English is the language of international commerce and communication.
You Can Write Better English (an 82 page book by Barry Kalb) is a practical handbook to help improve written English, with special focus on mistakes native Chinese speakers routinely make when writing in the language.

iCUBED.us is delighted to present to our readers a twelve part mini-series (first published in MingPao) about writing proper English, in the American style...

posted 7 Feb 2011

I spend considerable time as a university lecturer and public speaker trying to persuade Chinese speakers to improve their English. This is no mere academic exercise. There are practical reasons why your written English should be correct and understandable. If it's not, misunderstandings can occur. Money can be lost, or time wasted. You might fail to communicate an important point because the person on the receiving end has no idea what you're trying to tell him.

Here's a real-life example. In this case, the bad English was a good thing, but the principle is the same.

I recently received a "spam" email designed to trick me into revealing confidential financial information. The email had a very inviting headline: it said I'd won 750 pounds sterling from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. But the headline's English was so bad I immediately knew it was a trick. Here's what it said:

"Your Email Have Won (£750,000 GBP) in this year OPEC Award"

It should have said your email "has" won. It should have been this "year's" award. And there's no need for "GBP" if the pounds sterling sign is used.

I'm sure OPEC, one of the world's wealthiest organizations, is careful about its English. The crooks who sent this email missed a chance to fool me and steal my money because their English was so terrible.

A couple of Legislative Council elections ago, Hong Kong's Democratic Party published its goals on its website. It wrote, among other things, that it would push the government "to put forward the comprehensive competition law with setting up the detergent penalty ..."

advertise on www.iCUBED.us

I asked around, and apparently the party meant to write "deterrent" penalty, to "deter" companies from anti-competitive practices. I'm all in favor of that, but the Democrats almost lost my vote by confusing me with their atrocious English.

You might argue that the Democrats' real constituents are native Chinese speakers, who will read the original (and presumably better written) Chinese version, and that English-language websites are not worth the extra effort required to make sure they're written well.

I reject that argument. If it's worth the trouble for a major organization to do an English-language site in the first place - and if that organization wants to appear credible in the eyes of anyone who might read its site - it's worth the trouble to do it right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barry Kalb has taught reporting and news writing at the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre since 2005, emphasizing the basics of good English writing. His work with hundreds of Chinese from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia has given him an insight into the problems native Chinese speakers encounter when trying to write the language.

...published by Journalism and Media Studies Center, The University of Hong Kong in association with HK University Press. Order YOURS at: www.hkupress.org/book/9789881946010.htm

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Please also read ... Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH : "Use Fewer Plastic Bags" ... Part 1/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH : "Order VS Orders" Part 2/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH : "Where Alpha Is Beyond Time???" ... Part 3/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "The, A, An" ... Part 4/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "Apostrophe"... Part 5/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "Redundancy"... Part 6/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "misunderstood words"... Part 7/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "Verb Tenses"... Part 8/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "Good Writing vs. Correct Writing" Part 9/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "QUOTES and ATTRIBUTIONS" Part 10/12 Barry Kalb's WRITE BETTER ENGLISH: "The Rules of Good Writing" Part 11/12 Check out all our blogs in "Books & Paper, etc"