Page 82 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

Standard or variant English? 71

Be consistent, to underpin a strong, quality-conscious corporate
image. You undermine this if some people in your company use UK
English spellcheck and grammar check and others use US English ver-
sions in their communication. I see this done all the time, simply be-
cause no one has bothered to issue professional corporate guidelines.

Writing for both native and non-native

English speakers

You’ll have noticed that when I refer to native English speakers this
means anyone who speaks any variety of English as their first lan-
guage.
If you’re a non-native English speaker, you may know these cat-
egories: English as an acquired language (EAL), English as a foreign
language (EFL), English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and
English as a second language (ESL). The book is suitable for all and
terms I use are:

● ● native English (NE) speaker or writer to mean someone whose
first language is English, and native English (NE) writing to
refer to their writing;

● ● non-native English (non-NE) speaker or writer to mean someone
whose first language is not English, and non-native English
(non-NE) writing to refer to their writing.

Some surprising problems with English
for global business

As well as there being different varieties of English, there are, in effect,
sub-varieties directly caused by mixing English with the language pat-
terns of the native country. Examples are Chinglish (Chinese–English),
Manglish (Malaysian–English) and Singlish (Singapore–English). The
same phenomenon can happen in any language mix.