Writing for Localization  ## Metadata - Author: [[Ika Chamielec]] - Full Title: Writing for Localization - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #localization - #uxwriting - #globalenglish Author: Ika Chamielec Source: Medium article Reference: https://medium.com/@ika.chamielec_18528/writing-for-localization-8665f35f3332 date created: 2025-08-22 00:00 --- # Title: Writing for localization ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis Prompt](#-darvo-analysis-prompt) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### References: - John R. Kohl, “The Global English Style Guide: Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market” ## 📝 Summary: The article argues that writing with localization in mind—especially when English is the source language—reduces costs, improves usability, and increases translation quality for both human and machine translators. Leveraging Global English principles, the author recommends concise copy, retention of structural cues, standard English usage, simplicity (short sentences, active voice, positive framing), and consistency. These practices elevate readability for non-native users and make machine translation more reliable, ultimately speeding up localization and lowering expenses. Pre-localization is presented as a distinct, trainable skill supported by tools like Grammarly and Writer. ## 📖 Main Content: The author begins by contrasting literary translation’s tolerance for ambiguity with technical/UX contexts where ambiguity incurs cost. Because English often serves as the initial and pivot language in global UX, clear English source copy is critical. The piece highlights Global English as a framework for translatability: remove ambiguity, be explicit for non-native readers, and maintain consistency to avoid fuzzy matches in translation memories. Tactical guidance includes: - Cut verbosity to lower cognitive load and translation cost (“click OK” vs. “click the OK button”). - Keep grammatical cues (articles, prepositions, “that”) to help readers and MT parse structure. - Conform to standard usage; avoid inventive verbings like “mouse back” that confound MT and slow translators. - Make it simple: shorter sentences, prioritize verbs, prefer active voice, and use positive phrasing. - Stay consistent through a style guide to improve translator efficiency, reduce fuzzy matches, and support brand consistency. Finally, the article frames pre-localization as a skill worth cultivating, aided by writing tools, and essential to modern product development. ### 🗒️ Notes - Problem framing - Technical/UX translation has real cost; ambiguity and complexity slow translators and degrade MT quality. - English is the de facto source language and fallback for global users, so clarity in English is pivotal. - Global English principles (Kohl) - Reduce ambiguity: avoid structures that don’t translate well. - Be explicit: avoid unusual grammar; retain helpful function words. - Be consistent: terminology, punctuation, capitalization to reduce fuzzy TM matches. - Practical techniques - Conciseness: eliminate wordy phrases; shorten without losing meaning. - Preserve cues: keep “that,” articles, prepositions to signal structure. - Standard usage: avoid nonstandard verb forms like “to mouse.” - Simplicity: short sentences; verbs > nominalizations; active > passive; positive > negative constructions. - Operational benefits - Improves human translator speed and accuracy. - Boosts MT output quality; enables more MT + post-editing. - Lowers localization time and cost; supports brand consistency. - Skill development - Treat pre-localization as a distinct skill. - Use tools (e.g., Grammarly, Writer) as aids, not crutches. ## 📖 References: - John R. Kohl, “The Global English Style Guide: Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market” - Medium post: Writing for localization by Ika Chamielec ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1) Original idea: “Content intended for localization can and should be prepared for it already during the writing stage… As machine translation continues to improve… writing with localization in mind has been shown to enhance translation quality.” - Paraphrase: If you know your text will be localized, build those needs into the first draft. This upfront work makes translation faster and easier. With MT getting better, teams should lean into it—and pre-localized writing measurably raises MT output quality. 2) Original idea: “Cutting the unnecessary doesn’t always mean removing optional parts… keeping ‘that’ helps readers and machine-translation software identify a noun clause ahead.” - Paraphrase: Concise doesn’t mean skeletal. Retain guiding words like “that,” which clarify structure for both people and MT. These small cues signal how the sentence works and prevent misinterpretation. ## 📰 Newsletter: Level up your global UX: Writing for localization This week we’re spotlighting practical tactics to make your English source copy friendlier for humans and machines. If your product ships worldwide, your English often becomes the blueprint—and poor blueprints get expensive. Highlights: - Embrace Global English: reduce ambiguity, be explicit, and stay consistent to help translators and MT. - Trim, don’t amputate: cut fluff (“click OK”), but keep signposts like “that” to preserve meaning. - Keep it standard: avoid clever verbings (“mouse back”) that trip up MT and slow translators. - Make it simple: short sentences, verbs over nominalizations, active voice, positive framing. - Document it: a style guide reduces fuzzy TM matches and supports brand consistency. Recommended reading: John R. Kohl’s The Global English Style Guide. For hands-on polish, tools like Grammarly and Writer can help—just remember, pre-localization is a skill worth practicing. Got localization wins or war stories? Share them in our community forum, and we’ll feature the best tips next issue. ## ✅ Action Items: Positioning prompt for a Developer Advocate (GoDaddy, WordPress, OSS/OSPO focus) - Alignment overview: - Open-source advocacy: Clear, translatable documentation lowers barriers for multilingual contributors and users, expanding the contributor base and community inclusivity. - Contributor engagement: Global English standards and style guides reduce friction for non-native English contributors, improving first-issue experiences and PR quality. - Education: Use the article’s best practices to build workshops on “pre-localization for docs/UX” for WordPress meetups, contributor days, and onboarding materials. - OSPO objectives: Institutionalize Global English and localization-ready writing as policy; integrate into CI for docs; measure translation velocity, quality, and cost. - Transparency & inclusivity: Publish a public style guide and glossary; encourage community feedback loops for terms that don’t localize well. - Tactical next steps: - Create a WordPress Docs “Global English” addendum with examples (short sentences, active voice, retain cues). - Launch contributor-friendly linting rules in GitHub Actions for docs PRs (e.g., passive voice, nominalizations, nonstandard verbing). - Build a glossary for core terms and component names to reduce TM fuzziness and ensure consistent translations. - Pilot MT + human post-editing for HelpHub articles; track cycle time and quality scores. - Run workshops at WordCamps on writing for localization; include hands-on exercises converting problematic strings into localization-ready copy. - Advocate for funding translation memory maintenance and terminology governance as sustainability init - Summary: Writing with localization in mind can improve the translation process, save time and money, and enhance translation quality. English, as a global language, plays a special role in UX design and should be clear and understandable for non-native speakers. Following the principles of Global English, such as eliminating ambiguity and inconsistencies, can support writing for localization. Cutting unnecessary content, while keeping helpful cues, conforming to standard English, and simplifying sentences can make content more usable and cost-efficient. Consistency in writing and adherence to a style guide can also reduce translation expenses and improve understanding. Writing for localization is a skill that can be learned and trained. - URL: https://medium.com/@ika.chamielec_18528/writing-for-localization-8665f35f3332 #### How writing with localization in mind can help you create content that is friendlier for both human and machine translators  As a trained translator I’ve been taught to handle diverse source texts. Even if they were complex, ambiguous or simply badly written, it was my duty to decode and convey meaning accurately in the target language. While this kind of shifting the responsibility onto the translator can still apply to works of literature and some marketing content, it shouldn’t be the case in the context of technical or UX writing. The reason is simple: **it costs money**. #### Pre-localization as the writer’s responsibility #### **Writing with localization in mind** Content intended for localization can and should be prepared for it already during the writing stage. This accelerates and improves the translation process. > Translating content that isn’t pre-localized can be unnecessarily cognitively demanding and time-consuming for human translators. It might also restrict the use of machine translation to support and speed up the process. > > As machine translation continues to improve, there’s every reason for both translators and businesses to embrace it. And writing with localization in mind has been shown to enhance translation quality. #### The special role of English in global UX Design Because of its global reach, English frequently serves as the initial language for many products, making it a common source for UX translation. Additionally, non-native English speakers rely on it to navigate websites and apps if their own language is not an option (and sometimes even if it is!). This makes the clarity and understandability of the English copy especially important for the success of any digital product. How can this be accomplished? #### Global English for translatability One good way may be to follow the principles of Global English. In his book **“The Global English Style Guide. Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market” John R. Kohl** outlines practical suggestions for crafting technical content that is to be read by or translated for global audiences. This article emphasizes the recommendations that can be applicable to UX writing, enhancing the clarity and translatability of UX content. **What is Global English and how it supports writing for localization** The nature of Global English is best answered through its goals, which include: * eliminating ambiguity that can impede translation, for example by recognizing structures and expressions that will not translate well * making English more explicit for non-native speakers, for example by eliminating unusual grammar constructions * eliminating unnecessary inconsistencies to enhance both understandability and translatability, for example by avoiding fuzzy matches from translation memories Writing in Global English offers significant advantages: * enhancing readability for both non-native users and translators * elevating machine translation quality, leading to reduced localization time and costs #### Some Global English ways to pre-localize your content #### Cut the fluff… One of the best ways to ensure both the usability and cost-efficiency of your content is to… cut the fluff. Decreasing the volume of the copy reduces both the cognitive load for the user and the translation costs for your organization. One way to do that is by eliminating wordy phrases: “click the OK button” can usually be shortened to “click OK” without any loss of clarity. #### …but leave the cues Cutting the unnecessary **doesn’t always mean removing optional parts**. Kohl, in his book, cautions against a telegraphic writing style that drops helpful cues like articles, prepositions, or conjunctions. These words might be optional in some cases but they provide clearer sentence structure. For instance, consider the word “that” in the sentence: “Make sure that your antivirus software isn’t blocking any Minecraft files.” Although you might want to omit it, keeping “that” helps readers and machine-translation software identify a noun clause ahead. #### Conform to standard English This point might seem straightforward, but it’s surprisingly common to come across writing that doesn’t follow this guideline. Many writers, both native and non-native, are tempted to use words unconventionally, either to save space or to appear more sophisticated. For example, in his book, Kohl mentions the use of the noun “mouse” as a verb. While saying “Mouse back to the previous field” may be shorter than “Move the mouse pointer back to the previous field,” there’s a strong chance it won’t be translated accurately by machine-translation software. Even human translators might need to pause and think and, **as UX writers, our goal is to minimize cognitive effort for both users and translators**. #### Make it simple This piece of advice writers hear all the time, though often without a clear breakdown of what it entails. While several factors are at play, you can achieve significant improvements by following these simple rules: * **Shorten sentences**: This enhances readability. * **Prioritize verbs**: Choose verbs over nominalizations for clarity and empowerment. For instance, “enables you to create” is more impactful than “enables the creation of.” * **Use active voice**: Reserve passive voice for cases where the agent really is unknown or unimportant. * **Opt for positivity**: Employ positive sentences to prevent unnecessary complexities. For example, “You can only access databases for which you have permissions” is not only clearer but also friendlier than “You can’t access databases for which you don’t have permissions.” #### Stay consistent Consistency in writing isn’t just for language enthusiasts. > Crafting and adhering to a style guide trims needless variation and directly leads to reduced translation expenses. > > The use of consistent terminology, punctuation, and capitalization not only bolsters understanding for human translators. It also reduces the number of fuzzy matches in translation memories, making them more efficient. Plus, language consistency is part of brand consistency, which is a proven long-term value that brings tangible financial gains. #### Writing for localization as a skill Without a doubt, consistently keeping these numerous writing principles in mind isn’t a simple task. **This is where writing aids like Grammarly and Writer can often prove invaluable.** > Yet, the initial step is to recognize that writing for localization differs from other forms of writing and that pre-localization is a skill that can and should be learned and trained. > >, Writing for Localization, Ika Chamielec, 01ha4pzkx6crgyvva9jhssq8t5.