Global English Guidelines for Community Members

[#1]

Did you know that SAS users from over 200 countries visit communities.sas.com? And of course, not all of them use English as their native language.

Countries with SAS communities visitors

Understanding Global English is essential for writers and editors at SAS, so we thought it would be helpful for our community members, as well.

We've listed 10 guidelines that you need to know to write for translation and for nonnative readers.  These come from a handy book by former SAS employee John Kohl. 

1. Use short sentences
2. Use complete sentences
3. Untangle long noun phrases
4. Expand -ED verbs whenever possible
5. Always revise -ING verbs that follow nouns
6. Use "that" liberally
7. Choose simple, precise words that have a limited range of meanings
8. Standardize your terminology and phrasing
9. Don't use slang, idioms, colloquialisms, or figurative language
10. Clarify which parts of a sentence are being joined by "and" or by "or." 

These guidelines are based on John Kohl's comprehensive The Global English Style Guide, which enumerates the Global English principles and provides discussion, analysis, and extensive examples.

[Doc_Duke]

Shelley,

The "top 10" is excellent and a quick read.  We have a lot of students here for whom English is a second language.  This monograph will help our instructors on clarity.

Thanks,

Doc

[ShelleySessoms]

I'm happy you found this helpful, Doc! I'll pass your note along to the author. Thanks for participating in our communities.

Thanks,

Shelley

[MichelleHomes]

Thanks for sharing the document Shelley. I read the guideline a while ago and found it a great resource to help with international communication.

Kind Regards,

Michelle

[ShelleySessoms]

You're very welcome, Michelle. These tips help me in my daily writing, so glad to pass them along to others.

Thanks,

Shelley

[MarkusWeick]

@ShelleySessoms 

Hi Shelley, I just wanted to open the links to the detailed rules document. But both links above seem to be broken.

Best

Markus

[Tom]

This link seems to work to find the book.  https://sasinstitute.redshelf.com/book/1876262 

But the link to the author on that page does not work.  But this one does: https://support.sas.com/en/books/authors/john-kohl.html

Bonus question.  What are the two new rules added since 2019? 

 https://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2019/09/23/top-8-global-english-guidelines/ 

[MarkusWeick]

Thanks @Tom,

the link to the blog post is more than 80% of what I was looking for. For me the no. 10 is clear enough. And if I think about the (new) No. 8 "Standardize your terminology and phrasing", I guess it's especially critical for longer texts.

Best

Markus

[ShelleySessoms]

Sorry for the delay, @MarkusWeick. I was out a bit last week. And thanks, @Tom, for dropping in those links. I've updated the blog a bit to reference the correct links. Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Best,

Shelley 

[MarkusWeick]

Thanks for the info @ShelleySessoms . No further questions at the moment.

Best,

Markus

[idiomatic]

I like the concept of not using local slang, idiom, colloquialisms, or figurative language since it is really weird for international users.