Writing in Global English

You provide the information - I provide the English text, written specifically for readers whose first language is not English.

Why you need it

• Global users can easily follow instructions
• Better communication with your audience
• Fewer service calls for installation help

Why I can help

• Writing experience
• Presentations on this topic
• Editing and translating for international audiences
• Writing for audiences with limited English literacy
• My own experience

Writing experience

Before I embarked on my translation career, I wrote documentation for a software company in New York. I write book reviews for the STC's professional journal, Technical Communication and regularly post to my blog, On Language and Translation. In my spare time, I write fiction in English.

Presentations on this topic

I gave presentations on "Writing for Global Audiences" at the tekom conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, in October 2012 and at the Society for Technical Communication Summit in Chicago in May 2012.

Editing and translating for international audiences

Over the years, I have edited documents for various organizations that included members with limited English skills, as well as a speech delivered to an immigrant audience. One of my recent projects involved not only translating a presentation into English, but also adapting that translation for an audience of Russian speakers.

Writing for audiences with limited English literacy

While I was handling the IT needs of a non-profit organization, I also wrote training materials to teach basic computer skills in a battered women's shelter run by the organization. Some of the women being trained had limited English literacy skills, and several had dropped out of high school. I wrote my materials for that specific audience.

My own experience

I am now extremely fluent in US English, but that was not always so. As a child in Austria I struggled to understand the baseball references in Peanuts comics and similar cultural concepts. Living in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, I sometimes find myself "interpreting" communications from government offices, schools, etc. for some of my neighbors whose English skills are limited and whose native languages I do not speak.

See Services for other problems I can help you solve.