Which variant of English should I use when my target audience is the world?


I know that all variants of English (American English, British English, etc.) can be generally understood by everybody who knows any of the English variants. However, there are some regionalisms that can lead to ambiguity.


What are the things I must be aware of when the target audience (of my writing: book, blog, etc.) is the world?



Answer



If your target audience is the world, then you target not only people with a knowledge of American English, British English, and so on, but also people like myself, to whom English is not a mother tongue but a foreign language. If reaching these people is important to you, then you might want to write in a relatively simple English, avoiding not only regionalisms, but also:



  • Idioms that are hard to understand; e.g., some sayings are not trivial or use unusual vocabulary. As an example, I'd say that “a bitter pill to swallow” is rather straightforward to decipher, even if you have never encountered it before. “An axe to grind”, on the other hand, is harder, probably because it refers to a situation that you is not part of daily life (for most of us) anymore!

  • Vocabulary that is out of the ordinary; for example, even though the many words describing different ways to hit or strike (something or someone) express different nuances, “hit” or “strike” is easier to read than “batter” or “thwack” or “clobber”.


Overall, providing a lot of context, and writing simple, concise sentences will help make your point clearer (and not only to “foreigners”).


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