adviser/advisor

mdid · **Joined:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 1:01 am **Posts:** 27

I work at a business paper that hasn't used a style guide since it began in 1987. Nightmare! Anyway, I have finally convinced the editor to adopt AP style and allow me to compile our exceptions/additions. He does not like "adviser," and I am unprepared to explain why that is the preferred term. What is the reasoning? I am fresh out of college. I would like some experience and reasoning to back me up. Thank you.

mrleemrlee · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 4:04 pm

I've long enforced it, but I think that spelling is the most nonsensical thing in the AP stylebook. I cannot explain any reason for it. I'd be interested if someone can.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:57 pm

Adviser, as far as I can gather, is the accepted usage with advisor a disputed one. That said, it seems to me that advisor is beginning to win out, which may be the reason for the ruling. When I have had to do style books on the fly I have always adopted the practice of choosing a particular dictionary as the in-house arbiter and taking the first spelling from that. It makes life easier.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 6:13 pm

Adviser is preferred, but I consider it far from the most ridiculous thing in the AP Stylebook.If anyone here is working in Milwaukee, are they still using that jackass local stylebook they were using in '87 when I was there? Examples: "cigaret," "kidnaping," "US" (no periods to "save space.".meanwhile, copy editors wasted untold time taking them out) and strange suspensive hyphenation rules, like ex-Brewers-star Paul Molitor, etc.

SusanV · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 9:02 pm

NW prefers adviser (which I don't like, but that's immaterial). I await the day that it also adopts advisery in the name of consistency!

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 10:08 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:
NW prefers adviser (which I don't like, but that's immaterial). I await the day that it also adopts advisery in the name of consistency!<hr></blockquote>
If Webster's, the Oxford and the Macquarie all prefer adviser, can we all see the pattern here?But for a different view see this reference.

Rio · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:33 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
Adviser is preferred, but I consider it far from the most ridiculous thing in the AP Stylebook.<hr></blockquote>Agreed. "Work force," anyone? <blockquote>quote:<hr>If anyone here is working in Milwaukee, are they still using that jackass local stylebook they were using in '87 when I was there? Examples: "cigaret," "kidnaping," "US" (no periods to "save space.".meanwhile, copy editors wasted untold time taking them out) and strange suspensive hyphenation rules, like ex-Brewers-star Paul Molitor, etc.<hr></blockquote>Wow. That beats the creaky style in Anchorage, where as recently as 1999 we had to change copy to "on-line" and "data base." And then there was the state AP style guide, which said "Alaskan" wasn't an adjective. Whoever came up with that was suffering from sunlight deprivation, or something.

jtogyer · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:21 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Gary Kirchherr:
Wow. That beats the creaky style in Anchorage, where as recently as 1999 we had to change copy to "on-line" and "data base." And then there was the state AP style guide, which said "Alaskan" wasn't an adjective. Whoever came up with that was suffering from sunlight deprivation, or something.<hr></blockquote>I worked at a paper where we had to change the word "township" to "twp." in all proper names. This led to such odd-looking constructs as, "Supervisors in Bumpety Twp. voted last night to demolish the township municipal building," etc.Apparently a dictat had been handed down by a long-dead publisher, and no one who came after him would change it.The same paper insisted on changing the names of all north-south streets in the city to "avenue," even where local preference was "street"; and all east-west streets to "streets," even where local preference was "avenue."I believe the reasoning was that the city's naming conventions weren't consistent, but that we were going to demand consistency.Consistency is desirable, but I fear you can follow rules right down a hole if you're not careful.

EV0822 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:32 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by mdid:
I work at a business paper that hasn't used a style guide since it began in 1987. Nightmare! Anyway, I have finally convinced the editor to adopt AP style and allow me to compile our exceptions/additions. He does not like "adviser," and I am unprepared to explain why that is the preferred term. What is the reasoning? I am fresh out of college. I would like some experience and reasoning to back me up. Thank you.<hr></blockquote>

EV0822 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:33 am

Advisor is a British variation of adviser.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:13 am

You want oddities? The old CP stylebook (74 edition) included this dictate under "personal characteristics":
"Specify whether limb amputations are above or below knee or elbow - it makes a considerable difference."
Why the insistence on this precision? Legendary CP general manager at the time, Gilles Purcell, was an amputee (below the knee I believe).
I don't have the current CP guide handy, but I'm willing to bet the stance on this has softened.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 5:36 pm

Burchfield says "adviser" and "advisor" appear with equal frequency. He prefers "adviser" but doesn't say why. "A decade or two ago one's impression was that adviser was the more usual spelling in BrE and advisor in AmE, but impressions are one thing and hard evidence another." Was AP influenced by anglophilia?Anybody think Burchfield needs an "is" before "hard"?

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:59 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by EV0822:
Advisor is a British variation of adviser.<hr></blockquote>Not on my watch it isn't. Oxford opts for er.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 11:04 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by ADKbrown:
Burchfield says "adviser" and "advisor" appear with equal frequency. He prefers "adviser" but doesn't say why. <hr></blockquote>
Burchfield would probably cite the usage history cited in the full Oxford Dictionary. I'd like to help but way beyond my price range.

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