskins
But if you are an Adviser/or you act in an Advisory capacity...
A
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Posted By Chris Packham
I am not quite so concerned about whether it is advisor or adviser. What does trouble me is the misuse of words so that I am never quite sure what a word means any more.
For example:
Gay - a happy state of mind - now no longer usable for this purpose!
Organic - meaning what? Grown without synthetic fertilisers and pesticides - or containing carbon? Opposite of organic is presumably inorganic. Anyone ever seen an inorganic carrot?
I could go on with more examples, but I am sure many of you will have your own.
Chris
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Posted By Tabs
Chris, aren't you in danger of doing to the use of English what the media are doing to H&S?
Oxford dictionary has 6 uses of "organic" and only the one labelled "chemistry" refers to carbon - so that is a technical use of a word with other meanings already established.
The use of gay in the modern text has been around now for more than ten years (possibly 20) so if you haven't caught up yet, there is no hope :-)
I think you may be streching things when you say you don't understand. Most people take no more than a couple of encounters with a new word useage to completely grasp it.
Unlike French and German, we need no-one's approval to use a word in a new sense - and long may that continue, it allows us all to be a bit more creative.
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Posted By Chris Packham
Tabs,
My point was simply that this can lead to confusion. If someone describes an object as "organic", how do I know which version they mean?
If I were to sell my carrots as "organic" but had grown them using pesticides, etc., then presumably if I were using this word in the chemical sense I would not be breaking any law, but what would the customer assume?
Yes, perhaps I am being pedantic, but I have only recently encountered a situation where a word was misunderstood and which then led to a potential risk of damage to health. Unfortunately, confidentiality prevents me from revealing any details on this, but it did concern not only me but my client.
Chris
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Posted By BethR
Another thread that doesn't answer the question, it was a simple question.
I personally would say Advisor.
Beth
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Posted By Mitch
The Cam Dic on line lists both but only returns Adviser as the main spelling even when searching Advisor.
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Posted By Chris G
Spelling normaly will not have an effect. However a collegue of mine (with a previous empoloyer)was asked to do a COSHH assessment on the use of Hg. Unfortunately a typo meant Hf had been listed. On his arrival in the labs the team showed him the assessment for their use of Hafnium (Hf) wich, being all OK, he noted he'd carried out the review & went on his way. 4 months later the lab got a major NCR in an audit due to lack of assessment for use of Hg. So, spelling can have consequences. Thankfully the lab did have an assessment of its HF dissolution process
Chris G
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Posted By Tabs
"Another thread that doesn't answer the question, it was a simple question."
Sorry Beth, but both the first and second replies answer the question, we then got side-tracked (discussion) as oft we do once the work is done ;-)
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Posted By Chris Packham
Chris G
Punctuation can also be important! Take the case of the new list of items carrying extra customer duty once issued in Canada, where the comma between fruit and trees was omitted!
And I am sure you have heard the one about the Panda. Goes into a bar, orders a sandwich. Eats. Pulls out gun and fires into the ceiling. Walks out. When stopped produces a dictionary and points to the entry for Panda. This states: "Eats, shoots and leaves"
Chris
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Posted By Raymond Rapp
I believe advisor is an Americanisation and adviser is proppa English.
Ray
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Posted By nigelhammond
All side tracking aside, I think this is a good question - seeing as we are always having to write down our job title it would be nice to be consistent.
I agree that 'Advisor' sounds American -especially if you say it in an American Accent - (not surprisingly!). My personal preference is Adviser.
I have never felt comfortable with the term adviser/advisor anyway, because it sounds so passive. You give advice and then people either follow or ignore it. Whereas being a H&S professional is so much more than that - leader, chaser, nagger, persuader, consultant, mentor, designer, writer, translator, coordinator, entertainer, etc etc.. Still,..coming up with a title that encapsulates all that is so difficult.
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Posted By Tabs
"coming up with a title that encapsulates all that is so difficult"
Manager?
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Posted By nigelhammond
Good point! but 'Manager' may imply that you are fully responsible for managing H&S - whereas the role of a health & safety adviser is to advise, influence etc Management so they take responsibility.
My job title was 'H&S Manager'. I asked to change it to 'H&S Adviser' because I liked to make it clear to enforcement agencies that I was not in control of h&s - especially when things went wrong! However, friends and colleagues said that 'H&S Manager' sounds more important - so I asked to change it back to H&S Manager!
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Posted By Pete48
You say advisor and I say adviser,
you say potatoe and I say potater,
Advisor, adviser, potato, potater,
Lets call the whole thing off!
(with apologies to Fred Astaire)
and then there is the whole queshtun of spellin and gramma and if u fink it matters or not and i always find it difficult in readin stuff waht is ritten wivout fought for thr reader what might find it difficult to undersatnd what is being said as there aint no rhyme or reson to what is written without any puncturation and i agree it aint about being better than anywunjust saying that i find it elps me if there is the occassio...occash... a full stop thingy every now n then cos it ehlps to make sens of ov it all of course we ave to support evryoen but to say it done matta is to miss suffink and we all no whow ard it si to unnerstan each uvver on this fourhum dont we so i ope u c my pint by now thank you and good night
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Posted By Michele Fisher
'coming up with a title that encapsulates all that is so difficult'
......Guru ? lol
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Posted By Rob T
And to think we went to school for 14 years to learn to spell! Of course that doesn't matter these days and, if we make mistakes in maths, it also doesn't matter either as it's the thought that counts!
Hey, an occasional spelling mostake or mmmmiss hit on the keyboard isn't something to worry about (and of course, if English is a second language) but if I receive a CV littered with spelling mistakes, that person isn't going to get the job.
It can also be important to spell correctly or you may make fundamental mistakes i.e. Risk Averse or Risk Adverse - different meanings!
In adviser/or I don't think it makes much difference, although I prefer the more English spelling of Advisor; but neither is a spelling mistake!
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Posted By Linda Westrupp
Interesting discussion! I have also preferred the older English spelling of Adviser rather than the newer American 'Advisor', but both are apparently now acceptable according to the good old Oxford English Dictionary due to custom and usage.
The one that really annoys me is the current acceptability of 'Sulfur' - what happened to English 'Sulphur'?
Linda
p.s. seen on the back of a vehicle in North Staffordshire
'I anna gorrenay tules int van'
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Posted By Martin J Morley
Linda,
you asked about sulfur.
"The spelling of sulfur
In 1994, the British Standards Institution announced that it would adopt the spelling of sulfur and sulfate etc with an ‘f’ not a ‘ph’ since there was no etymological justification for using a ‘ph’ and to continue doing so left the United Kingdom almost unique in the developed world."
Sorry about that, it seems that British Standards aren't always very British!
martin
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Posted By Angela Ferguson
I say Advisor myself but lately there have been a number of old school individuals who have been quite rude in telling me it should be Adviser. As the dictionary shows, either can be used. My thoughts is that some people need to be brought into the 21st century - there are more important things in this world to moan about !
Ange
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