Writing for Internationalization

Writing with inter­na­tion­al­iza­tion in mind enables content to meet the require­ments of audiences that differ in culture, custom and language. 

Following all our best practices will help broaden your reach when writing for a global audience, but more specifically:

• Use simple sentences as much as possible. We can’t say it enough: keep it clear and concise.
• Adhere to parallel structure to maintain consistency for non-native speakers when presenting information and data.
• Avoid acronyms, jargon, idioms, puns and metaphors. They don’t translate well. 
  • Watch out for the frequent offenders — sports metaphors and cultural references — like ​“bandwagon fan” or ​“old-school traditions.”
• Avoid holiday references. They’re often culture-specific and carry religious undertones.
  • The phrase ​“he was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning” can be alienating for someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas.
• Use mul­ti­cul­tur­al names and examples. 
• Leave some extra space and be mindful of length. Translated text usually results in contracted or expanded content. 
  • If you’re writing for product, work with your designer to make sure you aren’t com­pro­mis­ing layout and structure.

The default is always American English, but there are some extra con­sid­er­a­tions for targeting a specific audience based on locale. Here’s a quick checklist to cover the basics.

• Double check your spelling. It could be as simple as a letter change or as complex as an entirely different word altogether. Google searches will be your friend here. Some common examples:
  • Words ending in ​“or,” like ​“color” versus ​“colour”
  • Words ending in ​“yze” or ​“ize,” such as ​“analyze” versus ​“analyse”
  • Words ending in ​“er,” for example ​“center” versus ​“centre”
  • Words with ​“l”s, like ​“canceled” versus ​“cancelled”
  • Medical terms like ​“orthopedic” versus ​“orthopaedic”
  • Plants and produce such as ​“cilantro” versus ​“coriander,” or ​“eggplant” versus ​“aubergine”
• Take another look at your subject-verb agreement when referencing sports teams and organizations.

• Think about converting mea­sure­ments to the metric system.
  • Your readers might not know the distance of a yard, what 80 degrees Fahrenheit feels like, or how heavy 120 pounds is.
• Adjust the format of dates, times, numbers and addresses as needed.
  • For inter­na­tion­al dates, we use the format of ​“day, month, year”: 27 January 2020. Stay away from numbers-only formats and never shorten the year to two digits.
  • Only include the time zone when the time pertains to a specific location that isn’t local.
  • Be aware that inter­na­tion­al calls require country codes and that inter­na­tion­al phone numbers fluctuate in number of digits.
  • Postal/​ZIP codes also range in length. Make sure you designate the country on an address if it’s not local.
• Update any currency to reflect local value. Quarters, dimes and nickels don’t mean anything outside of the U.S.!

Being a global sports company, we have to recognize the world’s term for what Americans call soccer. If we have an inter­na­tion­al audience, and we’re referring to the sport with corner kicks and dribbling with your feet, we use the term ​“global football.” When referring to the sport with quar­ter­backs and touchdowns, we use the term ​“American football.” Regardless of the sport, you need to differentiate.

Now in instances with U.S. leagues or brands, we can still use soccer because there’s a qualifier, i.e., NCAA soccer or U.S. club soccer.

Basically, regardless of whether you’re calling it ​“football” or ​“soccer,” it needs a qualifier for clarity’s sake.