articles, etc.

[<WRCENTER@lucy.ch.pdx.edu>]

Howdy,

This AM  (in the shower this time, not the bus) I thought:  Hmmm . . .
If I'm willing to "give" away articles based on the protracted learning
curve for non-native writers who don't have articles in their native
languages, would I be willing to "give" away other aspects of English
if the native language of the writer I'm working with doesn't have a
specific feature or uses that feature differently?  For instance, would
I "give" a writer whose native language was Arabic, relative clauses;
similiarly, would I correct the spelling of someone who comes from 
a language group which confuses, say, "as" and "has"?


I'm really not trying to be arch here,  or be a gadfly --this just popped
into my cranium this AM and am wondering what y'all think.

Cliff Barnett