Lessons on cross-cultural communication.

The Elements of International English Style: A Guide to Writing Correspondence, Reports, Technical Documents and Internet Pages for a Global Audience by Edmond H. Weiss M.E. Sharpe, 2005 184 pages

There are dozens of books on communicating globally. The trials, tribulations and terrors of attempting to do so have been well documented--tales of linguistic misunderstanding leading to costly mistakes, embarrassing encounters and humorous assumptions. Many are real, and given the creative range of human imagination, some are apocryphal.

That said, do we need yet another book on how to communicate effectively internationally, and if so, is it possible that any revelations can be offered? Surprisingly, the answers are maybe and yes. The Elements of International English Style manages to carve out another niche in the ongoing quest for global understanding--a not unremarkable achievement. Early on, the book is off-putting because of its somewhat pedantic approach, but before relegating it to the look-at-it-later stack, the reader should persevere.

Author Edmond Weiss notes that while English is the first language of about 400 million people (he calls them E1s), there are more than a billion who speak it as a second language (E2s). "All communication risks misunderstanding," Weiss notes, "and communication between E1s and E2s simply increases those risks." The focus of his book, then, is how to minimize the difficulties in communicating with E2s, especially those trying to understand business and technical documents. Often, he says, the key is to challenge accepted ideas of clarity, to forgo eloquence for comprehension and to break a few rules in order to eliminate confusion.

One tactic to get the most out of this slender volume is to read it quickly for an overview, noting the areas of miscommunication vulnerability. The book then can serve as a useful reference for avoiding specific linguistic and cultural minefields. One helpful section describing ways to make life easier for E2 readers details the virtues of simplified syntax, aggressive punctuation and readable typefaces. Another chapter offers tips to prepare copy for translation and for correspondence. Also helpful is a checklist for "internationalizing" a web site.

Despite the book's academic trappings (carefully noted sources, discussion questions and sometimes stuffy vocabulary), Weiss unexpectedly introduces bits of humor to reward the diligent reader. Speaking of jargon, for example, he comments, "Impact as a verb has no place in writing, except for those who are discussing asteroids and wisdom teeth." And he gains credibility with his observation, "Americans will overuse basically in much the way that British E1s overuse actually; as far as I can tell, neither word means anything at all."

The usual admonitions about global communication appear: no slang, no jargon, no sarcasm or irony, no idiomatic expressions, no cultural or literary allusions, no military or sports vocabulary and/or anything else that might befuddle an E2 attempting a literal translation. Also included are such anomalous ideas as substituting longer, more complex words with a single meaning for simpler words with many meanings, and hyphenating normally unhyphenated words to improve comprehension.

Other useful sections summarize principles of simplicity, clarity, correspondence and cultural adaptation, and writing for translation. Readers reluctant to plunge into uncharted international semantic seas can test the waters by completing an exercise in Appendix 2, "Sentences that Need Editing." In fact, this is not a bad way for a communication manager to introduce his or her staff to some of the more obvious traps.

Weiss also discusses how different cultural values can affect communication. He notes, for example, that in the U.S., people in business are admired for directness, lack of formality and effective use of time--traits seen in other parts of the world as rude, uncultured and immature. In the end, if nothing else, reading Weiss' book should heighten one's international cultural sensitivity.

Norm Leaper, ABC, IABC Fellow, is president of The Leaper Company, a San Francisco, California-based communication consultancy. He is also a past president of IABC. He can be reached at [e-mail].