Writing for an international audience

When you communicate, you need to consider your audience. That seems obvious, but what if your audience are not native English speakers? What if they come from many different countries? What if what you write ends up in a completely different country to what you imagined your audience to be in?

This is what we face when we publish Japan Harvest and also the situation I’m working with in my social media ministry with OMF Japan. Our OMF social media goal is mobilisation for mission. Our articles and social media posts on Instagram and Facebook are read by thousands of different people in various places with a far greater variety of English than we will ever know. It’s easy to assume that American English or British English is a standard that you should apply in a situation like this so that every English speaker can read what’s been written. But it’s actually more complex than that.

Global English

The term “global English” has become more widely used over the last 25 years. It can mean a simplified, neutral version of English or a form of English used to communicate between people who don’t share a native language. The focus is less on standard British or American English and more on clarity and mutual understanding.

When you work and live in a multicultural environment, most people learn to modify their language so that people around them can understand. It’s no good in Japan with my non-Australian colleagues if I use slang like “See ya at the barbie this arvo,” “That train was chockers,” or “Not happy, Jan!”

Not long ago, I was meeting with an American colleague, and she offered to buy me coffee. I said, “Oh, are you shouting me?” I instantly realised I’d used a phrase she might not know (it means one person is paying for everyone in the group). But she’s worked for many years in a multicultural environment and knew the phrase, though I doubt she’d use it herself. We’ve both learned how to operate in these situations: She’s learned some Australian phrases, and I’ve learned that not everyone knows “Australian.”

Tips

A bit of research on this topic shows me there are some basic principles of writing for a global audience and then some more complicated ones.¹ Indeed, there is even contradictory advice.

Some basic guidelines:

• Be literal. Avoid figurative or metaphorical language.
• Avoid idioms, jargon, and colloquialisms.
• Choose widely understood vocabulary.
• Be cautious about using humour.
• Use clear, direct sentence structure.
• Choose shorter words and sentences.
• Avoid ambiguity.
• Clarify pronoun references.
• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms.

I don’t have room here to share the more complex advice on this topic, except for this: These days, English writers are advised in general to use active tense as much as possible in writing. That advice is also given for writing for an international audience because active voice tends to be clearer. However, it’s important to be cautious—there are times that active tense could possibly be too direct or even offensive.

The main thing we need to remember is that we must always write respectfully. Writing condescendingly or “down to” an audience is never okay. Always be cautious of your tone—assume that your audience is intelligent but may not understand your version of English because they’ve learned English somewhere else. When you write for an international audience, do your best to adjust the language you use to include as many speakers of English as you can. 

1. For more detailed suggestions on how to write for a global audience (including the possibility of translation) see Writing-world.com, https://www.writing-world.com/international/schell.shtml and Open edX, https://draft-edx-style-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/global_English.html