Global Writting Styles
Global Writting Styles
(OP)
I'm curious to know if people that are writing reports and other technical documents do so with the consideration of the target audience in mind?
I understand that a work instruction one writes for the assembly line will have a different style and grammar usage than a product proposal going to excecutive review. I suppose my question is for those that work in global companies where their [English] writting could be read by people in several countries. Do you use the "Queen's" English, or write in "American" English?
As an example, from Reuters:
Being American/British, should a person go out of their way to change writing habbits for the global audience? If so, in what direction?
I understand that a work instruction one writes for the assembly line will have a different style and grammar usage than a product proposal going to excecutive review. I suppose my question is for those that work in global companies where their [English] writting could be read by people in several countries. Do you use the "Queen's" English, or write in "American" English?
As an example, from Reuters:
Quote:
Patriots Hope Defense Can Take Them Back to Super Bowl
Philadelphia have lost three consecutive NFC title games, while Atlanta are hoping mobile quarterback Michael Vick can lead them to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1999.
Reader comment: Don't you employ proof readers any more? " Philadelphia have lost… while Atlanta are hoping…. It should be Philadelphia HAS lot. Atlanta IS hoping. I swear my six year old has better english.
Editor comment: This is acceptable in British English, but is extremely jarring to American eyes. It should not have been used in a U.S. story about an American event.
Being American/British, should a person go out of their way to change writing habbits for the global audience? If so, in what direction?
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?





RE: Global Writting Styles
RE: Global Writting Styles
Deja vous all over again
RE: Global Writting Styles
jimbo
Buy a dictionary, keep it nearby and USE it. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English is recommended, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
RE: Global Writting Styles
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: Global Writting Styles
Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
RE: Global Writting Styles
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: Global Writting Styles
Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
RE: Global Writting Styles
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
-- Omar Khayyam
RE: Global Writting Styles
You asked for only one mulligan. Ya cannot have two.
I'm calling you on the spelling of habit "habbit" maybe you meant hobbit?
Regards
RE: Global Writting Styles
Jimbo should allow at least a bag of errors per handle per weak.
Ciao.
RE: Global Writting Styles
That said, it should be up to the editorial staff to correct such things. If it really is a piece about US events aimed at a US audience, it isn't necessarily the writer's job to be bidialectal but the editors should take care of it.
I did a mess of editing lately for a US conference & proceedings thereof. If something was odd to me but okay in BritEng, I left it alone. And I know I'd have no way to get it right if I were to try to deliberately write British (though I spelled a lot of things the British way until my teens, since most of what I read as a kid was British).
Hg
RE: Global Writting Styles
The story of american football merely demonstrates the differences in deciding whether or not a team should be treated as a singular group or as a collection of players, and is therefore plural. This has nothing to do with american or british forms of english. The reader who commented that he'd swear his 6 year old knows better english is obviously american as the british would never use profanities in front of their children.
corus
RE: Global Writting Styles
There are many differences between "British" English and American English (Note: "Queen's English" has a different meaning in the UK). I agree with HgTX's sentiment. If you write in your own (local) language and style, it's not wrong, just different. If you try to write in a different style, you will undoubtedly get it just plain wrong. I can't begin to tell you, as a "Brit" how badly structured the sentence in the quotation appears to me. "Philadelphia have" etc. seems fine to me, it's just the rest of the sentence.
In addition, the statement that a six year old "has" English appears ridiculous to me. You can speak English, you can write English, you can understand English, but you can't have English.
As Winston Churchill said of the US and Britain - "They are two nations divided by a common language".
Vive la difference!
RE: Global Writting Styles
RE: Global Writting Styles
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Canterville Ghost, 1882
RE: Global Writting Styles
RE: Global Writting Styles
Just another example I suppose.
RE: Global Writting Styles
Secondly, we call persons with a Bachelor's Degree as Graduates.
RE: Global Writting Styles
Sometimes it just doesn't "sound right" when treated as the singular, even though, I believe, that that is correct.
For really complicated grammatical issues read the five books in Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' trilogy (I know, I know) where they discuss tense and time travel....
PS.
Apologies for any of my posts which currently are littered with typos. I'm trying to get used to a new laptop keyboard and the keys are really stiff!
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past." Douglas Adams
RE: Global Writting Styles
mixing singular and plural is acceptable when it allows you to avoid the dreadfully cumbersome "his or her" or "he or she" while not just using a single gender pronoun - or so my profs always said
(sorry for the late reply but i had to add my 2 cents)
cheers,
rad
"Remember, if you leave it to the last minute, it'll only take a minute"
RE: Global Writting Styles
Hg
RE: Global Writting Styles
1. Logistic - Lot of umbrellas!
2. Moral - Have you got their permissions or are you steeling?
3. Accidental - Implication of damaging their umbrella is more troublesome than breaking your own.
4. Empathy - What they do without umbrellas and it's still raining?
And there is no reason why a Sentence should not be obeyed literally!
Have fun.
Ciao.