Think Globally about Your Software and Documentation

by Susan Hackett

Thinking Globally

As Starke-Meyering (1999, 13) points out, sophisticated information technology, new trade agreements, and new international product guidelines all contribute to an increased need for software professionals to be competent in the area of international technical communication. Widespread use of the internet makes product information readily accessible to consumers in countries all over the world, so global competition will continue to increase. Lingo Systems’ The Guide to Translation and Localization (2002, 7) states that “Major software and hardware manufacturers report that 60% or more of their business revenues are now earned outside the U.S.” Increased international sales mean an increased need for product documentation that is adapted to international audiences.

As more and more companies expand to global markets, software professionals need to know how to work with translators and how to write for audiences that are non-native speakers of English.

Ursula Moyer of Lingo Systems provides the following example of what can happen when software professionals are writing for international audiences (2002, 19).

From David Eastman: A few years back, I submitted a translation for a business presentation to be given in Brazil. The presentation listed most of the people in the company, including the Chief Investments Officer. His name was followed by the abbreviation CIO. I just left it as it was, and I was very sorry later, because it was brought to my attention that cio in Portuguese means “in heat.”

Stories of similar faux pas in international communication abound. Although such anecdotes are humorous, mistakes and oversights in documentation can result in losses much more serious than a little embarrassment. Misunderstandings can result in loss of revenue, property, and even human lives.

In the introduction to a case study which discusses the various factors that contributed to the sinking of the M/S Estonia, Lynn (In Bosley 2001, 127) poses questions about the responsibilities of technical communicators.

The Estonia case identifies a wide range of factors that raise questions about a technical communicator’s responsibilities. This analysis of the tragedy suggests that, in a crisis involving public safety, loss of life might be reduced by better communication planning for crises. As of the year 2000, for example, most passenger ships still identify deck levels only by name, rather than by number, which can confuse passengers seeking a lifeboat in an emergency. Does the technical communicator have a moral or ethical responsibility for advising supervisors of potential risks that may be more apparent to a communication expert than to a technical expert? … Does the technical writer’s job end when safety or operating instructions are provided in a single language?

The Estonia case is not unique. Situations abound in which users’ ability to comprehend documentation can be crucial to health and safety. Maylath (In Bosley 2001) discusses the issues raised when a company decides to change its translation service for documentation that accompanies user manuals for surgical equipment. The company had been using native speakers of the target languages who were also doctors and decided to change to a different translation service that might not provide the same quality of translation. In this case, an accurate translation of the documentation could make the difference between life and death for patients. Hoft (In Bosley 2001) also points out the critical role that technical communicators play in communicating the risks of natural hazards.

Emily Thrush (Plain English 2001, 289) relates a particularly frightening story concerning the importance of writing English that can be understood by non-native speakers.

In 1989, a China Airlines flight, flying in zero visibility, crashed into the side of a mountain shortly after take-off. On the voice recorder, the last words of the Chinese pilot to the co-pilot were, “What does pull up mean?” When I first heard this story, I wondered why a pilot, presumably trained in the international English used for aviation, would not understand a command from the tower. On investigation, I learned that the official term used in “control tower” talk is climb. However, the warning system built into U.S.-made planes issues the message “Pull up!” when altitude drops or an object looms ahead.

Thrush goes on to explain that phrasal verbs or two-word verbs are particularly difficult for non-native speakers because they are idiomatic. “Pull up” used to refer to the action of pulling up a control level that adjusted the degree of ascent of a plane. Now, however, most controls are dials or buttons so there would be nothing intuitive about the term, “pull up” for a non-native speaker.

Traditionally, Americans have tended to be ethnocentric in their approach. As these examples illustrate, American software professionals must make the effort to broaden their understanding of the issues involved in international communication.

Terms

The definitions given here are based on how Lingo Systems (2002, 4) defines them.

Globalization

Globalization refers to the process of conceptualizing a product line for the global marketplace so that it can be sold anywhere in the world with only minor revision.

Internationalization:

Internationalization is the process of engineering a product so that it can be easily and efficiently localized. This engineering can be as basic as formatting document layout or as complex as enabling software to handle double-byte character sets.

Localization

Localization refers to the process of customizing a product for consumers in a target market so that when they use it, they feel like it was designed or written by a native of their own country.

Translation

Translation is the process of converting the written word of a source language into the written word of a target language. Translation is a crucial component of localization.

The following terms describe the types of English that are frequently recommended for writing for translators or international speakers of English.

Plain English

Plain English is a method of writing that is designed to make government documents more understandable by consumers, taxpayers, and other non-specialist readers (Thrush, Plain English, 2001, 291). The writer has more latitude because plain English involves guidelines such as keeping sentences short, avoiding passive voice, avoiding nominalizations, and using lists where appropriate (Plain English Campaign).

Simplified English

Simplified English (SE) consists of a core vocabulary of terms chosen for their simplicity and commonality with other European languages and a set of writing rules that govern grammar and style. SE was originally developed at Fokker, primarily by John Kirkman. It was officially adopted and modified by the Association Europeene de Constructeurs de Material Aerospatial (AECMA) in response to requests by European airline companies to improve the readability of aircraft documentation (Spyridakis and Shubert, 1997, 4).

Controlled Language

Controlled language refers to language systems that are “designed and used to make both machine and human translation faster and more accurate and to improve the clarity of communication of professionals in the same line of work” (Thrush, Plain English, 2001, 290). Thrush states that usage of this term is not standardized, but this is the definition that generally applies.

Culture and Technical Communication

Because cultural differences influence the way people reason and perceive, these differences can have a tremendous effect on technical communication for international audiences. Modes of problem solving vary from culture to culture, as well as expectations concerning how much information should be presented and in what way. Some cultures employ linear reasoning and prefer that information be conveyed that way. Other cultures use more circular methods of reasoning. In addition, one’s cultural frame of reference affects what information is perceived as being important and therefore worth retaining.

Culture affects preferences concerning the format in which information is presented. Graphics which are completely acceptable in one culture may be offensive or even obscene in another. Colors, too, can mean different things in different countries or even to members of different ethnic groups within the same country.

Culture can even affect the way people count. For example, in the U.S. people count each finger as a unit, but in Thailand and Bangladesh, people count each joint of the finger. In those countries, a picture of a hand with three raised fingers would mean nine units, not three (Rimalower 2000, 2).

Cultural Understanding of Terms

Many varieties of English are spoken around the world. Speakers of these various types of English may understand each other, but it does not mean that they are going to understand all terms in the same way. Hammerich and Harrison (2002, 303) provide an example that illustrates well how culture affects our understanding of terms.

Because all of us recognize patterns based on our cultural upbringing, we build up cultural models that we generally accept without question. Gee provides the word bachelor – a deceptively simple word that’s loaded with cultural implications. What exactly is a bachelor. “An unmarried man,” you might say. But Gee (1999, 58) asks if these men are bachelors:

The Pope?
A man who’s been divorced three times?
A gay man?
An elderly senile man who’s never been married?

The answers are “No,” because, although all these men are unmarried, our idea of a bachelor is based on a cultural model of a man who has never been married, but is eligible or wants to be eligible for a heterosexual relationship that leads to marriage. These interpretations of bachelor are based on Western culture.

Obviously, it would be impossible to eliminate all instances of cultural bias from every word we use. When developing documentation for international audiences, it is important at least to be aware of the fact that some terms can mean different things in different cultural contexts. If you are in doubt about the advisability of using a particular term, it pays to do some research.

Cultural Editing

Hoft recommends what she calls “internationalization” of documents. This involves separating the core content that does not change no matter what its target country or language is and content that is culturally bound. She states, “By identifying the core information and separating it from the international variables, you can significantly minimize the localization effort of an information product” (Hoft 1995, 20). For example, performing an international user analysis may reveal that the following aspects of a document need to vary based on cultural context: colors; format for currency, date, and time; units of measurement; graphics; and product packaging. These would be the international variables (Hoft 1995, 21).

Hoft (1995, 129-130) also recommends what she calls “cultural editing.” She presents a list of categories of information that can be culturally bound. The following list is Hoft’s list of these categories.

Information that falls into these culturally bound categories does not have to be eliminated from documentation, but Hoft (1995, 129) recommends that writers conduct research to discover if that information is absolutely necessary. If it is not, she recommends removing it.

Categories for Cultural Editing

Dates and date format
Currency and currency format
Number formatting
Accounting practices
List separators
Sorting and collating orders
Time, time zones, and time formats
Units of measurement
Symbols (in English, some symbols are / and &)
Telephone numbers
Addresses and address formats
Date formats
Historic events
Acronyms and abbreviations (including ones in Latin)
Forms of address and titles
Geographic references
Technology (electrical outlets, computer keyboards, printer page size capabilities
Legal information (warranties, copyrights, patents, trademarks, health- and safety-related information)
Page sizes
Binding methods
Illustrations of people
Hand gestures
Clothing
Many everyday items (refrigerators, trash cans, post office boxes)
Architecture
Popular culture
The role of women in the workplace
The relationship of men and women in the workplace
Management practices
Languages
Text directionality
Humor
Colors
Communication styles
Learning styles (the relationship of the instructor and the student)

Source: Hoft, N. L. 1995. International technical communication: How to export information about high technology.

New York: John Wiley & Sons, 129-130.

Writing for International Audiences

International technical communication involves writing English for several types of audiences:

Those whose primary language is English. Even for this audience, confusions can occur, however, because of the many varieties of English throughout the world.
Non-native speakers of English, for whom English is a second language, who are reading the material in English.
Non-native speakers of English who are reading material that was written in English but translated into their primary language (or another language that they are able to read).

Pringle (2001) advises, “The best way to create documents that localize and translate well is to follow the general guidelines for good technical writing, know English as well as possible, and know at least one foreign language as well as possible.” Although Pringle’s advice is basically sound, writing for international audiences does involve more than just following the guidelines for good technical writing.

Basic Style Guidelines

Most of the style guidelines for writing in Plain English apply to writing for international audiences. The following list of guidelines combines the recommendations given in Pringle’s slide presentation (2001), How to Write in Plain English (Plain English Campaign) and Editing for an International Audience (Hollis Weber 2002).

Guidelines for Writing for International Audiences

Be concise.
Keep your sentences short. Average sentence length should be from 15 to 20 words.
Avoid redundancy. Non-native readers of English may think you’re trying to say something different when you repeat the same thing in different ways.
Use active verbs. Only use passive when there is no other way to say it.
Use “you” and “we” instead of words like “the user” or “the supplier.”
Use the simplest words that will fit the situation. Use everyday English whenever possible.
Choose concrete words of Anglo-Saxon origin (for example, think instead of consider, get instead of procure).
Use technical terms when appropriate. For example, you can’t say coal for lignite.
Avoid nominalizations.
Avoid humor, puns, and plays on words. (Humor is generally very culture-specific.)
Avoid jargon, unless you are writing for an audience of professionals who will recognize the terms you are using.
Avoid acronyms and abbreviations.
Avoid slang, colloquialisms, and idiomatic expressions.
Avoid metaphors. They are usually culture-specific and difficult to translate.
Avoid two-word verbs.
Avoid references to seasons or holidays. For example, summer in North America is winter in South America, and not all countries have a holiday called Thanksgiving.
Avoid references to sports figures, politicians, or religious leaders.
Avoid references to popular culture.
Use date formats that spell out all or part of the month. For example, 30 July 2004 is a common international format.
Internationalize phone numbers by using all digits, and by including the country code as well as the area code. For example, a U.S. or Canadian phone number would appear this way: +1 617 494-8045, where 1 is the country code.
Provide alternate telephone or fax numbers if you publicize 800 numbers (unless the “free call” number is good for incoming international calls).

Sources:

Hollis Weber, J. 2002. Editing for an international audience. Technical Editors Eyrie. http://www.jeanweber.com/howto/internat.htm.

Plain English Campaign. How to write in plain English. http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/plainenglishguide.html.

Pringle, M. M. 2001. Globalization, localization, translation. PowerPoint slide presentation. University of Minnesota. http://sunny.crk.umn.edu/courses/STC-Prin/Rhet4561/Lecture13.ppt.

Writing for Translation

In addition to the following the guidelines above, writers need to be conscious of other issues when writing text that will be translated from English into another language. Stewart and Stohl (1993, 1) give the following two pointers for writing text for translation:

Be Consistent.

Be consistent in use of terms. Don’t use more than one term to describe the same thing. Even though this practice is traditionally advised in expository writing classes, it can be confusing to translators. It is better to define a term the first time it is used and then consistently use that same term throughout the document.

Avoid Ambiguous Terms.

Sometimes the dictionary meaning of a term will conflict with its cultural use. Also, some words have three or four meanings. Words with more than one meaning can lead to misunderstandings.

Supporting Documents for Translators

Moyer (2002, 16) recommends providing translators with the following three items: a style guideline, a glossary in the source language, and a terminology list in the target language. Preparing these documents will add time at the beginning of a project, but they will help ensure consistency in the final product.

Style Guidelines

According to Moyer (2002, 16), style guidelines should address the following issues:

The tone of the localization documentation.
Those terms that should be translated and those that should not.
Rules for capitalization and accent marks.
Translation of titles and subtitles.
Conversation of measurements.
Rules for when and how numbers should be spelled out.
Use of abbreviations.
Punctuation rules.

Glossary

The glossary is a list of terms in the source language, with their definitions. The list should include terms that are difficult, technical, or product-specific.

Terminology List

The terminology list is an agreed-upon list of terms in the target language. These terms include industry-specific terminology, abbreviations, product names, non-translated terms and measurements. The purpose of this list is to ensure consistency throughout the documentation. The terminology list should be developed before the translation process begins.

Syntactic Cues

Kohl recommends that writers provide syntactic cues as a way to improve translatability and readability of documents. He defines syntactic cues as “elements or aspects of language that help readers correctly analyze sentence structure and/or identify parts of speech” (Kohl 1999, 149). Syntactic cues include suffixes, articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and word order. Many of them are mandatory, but some are optional. Kohl contends that many times including the optional syntactic cues may add extra words, but they will make it easier for translators or non-native speakers of English to comprehend the meaning. The following are syntactic cues that are optional in some contexts (Kohl, 1999, 150):

that
that + the verb to be
the articles a, an, and the
to (both as a preposition and as an infinitive marker)
modal verbs such as can, should, and may
auxiliary verbs such as is, are, was, were, has, have, had, has been, have been, had been, and will have been
Prepositions such as by, for, with, in
Correlative pairs such as either …or, both … and, if … then
Punctuation such as hyphens, commas, and parentheses
Pronouns or noun subjects

Organization Issues

Rimalower (2000, 2) points out that it is important to be aware of how the target audience sorts lists. A related issue is the organization of documents. Obviously, topics that are arranged alphabetically in English are going to cause problems for translators because the translated terms may not start with the same letter in the target language. In addition, not all languages use the same 26-letter alphabet that English uses.

Design Issues

When creating documents that will be read by international audiences, software professionals must consider a number of design issues. These issues include text expansion, use of graphics and color, fonts and paper sizes, and environmental factors.

Text Expansion

St. Amant (2003, 16) states, “Considering the surge of international business, software professionals should design all online projects under the assumption that they will eventually be translated.” When designing documents that will be translated, whether online or printed, it is important to leave enough white space to accommodate text expansion. For example, in English the phrase, “my friend’s sister’s cat” is four words; the same phrase in French requires eight words, “le chat de la soeur de mon ami.”

Hoft (1995, 146) offers the following suggestions for dealing with text expansion:

Choose a large type size for the source language, if it tends to expand after translation. For example, use 12-point type in the source language and change it to 10-point type when it is translated. This will accommodate a 30 percent text expansion, such as from English to German or Spanish. The drawback of this method is that it can increase production costs.

Increase the width of the margins for the source language if text expands after translation, and then decrease margins for the translated text.

Use kerning, leading, and space between paragraphs to accommodate text expansion. These techniques require software that will support them.

Text Directionality

When designing documents that will be translated, it is important to remember that not all languages read from right to left. Languages can read from left to right, right to left, or in vertical columns; and some languages even combine text directionality, especially when words or numbers are borrowed from other languages (Hoft 1995, 150). Hebrew and Arabic read from right to left, but both of these languages contain words borrowed from other languages that are read from left to right. Japanese, Chinese, and Korean all use vertical text directionality.

Formatting

Formatting styles can pose a problem when text is translated. Hoft (1995, 153) advises writers to limit the number of formatting styles. She also advises that writers restrict the use of local formatting styles (such as bolding a word for emphasis). If local formatting is used, it needs to be consistent throughout and document.

Graphics

Because of the potential for text expansion, it is a good idea to separate graphics from text. If text does need to be superimposed on a graphic, technical writers should provide translators with an oversized version of the graphic to accommodate text expansion (St. Amant 2003, 18). It is much easier to reduce the size of a graphic file than expand it.

Although graphics add interest to text, St. Amant (2003, 17) recommends that to save localization costs, you limit their use. Limiting the number of images means less time spent in research to avoid committing a cultural faux pas.

Graphics that are acceptable in one culture may cause confusion or offense in another. Hammerich and Harrison (2002, 305) give the example of an American globalization manager who translated all of his copy into the language of the target country and changed the image to show people with the appropriate ethnicity. The only problem was that in the picture a woman was showing a man how to use the product. This was a breach of accepted gender roles in that country. Not only that, the man was wearing a green shirt; the color green was associated with a neighboring country with which the target country had less-than-friendly relations. Also, even though the models were of the correct ethnicity, they had a decidedly American look. That one image managed to cause multiple cultural offenses.

Hoft (1995, 364) and Hammerich and Harrison (2002, 306) recommend avoiding the following subjects in graphics:

Religious symbols
People (gender roles are areas of particular sensitivity)
Animals (in some cultures certain animals have religious significance; other countries view certain animals as base or dirty)
Numbers
Body parts, language, and gestures
Everyday objects (many everyday objects have different shapes in different countries)

The following list gives guidelines for graphics that depict people.

Sensitive Areas for Depicting People

Race

Avoid indicating skin color. Pure black and pure white better represent generic skin.

Use unshaded line drawings of people.

Use simple, abstract figures, devoid of recognizable bone structure or hair style.

Gender

Avoid public display of physical contact between the sexes. (This behavior is unacceptable in some countries, even for married couples.)

Avoid overt gender roles.

Avoid showing one gender in a position of power over the other.

Avoid depicting exposed female body parts. (For example in some Islamic cultures, only the hands and eyes of women may be shown.)

Nudity

Nudity is readily accepted by Western Europe, but not in many other countries.

Exposure of individual body parts can be offensive, especially if female.

In Asia, never show the sole of the foot.

Hand Gestures

Use hands only to promote clarity. Show them manipulating a recognizable object or performing a procedure.

Stylize hands so they are not clearly male or female.

If a procedure can be performed as easily with either left or right hand, show it being performed with the right hand. (The left hand is for unclean tasks in some Arabic countries.)

Source: Flint, P. M. Lord van Slyke, D. Starke-Meyerring, and A. Thompson. 1999. Going online: Helping technical communicators help translators. Technical Communication, 46 (2) 241.

Even after conducting research, if at all possible, it is a good idea to show graphics to a member of the target culture to ensure that they are not culturally offensive.

Color

Responses to color vary from culture to culture. Although it is impossible to list all of the possible interpretations of color worldwide here, The following table lists some of the possible cultural interpretations of color.

Colors and their possible cultural interpretations

Color	Target Country	Possible Interpretation of Color
Red	Thailand	Most popular color
	China	Prosperity, rebirth
	Malaysia	Valor and might
	Ivory Coast	Mourning (dark red)
	U.K.	First place
	France and U.K.	Masculinity
	U.S.	Power, stop, danger
	India	Procreation, life
	Many African countries	Blasphemy or death
Green	Thailand	Least favorite color
	Muslims	Favorite color of the prophet Mohammed
	U.S.	Proceed, capitalism, envy
	Republic of Ireland	Patriotism
	French, the Netherlands, and Sweden	Cosmetics
	Countries that have dense and green jungles	Disease
	Many countries	Environmentally sound and safe
Black	Thailand	Old age and death
	Malays of Malaysia	Courage
	Malaysian Indians	Evil
	Malaysians of Chinese descent	Death
	U.S. and many European countries	Death
Orange	Thailand	Religion
	Northern Ireland	Patriotism
White	Thailand	Purity
	Muslim and Hindus	Purity and peace
	Christians	Purity, faith, innocence, virginity
	Japan and many Asian countries	Death and mourning
Blue	Thailand	No meaning associated
	Malays of Malaysia	Beauty and liberty
	Malays of Indian and Chinese descent	Grief and sadness
	Ghana	Joy
	Iran	Negative connotation
	Egypt	Truth
	U.S.	Equipment that reduces the possibility of physical injury; first place, excellence
	Many European countries	Calming, sleep
	Hopi Indians
Yellow	China	Joy, wealth, rank, authority
	Malaysia	Royal color
	U.S.	Caution, possibly of physical danger
	Many countries of the world	Femininity
	Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand	Happiness and generally positive connotation
Purple	Latin America	Death
	Europe and the Middle East	Royalty
	China	Barbarous
Pink	U.S.	Femininity

Source: Hoft, N. L. 1995. International technical communication: How to export information about high technology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 267-268.

As illustrated by the various responses of ethnic groups in Malaysia to the colors blue and black, regional and ethnic differences within countries can produce conflicting reactions to color. Hoft (1995, 265) cautions that it is dangerous to generalize about color; however, it is worth researching potential reactions to color in the target audience.

Paper Sizes

North Americans use one set of paper standards, while most other countries use the paper sizes specified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The ISO has two paper standards, A4 and A5. The following table shows the paper standards for North America and the ISO.

Paper size standards for North America and the ISO

Standard

Millimeters

Inches

North America

216 x 279

178 x 229

8.5 x 11

7 x 9

ISO

210 x 297 (A4)

148 x 210 (A5)

8.25 x 11.66

5.875 x 8.5

Source: Hoft, N. L. 1995. International technical communication: How to export information about high technology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 153.

Environmental Factors

Particularly when designing web sites and online documentation, it is important to remember that users’ situations vary in other parts of the world. For example, in some countries download time is a key issue because internet access is billed per minute and modem speeds tend to be slower. Images take much longer to download than text. For web sites that will be viewed by international audiences, it is important to use them judiciously. Also, users in some parts of the world may be sharing computers. For these users, it is important to design web pages and online materials that are easily printed and do not require a lot of ink.

Legal Issues

Hoft (1995, 302-303) lists legal content that needs to be verified for all countries. She stresses the importance of having an attorney who is qualified to research this information be the one who reviews the material, rather than marketing personnel. Aspects of documentation that are affected by the laws in various countries include:

Trademarks and copyrights

Licenses and warranties

Health, personal safety, and environmental requirements

Labels on machinery

Writers who prepare documentation for international audiences also should be aware of the standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO 9000 and 9001 are international standards for quality management systems. More than 90 countries have adopted ISO 9000 as national standards (Simply Quality 2004) . These standards especially affect process and procedure documentation.

Internet Resources

Culturegrams

http://www.culturegrams.com

Dave’s ESL Café

http://www.eslcafe.com

Editing for an International Audience

http://www.jeanweber.com/hoto/internat.htm

EServer TC Library

http://tc.eserver.org

INTECOM

http://www.intecom.org/dynindex.html

Nancy Hoft Consulting

http://www.world-ready.com/

(Contains bibliography and case studies in international communication)

Plain English Campaign

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk

STC International Communication Special Interest Group

http://www.stcsig.org/itc/

The CIA World Factbook Online

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook

The Online UN Embassy Site

http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html

The U.S. Department of State Electronic Research Collection

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu

What If Dr. Seuss Wrote Technical Manuals?

http://holyjoe.org/poetry/anonE.htm

(This one is just for comic relief!)

References

Bosley, D. S., ed. 2001. Global contexts: Case studies in international technical communication. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Flint, P. M. Lord van Slyke, D. Starke-Meyerring, and A. Thompson. 1999. Going online: Helping technical communicators help translators. Technical Communication, 46 (2) 238-248.

Gee, J. P. 1999. An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. London: Routledge. Quoted in Hammerich, I. and C. Harrison. 2002. Developing online content: The principles of writing and editing for the web. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hall, E. T. 1976. Beyond culture. Garden City: Doubleday.

Hammerich, I. and C. Harrison. 2002. Developing online content: The principles of writing and editing for the web. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hoft, N. L. 2001. Communicating the risks of natural hazards: The world-at-large is at stake. In. Bosley, 174-208.

Hoft, N. L. 1995. International technical communication: How to export information about high technology. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hofstede, G. 1991. Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hollis Weber, J. 2002. Editing for an international audience. Technical Editors Eyrie. http://www.jeanweber.com/howto/internat.htm.

Kampf, C. 2002. Processes of intercultural communication as part of shifting cultural paradigms. Proceedings. IEEE International Professional Communication Conference. http://libsys.uah.edu:2207/iel5/8118/22469/01049106.pdf?tp=&arnumber=1049106&isnumber=22469.

Kohl, J. R. 1999. Improving translatability and readability with syntactic cues. Technical Communication (46) 2) 149-166.

Lingo Systems. 2002. The guide to translation and localization.

http://techwr-l.com/techwhirl/pdfs/lingo_guide_book.pdf.

Lynn, E. M. 2001. Human error, communication, failures, and the sinking of the M/S Estonia: Recipe for disaster. In Bosley, 27-41.

Maylath, B. Translating user manuals: A surgical equipment company’s “quick cut.” In Bosley, 64-80.

Moyer, C. 2002. “Glossaries and terminology lists – Their importance to quality translation.” In Lingo Systems. The guide to translation and localization.

http://techwr-l.com/techwhirl/pdfs/lingo_guide_book.pdf. 16-20.

Plain English Campaign. How to write in plain English. http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/plainenglishguide.html.

Pringle, M. M. 2001. Globalization, localization, translation. PowerPoint slide presentation. University of Minnesota. http://sunny.crk.umn.edu/courses/STC-Prin/Rhet4561/Lecture13.ppt.

Rimalower, George P. 2000. Crossing borders: Tips for preparing your writing for subsequent translation. STC Proceedings. http://www.stc.org/confproceed/2000/PDFs/00019.PDF.

St. Amant, K. R. 2003. Designing web sites for international audiences. Intercom. http://www.stc.org/intercom/PDFs/2003/200305_15-18.pdf.

Simply Quality. 2004. “What are ISO 9000 and ISO 9001?” http://www.isoeasy.org.

Starke-Meyerring, D. 1999. Developing an online learning environment for international technical communication. Proceedings, 1999 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,, 13-19. http://libsys.uah.edu:2207/iel5/6498/17347/00799095.pdf?tp=&arnumber=799095 &isnumber=17347.

Stewart, S. D. and S. M. Stohl. 1993. Communicating with international and multinational audiences. STC Proceedings.

http://www.stc.org/confproceed/1993/PDFs/PG0710.PDF.

Thrush, E. A. 2001. High context and low context cultures: How much communication is too much? In Bosley, 27-41.

Thrush, E. A. 2001. Plain English? A study of plain English vocabulary and international audiences. Technical Communication, 48 (3) 289-296.

Bibliography

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Navigation

Think Globally about Your Software and Documentation

Thinking Globally

Terms

Culture and Technical Communication

Cultural Understanding of Terms

Cultural Editing

Categories for Cultural Editing

Writing for International Audiences

Basic Style Guidelines

Guidelines for Writing for International Audiences

Writing for Translation

Supporting Documents for Translators

Style Guidelines

Glossary

Terminology List

Syntactic Cues

Organization Issues

Design Issues

Text Expansion

Text Directionality

Formatting

Graphics

Color

Paper Sizes

Environmental Factors

Legal Issues

Trademarks and copyrights

Internet Resources

Suggested Readings

Overview

Cultural Differences

Document Design

ISO 9000

Research

Writing Style

References

Bibliography