I don't know

Mini question by Antigone68104 on 2011-06-08 12:24:00 UTC Reply

I'm working on my first mission. It's a Hogan's Heroes fic, and all the characters are consistently referring to Hogan in speech as "Col. Hogan". Yep, the abbreviation, not the full word.

It's not a misspelling, but is it close enough to create a mini? I've got to do something with this.

Technically correct, but I would still be wary. by Aster Corbett on 2011-06-08 13:58:00 UTC Reply

While this is technically a correct abbreviation, I am not sure it's used in real life outside of print... and like, addressing envelopes at that.

I have never heard anybody speak 'col.' in my life in the way I have heard 'Mr.' If it shows up in dialogue it may be a charge, or if not a charge just a nonsensical error.

Also, unlike 'Mr.' it's kind of annoying and not in wide use. If you can't charge it as an error, I'd charge for annoying the agents.
I don't know by Lleu on 2011-06-08 12:47:00 UTC Reply

Is that not common practice for military titles? If I were writing a story with military characters, I would definitely use them, with the possible exceptions of "Capt." and "Cmdr.". I'd say it's equivalent to using "Mr." instead of "Mister/Master" or "Mssrs." for "Messieurs" à la the Marauders.

But maybe I'm wrong and standard practice is to write out the full title, in which case I don't really know.

My instinct is to say that if it's that consistent it represents a conscious choice rather than an error. In my opinion, even if it deviates from standard practice, it's not "wrong", per se. I guess I would ask if they do it for other military titles, if any appear. If so, then I think it's fine as long as the fic is internally consistent. If not, then maybe you've got something for inconsistency, but...

Regards,
Lleu

Re: I don't know by Antigone68104 on 2011-06-08 15:30:00 UTC Reply

The abbreviation, sure, that's common. But I've never heard anyone speak the abbreviation. When I was in JROTC, print references to our instructor were "Col. Fellows" but speech references were "Colonel Fellows".

Maybe I'm just being picky; "Mr" is normally typed when the speaker is really saying "Mister".

Exactly by Lleu on 2011-06-08 16:53:00 UTC Reply

As in, speech references that were printed were "Colonel Fellows"? I'm sure I've never heard "Col." spoken as "call/coll", but I would say writing

"'Col. Smith left just a few hours ago,' said the guard."

is equivalent to writing

"'Mr. Smith left just a few hours ago,' said his wife."

— clearly the person isn't saying "call/coll" or "murr", but you use the abbreviation anyway because it's shorter than writing out "colonel" or "mister/master".

Basically, I guess what I'm saying is that unless it's used inconsistently, I don't think I'd charge for it.

Lleu