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gmw · 05-27-2012, 05:14 AM

Here's something I've only just hit ... or only just recognised (it maybe time I looked back through some of my earlier work): Measurements.

I just found a page of my writing where I describe something as being "hundreds of feet high", and then later describe something as "five metres wide". That inconsistency bothers me, though it is perfectly understandable - to me.

Ostensibly Australia uses metric, so it would seem that I should probably replace "hundreds of feet" with "eighty metres or more" (or something like that) - even though it doesn't read as well. I can't just say "many metres", because 10 would be "many", and it's higher than that. My problem, which I suspect I share with others of a similar age, is that I are tend to be partly bilingual in terms of measurements (without necessarily being fluent in either), so such mixing of terminology comes fairly naturally - I just use the mode that best suits the occasion.

I remember my father once saying (while we were standing on top of a granite outcropping overlooking a huge flat plain) that he could see for miles and miles, but was ######ed if he could see for kilometres and kilometres.

The problem I face in my writing is that if I convert to metres (aside from not reading as neatly), I might alienate older generations from the work and possibly Americans.

"Metres" vs "meters" is okay, I think most people generally convert American vs UK spelling in their heads without noticing, especially these days of the Internet. And "five metres" seems okay, translating that to "five yards" doesn't interrupt your reading very much. But "eighty metres" feels (to me) like a different problem, especially when used in a deliberately vague phrase like "eighty metres or more", whereas "hundreds of feet" gives the imprecise feeling for the description that I was looking for.

So what do you think? Is it okay to mix feet and metres in the same text? Does this apply to other measurements as well? Could such measurements be one reason to seriously consider localisation even for self-published ebooks?

05-27-2012, 05:14 AM	#9
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Here's something I've only just hit ... or only just recognised (it maybe time I looked back through some of my earlier work): Measurements. I just found a page of my writing where I describe something as being "hundreds of feet high", and then later describe something as "five metres wide". That inconsistency bothers me, though it is perfectly understandable - to me. Ostensibly Australia uses metric, so it would seem that I should probably replace "hundreds of feet" with "eighty metres or more" (or something like that) - even though it doesn't read as well. I can't just say "many metres", because 10 would be "many", and it's higher than that. My problem, which I suspect I share with others of a similar age, is that I are tend to be partly bilingual in terms of measurements (without necessarily being fluent in either), so such mixing of terminology comes fairly naturally - I just use the mode that best suits the occasion. I remember my father once saying (while we were standing on top of a granite outcropping overlooking a huge flat plain) that he could see for miles and miles, but was ######ed if he could see for kilometres and kilometres. The problem I face in my writing is that if I convert to metres (aside from not reading as neatly), I might alienate older generations from the work and possibly Americans. "Metres" vs "meters" is okay, I think most people generally convert American vs UK spelling in their heads without noticing, especially these days of the Internet. And "five metres" seems okay, translating that to "five yards" doesn't interrupt your reading very much. But "eighty metres" feels (to me) like a different problem, especially when used in a deliberately vague phrase like "eighty metres or more", whereas "hundreds of feet" gives the imprecise feeling for the description that I was looking for. So what do you think? Is it okay to mix feet and metres in the same text? Does this apply to other measurements as well? Could such measurements be one reason to seriously consider localisation even for self-published ebooks?