This is how I write for the global audience.
I bear in mind that as much as I am familiar with the European culture (I was born in Central Europe), the American culture (I received American education) and the Asian culture (I have been living in China for many, many years), I may not be aware of local customs and traditions in every single country on earth.
I am not that familiar yet with South America, Africa, Middle East, Australia and the Pacific as much as I would want to though, but I always try to learn something new every day.
Here are a few rules that I follow when writing my articles to cater for readers from around the world.
1. I keep things as simple as possible. I try to standardize and simplify when writing for a global audience to make sure that my messages are universally understood. I want both teenagers and my own grandma Maria to get what I have to say. I try to use short, simple and concise sentences. I chose vocabulary and terminology that is not related to a single culture. I use simplified English instead of sophisticated poetic words. I do not use jargon, colloquialisms or idiomatic expressions, but I often use very specific business vocabulary such as insolvency, capacity utilization or economies of scale. I try to use simple sentence structures.
2. I write about things we all have in common. People across the globe have different ways of life, live in diverse cultures and have different beliefs. Instead of paying too much attention to differences, I use concepts that are well-understood all over the world. No matter in which country you live, we both need to fulfill basic needs like eating and drinking and sleeping better. People also feel basic emotions that are common for all human beings like love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, fear, and we all always try to improve on something that we find interesting.
3. I treat everyone equally. I do not discriminate anyone because of age, religion, skin color or place of birth simply because nobody has any influence over those things – we are just born white or black or yellow or red or brown without having any decision-making power over it. I try not to hold any preconceived notions of people in other countries based on what I read on the Internet. I want young people to improve as much as I want the elderly. I try to write for people who do not have higher education as well as for those with postgraduate degrees in quantum physics. I hope to never write with the attitude which can be considered as ‘talking down’ to anyone. Sorry, if you may sometimes understand me in this way.
4. I try to write timeless articles. I would love my articles to attract readers not only now, but in a few years from the publication date. That is why I focus mostly on universal truths, call it the wisdom of life, that our grandparents and parents could communicate to us too. I collect in one place information on how to effectively manage business organizations, how to manage life better, what to eat and what not to eat to live healthily, how to spend less money to save more, or what to do to protect the environment. Because those universal truths will not change tomorrow, but will be valid forever.
5. I balance between objectivity and subjectivity. It means writing about how things are and how I personally experience those things happening in my life. I usually start each blog post with a description of how the reality is and why it is not ideal, for example, that smoking is so popular around the world that it harms millions of people who are both first-, second-, or third-hand smokers. I claim that non-smokers should not suffer from second-hand smoking. Then, I try to include what I think about the topic, and how I have improved, and changed my reality, for example, what my life was when I was smoking. Finally, I try to give some advice to people based on my personal experiences, usually in the form of tips or recommendations for improvements, for example, how to quit smoking.
I would also love to travel more around the world to get significant perspectives, and to investigate problems with living quality that people have in different countries. So please forgive me, if my writing has ever offended you, caused you any discomfort or have not helped to solve your specific problems in the way you expected.
Writing for the global audience is not easy, but I hope to get better, better and better.
By, the way, one of the business media writing for the global audience is Bloomberg.
