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error · Section 1: Words

Rule 1.14: Use American English spelling

Use American English spelling as given in the STE dictionary, unless an applicable official directive specifically requires a different spelling; leave quoted text (e.g. text shown on a screen or label) unchanged even if it uses non-American spelling.

What a checker looks for

A clear deviation from the rule.

  • Flag words spelled with British/Commonwealth English conventions instead of American English — common patterns include -our vs -or (colour/color, favour/favor), -re vs -er (centre/center, fibre/fiber, litre/liter), -ise/-yse vs -ize/-yze (organise/organize, analyse/analyze, realise/realize), and doubled consonants before suffixes (travelled/traveled).

What this rule does not cover

  • Do not flag a British spelling that appears inside quoted text reproducing an on-screen label, placard, or other text that must not be altered (see rule 8.6).

How to fix it

Replace the British/Commonwealth spelling with its American English equivalent, leaving any quoted/reproduced text exactly as-is.

Constraints on the fix

  • Never alter the spelling inside directly quoted text (screen text, labels, placards).

Examples

Not STE: The door is made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic.

STE: The door is made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic.

'fibre' (British) becomes 'fiber' (American).

Not STE: Change the colour of the display.

STE: Change the color of the display.

'colour' (British) becomes 'color' (American).

Where this fits in AI governance

A rule a checker can test is a rule a model can be held to. The same discipline, on the governance side of this site.

  • Hallucination
    An approved word used in an unapproved sense is the controlled-language version of a plausible wrong answer.
  • Misinformation and confabulation
    The register entry for text that reads correctly and is not.
  • Output validation guardrails
    A controlled language is a checkable output constraint. This is the control that treats model output as something to be checked rather than trusted.

Source

ASD-STE100 Issue 9, Section 1 - Words, page 1-1-17.

This page is commentary and does not reproduce the standard. About this rule pack.

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