Writing With Global Reach

[Brett_Tabke]

Here is a powerful article by Bryan Eisenberg [clickz.com] on writing for a global audience. He is fastly becoming a reason to read ClickZ again.

I was suprised how many of the good international grammer rules I break. It's like dude, he studdied everyone of my posts, in order to come up with the list. ;-)

[andreasfriedrich]

So Mr. Eisenstein is basically suggesting a kind of go-get-give style as my English teacher called it. Thatīs not something I enjoy reading. While you do not have to use the most eloborate style using just nice and good English is the way I would go.

If being modern world's lingua franca requires English to deteriorate in the way suggested then Iīd consider that a rather high price to pay. Besides the more eloborate your style the more words will be of latin origin which will came in handy (for all those in old Europe and) for those speaking romanic languages.

And just because oneīs mother tounge is not English does not mean that one is stupid. There is really no problem if there is a word that one does not understand. There are online dictionaries, paper dictionaries, people to ask, etc.

Baby talk will not get you anywhere. An interesting style that people can enjoy and learn from will be better by far. And if you want to sell something to a non native speaker you should probably use her native language anyway.

Andreas

[tedster]

In several areas, the article recommends an approach that would replace very simple vocabulary with more precise English words instead of the short, but more ambiguous forms.

From the article:

Avoid phrasal and modal verbs. Phrasal verbs have two or more words. Some examples are "call up," "pull in," "pick at," and "drop out."

I just had my karma return on this issue. As some of you may know, the German language includes a very useful element known as the separable verb. When such a verb is inflected, the "front" of the verb separates from the root and falls to the end position in the phrase or sentence.

The result is something like ending a sentence with a preposition. And separable verbs, in general, are the German parallel to English phrasal verbs.

I just finished editing a German to English translation that was done by a native German speaker. I could barely tweeze any meaning at all from some of those sentences -- all the seperable verbs had been translated literally into an English root verb plus a detached English preposition. My only saving grace was my three years of German in college, which was a big aid in discovering what the original German had been.

The main factor we need to keep in mind when we write for an International audience is that languages are not codes where one word has an exact equivalent in another language.

But we can approach a situation more like one-to-one correspondence when we choose precise nouns and verbs -- rather than relying on colloquial expressions, prepositions, and so forth. As an added bonus, this writing style also creates a stronger communication, even for the colloquial speaker.

[mgream]

The Economist style guide is also worth investigation:
[economist.com...]

You can even take a quiz to test your abilities:
[economist.com...]

For the uninitiated, the Economist has global reach and is easily one of the worlds most-respected no-hype straight-forward business publications. (I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just an avid reader)

Matthew
(scored 9/12)

[cwebb]

@tedster: If you ever need a better translation from german to english, send me an email ;)

There are a lot of typical mistakes germans make, like the one you mentioned above but also others that are more difficult to spot (for german-speaking readers)

I like elaborate writings more than mono-syllabic, four-word sentences! But the article is right, having too long sentences just makes it harder to read, even for english readers!

People tend to just scan pages and you wouldn't want to read something twice before getting a grasp of what it could possibly mean...