Dianavan, see my comments in the brackets to the questions yyou asked me:

"Do you write the way you speak [Yes. Of course-like everyone else- the way I speak depends on the context. I consider posting on Mudcat to be an informal pastime. And my writing reflects that. Sometimes I am more formal than this, and sometimes I am less formal.]

or do you clean it up to sound a little closer to standard English?"
['a little closer to standard English'!??!..Dianavan, because you're cool with me, girlfirend, I'll give you some slack for the implication that my writing might need to be 'cleaned up' or that my writing is only 'close to Standard English'.

LOL!! It's all good.

I think my writing and speech IS standard...True, I like hip-hop slang and other Black folk sayings and I sprinkle some of them in my writing and talking here and there to enhance the flava. But I know that I'm doing it and it's real.. Anyway, it seems to me that using slang and folk sayings is a standard practice in informal converations and writing for some individuals regardless of race or ethnicity].

"I know that most of the novels written by Afro-American women use the Afro-American speech patterns." [I'm not really in to novels as much as I am non-fiction..So I can't confirm that 'most' African American [the current correct referent] use any particular form of African American speech pattern. However, since there are soooo many different African American communities-regions/class/ethnicity etc-
I would rather doubt that all or most African Americans female
{or male} novelists use the same speech patterns for all their characters. That would be stereotypical, and boring wouldn't you think?]

Like I said, Dianavan, you are cool with me. Neither one of us needs to trip on anything written in these particular exchanges. But since you publicly asked, I felt I had to publicly respond.

Peace,
Azizi