If you communicate with an international audience, this tip is for you. John Kohl is a gifted linguistic engineer, technical writer and editor, and author of the award-winning The Global English Style Guide: Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market. At the beginning of the book, John introduces The Cardinal Rule of Global English: "Don't make any change that will sound unnatural to native speakers of English." And from there he continues to turn out one practical example after another.

The following excerpt is from SAS author John Kohl and his book "The Global English Style Guide" Copyright © 2008, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (please note that results may vary depending on your version of SAS software)

Eliminate clipped terms

In a clipped term, the full form of the term is truncated, but no period is used. Like abbreviations, clipped terms can be puzzling to non-native speakers and translators. They cause unnecessary variation, and many of them are too informal for most technical documents.

Read reviews of  The Global English Style Guide, a free chapter, and the table of contents here.  And take a look at this previously featured tip from John Kohl: Write positively.