global language
How Web Texts Meet International Users
Most of the companies that run a Web site do so because they already have many of their sales overseas, or at least plan to have so. “They don’t call it World Wide Web for nothing.” (
Nielsen 2000, p 313) Consequently, textual information on the Web is often given in other languages additionally to the language of the content provider. Therefore, content managers have to ensure international usability as well of their Web sites as of their Web texts. In fact, some additional aspects beyond the mere translation of web content should be considered when developing a Web site.
Context of Online Communication: A Communicative Dilemma
Now that we are reassured to rely on the written text for communication on the Web (see the previous posting), we may move towards another important aspect that Web authors must be aware of. Kana et al. (2003) have described a communicative dilemma of Web texts (and written text in general) that represents THE competitive challenge in writing for the Web.
2007-07-05 18:57 | 06. Characteristics of Web Texts , 04. TerminologyWhy blogging in English?
English is the no.1 language on the Web. Roughly about 30% of all Internet users are English speaking (1st language, see World Internet Usage Statistics), not mentioning the increasing number of people all around the world that are bilingual or multilingual. However, this is – by far – the largest percentage of all languages spoken, if assigning only one language per person.
2007-04-17 14:56 | 01. MetaLiterature
2007-04-16 19:29 | 01. Meta , 03. Literature
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