World Englishes in academic writing: Indian, Nigerian and others

World Englishes are the established varieties of English used around the world, Indian, Nigerian, Singapore, Kenyan and Philippine English among them, and none is a broken version of another. In academic writing the question is narrower: which spelling and usage your course or journal asks for, and whether you keep to it. Every guide we read that speaks to it gives one answer: choose one variety and use it consistently.

EdCitation publishes this guide. Its tools look every reference up in the publisher's record and never write a word of your paper. The guide draws on Oxford English Dictionary articles, a published account of Kachru's model, corpus research and the author guides of journals and a university in six countries, all read on 26 September 2026. Start with your brief: EdCitation's free Check your paper reads it into a checklist, each rule shown with its sentence.

Articles, tense and paraphrase for writers of English as a second language are in academic writing in a second language; this guide is about the variety itself.

What are world Englishes?

World Englishes are localised or indigenised varieties of English used by people of many backgrounds in very different settings, in the Oxford English Dictionary's own definition (Oxford English Dictionary, n.d.-a). The dictionary's World English programme treats British English as one variety among many sharing a common core of words, and describes established varieties as developing their own standards of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.

Kachru's three circles

The model most students meet first is Braj Kachru's, introduced in 1985. Al-Mutairi (2020), reviewing it, sets out three concentric circles:

• Inner Circle: countries where English is the first language of most people, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
• Outer Circle: countries with a colonial history in which English became established in government and public life and is used as a second language; the examples given include India, Malaysia, Singapore, Ghana and Kenya.
• Expanding Circle: countries where English is taught as a foreign language, mainly to communicate with the other two circles, such as Japan, China, Korea, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

What the model leaves out

Al-Mutairi (2020) records criticism from several linguists, and from Kachru himself, that the model oversimplifies and leaves membership of each circle unclear; one critic quoted there calls it "primarily nation-based". Use it to describe where English came from, not to rank anyone's English.

Is Indian, Nigerian or Singapore English acceptable in academic writing?

Yes, as a variety; what you are held to is the spelling and register your course or journal names. The guides we read ask for consistency and a formal register, not for a variety you do not use.

The dictionary's own writers draw the line in the same place. Pingali Sailaja, writing on Indian English for the OED, notes that some of its grammatical features are likely to be judged unacceptable in formal contexts while many others are acceptable there (Sailaja, n.d.). Danica Salazar explains Philippine features that may look like errors as the product of how the language is learned and reasoned about, not carelessness (Salazar, n.d.). In our view that is the right frame: the question is whether a feature suits a formal essay, not whether your English is real.

Which spelling do journals and universities in each country ask for?

Most of the guides we read in these six countries ask for British spelling, the Philippine ones lean American, and a journal's own home can override its country. The table sets out what each one says.

Source: each guide's own page, listed under References, read on 26 September 2026; the journal pages carry no date.

What the table shows

The home of the publication decides, not the country. Critical Pakistan Studies is published by Cambridge University Press for the American Institute of Pakistan Studies and asks for "analyze" and "color" (Critical Pakistan Studies, n.d.), while the Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan asks for British spelling and says a manuscript with inconsistent language will not be published (College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, n.d.).

The Philippines is the clear exception to the British default, and its history explains why: English arrived with the American administration after 1902, taught by American teachers (Salazar, n.d.). The Philippine Review of Economics asks for US spelling, while the Philippine Journal of Linguistics accepts either.

Practice does not always match the guides. Olatoye (2026), working from the Nigerian component of the International Corpus of English and a historical corpus, found a strong preference for British spelling in written Nigerian English, alongside American spellings that grew more frequent in the late twentieth century. Your guide, not the trend, settles your paper.

What do APA and the big publishers say about English varieties?

They say pick one and keep to it. APA Style's spelling page sends writers to the Merriam-Webster dictionary and, where a dictionary gives a choice, asks you to select one spelling and use it throughout (American Psychological Association, 2019). Taylor & Francis leaves the choice to each journal's instructions and asks authors to apply that journal's spelling consistently (Taylor & Francis, n.d.). Elsevier's and Sage's author pages could not be read for this guide, as their sites blocked the request, so we say nothing about them.

Spelling and referencing are separate choices: the Philippine Journal of Linguistics asks for APA 7 references and accepts UK or US spelling. Follow the brief for your own sentences and APA 7 for the list.

How do world Englishes differ in spelling, words and grammar?

They differ most in vocabulary, then in some patterns of grammar and prepositions, and least in spelling, which mostly follows British or American rules. Every example below is documented by the OED or a style guide, never our guess.

Words with no international equivalent

A word like merry-go-round in its Kenyan sense or next tomorrow in its Nigerian one is standard where it is used, and the OED has recorded both (Oxford English Dictionary, n.d.-b; Salazar, 2020). Gloss it once for readers elsewhere: "a merry-go-round (a rotating savings group)". Economic & Political Weekly shows the same care with numbers: lakh and crore only for Indian financial data, where 10 lakh is a million (Economic & Political Weekly, n.d.).

Grammar and prepositions in formal register

Prepositions and verb patterns are where the consistency rule bites hardest. Salazar (n.d.) traces result to to the pattern of lead to, and cope up with to keep up with: sound reasoning about English, yet a journal asking for British or US usage expects result in and cope with. Sailaja (n.d.) notes that gift with two objects is typical of Indian English. Neither is wrong; each belongs to a variety, and a formal paper uses the one its guide names.

How do I choose one variety and keep to it?

Choose the variety your brief or journal names, or if it names none, the one your department's guide uses, and keep it to the last line.

1. Read the brief. EdCitation's Check your paper lists its rules (word limit, sources, citation style, format), each with its sentence, and apart from them what no rule can test.
2. Read the journal's instructions for a manuscript: two journals in one country can disagree.
3. Set the spellchecker to that variety before you write, not after.
4. Pick one dictionary: Oxford for British spelling, as NUS History asks, Merriam-Webster for American, as APA asks.
5. Leave quotations and names alone. NUS History keeps a quotation's original spelling, and EPW keeps an organisation's own spelling, so World Trade Organization keeps its z.
6. Gloss local words on first use.
7. Build the references from the record with Cite a source, so no spelling of yours creeps into a title, then check the list with Verify references.

How do I set a spell check language setting to the right English?

In Word, select the whole text, then choose Review, Language, Set Proofing Language, and pick the language; the same menu can switch on automatic detection (Microsoft, n.d.), which is worth turning off if it keeps changing the variety mid-document. The Journal of Agricultural Extension asks authors to run language software set to UK English before submitting (Agricultural Extension Society of Nigeria, n.d.).

We could not confirm from Microsoft's current pages which national varieties Word lists, so check your own copy, and if yours is missing choose the setting whose spelling your guide asks for. A spellchecker catches color in a British paper but not result to, which is real words in a real order; that blind spot has a history, told in spellcheck, autocorrect and the writing tools before AI.

How does EdCitation help with a paper in any variety of English?

EdCitation is the best tool for the part of your paper that should not depend on your English at all: the references. Each is looked up in the publisher's record, never composed, so a title keeps its own spelling whatever variety you write in, which no chatbot can promise. We ran each tool on 26 September 2026 and quote what came back.

Check your paper on our own brief

We wrote a short brief of our own for this test, marked here as ours: an essay of 1,800 to 2,000 words on whether Outer Circle universities should accept local varieties, at least eight scholarly sources "at least five of them published since 2015", APA 7, and "Use either British or American spelling throughout, and do not mix them." Check your paper returned "8 rules your paper can be checked against": word count "1,800 to 2,000 words", sources "At least 8 sources", source dates "At least 5 sources: 2015 or later", citation style "APA 7", font, 12 pt, line spacing "2 ×", and margins "0.98 in" for 2.5 cm.

The spelling sentence went, with "Explain any local word on first use.", under "What it asks you to do, which no rule can test". That is honest: keeping a variety is yours to check.

Cite a source on world-Englishes research

The DOI of Olatoye's article gave this APA 7 entry, correct as it stands:

Olatoye, T. (2026). The Americanization of Nigerian English spelling and punctuation. World Englishes, 45(1), 76–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12724

Its Harvard entry, from the same record, gave 2025, the year it first appeared online, so check the year against the issue. Al-Mutairi's DOI gave "Al-Mutairi, M. A. (2019)" with the title in capitals and only page 85. The publisher's record holds only the online date and the first page; the article shows Mohammad A. Al-Mutairi, volume 13 of 2020, pages 85 to 88, as in our References. Why names trip records is in names in references across cultures.

Verify references on a list of four

We ran four entries in APA 7: Al-Mutairi corrected, Gonçalves and colleagues, Greenbaum and Nelson's 1996 paper on the International Corpus of English, and Olatoye. Verify references returned three verified, each with "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches.", and Al-Mutairi as "check this": "The work was published in 2019, not 2020; the record has no date in 2020." None was retracted. The record, not the entry, was at fault: it holds only the 2019 online date, and the flag sent us to the article to find out.

What it costs

Find sources, Cite a source, Verify references and Check your paper are free, with no account. Mechanics QA, in Pro at $8 a month, checks a whole file against the style and flags language slips a spellchecker lets through; Theoretics QA, in Max at $24 a month, judges the paper against its own assignment. Neither rewrites a sentence, and no tool can promise a mark (pricing).

Quick questions

Is Nigerian English acceptable in essays?

Yes, as a variety; the essay follows the spelling and register its brief names. The Nigerian journal guide we read asks for British (UK) English, used consistently.

Should I use British or American spelling in India, Singapore or Kenya?

Usually British, as the Indian, Singaporean and Kenyan guides we read ask. Your own brief or journal decides.

What are Kachru's three circles?

A 1985 model placing English in an Inner Circle (first language), an Outer Circle (established second language, as in India) and an Expanding Circle (foreign language). Its critics, Kachru among them, call it oversimplified.

Does Philippine English use American spelling?

Its journals lean that way, since English arrived with the American administration: the Philippine Review of Economics asks for US spelling, and the Philippine Journal of Linguistics accepts UK or US if consistent.

Can EdCitation check which English my assignment wants?

EdCitation's free Check your paper finds the sentence in your brief about spelling and lists it among the things you check yourself, beside the rules it can test.

References

• Agricultural Extension Society of Nigeria. (n.d.). Information for authors. Journal of Agricultural Extension. https://journal.aesonnigeria.org/index.php/jae/information/authors
• Al-Mutairi, M. A. (2020). Kachru's three concentric circles model of English language: An overview of criticism & the place of Kuwait in it. English Language Teaching, 13(1), 85–88. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v13n1p85
• American Psychological Association. (2019). Spelling principles. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/spelling-hyphenation/spelling
• College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. (n.d.). Instructions for authors. Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. https://jcpsp.pk/instructions-to-author.php
• Critical Pakistan Studies. (n.d.). Preparing your materials. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/critical-pakistan-studies/information/author-instructions/preparing-your-materials
• Economic & Political Weekly. (n.d.). Handbook of EPW style. https://www.epw.in/sites/default/files/2024-02/EPW%20Style%20Guide.pdf
• Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology. (n.d.). For authors. Scientific Scholar. https://ijdvl.com/contributors/
• Kenya Medical Research Institute. (n.d.). Author guidelines. African Journal of Health Sciences, African Journals Online. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajhs/about/submissions
• Linguistic Society of the Philippines. (n.d.). Author guidelines. Philippine Journal of Linguistics. https://www.pjl-phil.com/author-guidelines
• Microsoft. (n.d.). Check spelling and grammar in a different language. Microsoft Support. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/check-spelling-and-grammar-in-a-different-language
• National University of Singapore, Department of History. (2024). Honours thesis: Essay style sheet (as at 25 Jan 2024). https://fass.nus.edu.sg/hist/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2024/03/HT-Essay-stylesheet-as-at-25-Jan-2024.pdf
• Olatoye, T. (2026). The Americanization of Nigerian English spelling and punctuation. World Englishes, 45(1), 76–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12724
• Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.-a). World Englishes. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/discover/world-englishes
• Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.-b). Kenyan English. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/discover/kenyan-english/
• Oxford English Dictionary. (2016). Hawker centre, n. In Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/hawker-centre_n
• Philippine Review of Economics. (n.d.). Submission guidelines. University of the Philippines School of Economics. https://pre.econ.upd.edu.ph/index.php/pre/pages/view/submission
• Sailaja, P. (n.d.). Introduction to Indian English. Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/discover/introduction-to-indian-english/
• Salazar, D. (n.d.). Introduction to Philippine English. Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/discover/introduction-to-philippine-english
• Salazar, D. (2020). Nigerian English in the OED January 2020 update. Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/discover/nigerian-english-in-the-oed
• Taylor & Francis. (n.d.). Taylor & Francis manuscript layout guide. Author Services. https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-your-research/writing-your-paper/journal-manuscript-layout-guide/