How to write for an international audience

 

Start and finish with courtesy

In many cultures, building a good relationship is more important than any other part of business communication. So be polite and courteous, especially in openings and closings.

 

You’re less likely to create a grammatically confusing sentence if it’s short and has only one idea in it.

 

People who speak little English often take metaphors literally and get confused. Avoid writing ‘The market in your area has a lot of low-hanging fruit’ or ‘We’ve been doing some blue-sky thinking’.

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Prefer one precise word, such as ‘meet’, over two short words, such as ‘run into’. Those combinations of small words are difficult for international readers to understand, especially if they take each of the two words literally. ‘The problem should blow over in a week’ might confuse someone (‘Is it windy?’); whereas ‘The problem should pass in a week’ will work better.

 

In some languages, a double negative is a very strong ‘no’. If you write ‘The visit was not unproductive’, your reader might think the visit was a disaster.

 

What our culture finds funny could easily be offensive in another culture. Also, remember that puns usually mean nothing to someone who is unfamiliar with English.

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Pick one word to name something, and stick with it. For example, if you say ‘report’, don’t add in ‘paper’, ‘research’, or ‘document’ for elegant variation. You’ll only confuse your reader.

 

Use names more than pronouns. Write ‘Please give the report to Sven’, not ‘Please give it to him’. An international reader could have trouble working out what ‘it’ refers to and who ‘him’ is.

 

Write dates in full to avoid confusion, for example, write 6 February 2011, not 06/02/11 or 02/06/11.

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