US vs. UK preferences for the term urbanness 08:57 Dec 14, 2013
Again, thank you all for your suggestions. I spent some time gathering examples from academic articles, and it seems that 'urbanness' is used without problem in US articles but is more or less avoided in UK articles or placed in scare quotes. The article in question is destined for the UK. The word occurs just 6 times in the article, but unfortunately also in its title. I have gone for re-writing the first sentence as I gave above. Desmond has a good point regarding sentence 2; 'urbanness' can be considered part of a long process and isn't achieved 'in one go'. However, 'townscape', is still not right here, as explained above. Hence I've gone for: Therefore, producing a successful feeling of urbanisation in completely new environments planned at one go could be considered the litmus test of change in urban planning. Having said all this, the author may well stick with 'urbanness', as he's googled it, too. |