‘Programme’ versus ‘program’

BRAC, famous for its successes in scaling up its development programmes, is now scaling up its communications strategy.

With a workforce of 135,000 – many of whom are non-native English speakers – BRAC faces significant challenges in delivering consistent and standardised English language communications material. BRAC Communications is therefore making a concerted effort to equip its huge body of staff with the linguistic tools and training to communicate clearly and effectively in English to its internal and external stakeholders.

In a day-long workshop held at the BRAC Centre, participants were guided on the intricacies of editorial English and taught lessons on common mistakes, via the BRAC English Writing and Style Guide. Staff was requested to be aware of the words they choose. For example, instead of using ‘womenfolk’ (which can be offensive), simply refer to the female gender as ‘women.’

During a particular highlight, former chief sub-editor, Soraya Auer kindly clarified the difference between ‘microfinance’ (the provision of small loans and financial products, and one of BRAC’s biggest development programmes) and ‘microfiance’ (a very small fiancé).

In earnestness, as a native English speaker, the session was surprisingly useful. Anyone who has ever tried to write professionally in English has encountered their own frustrations with the specificities of this often inconsistent language (eg, the use of James’ instead of James’s). Matters are not helped by the sometimes counter-intuitive distinctions between British and American English, such as the use of ‘programme’ versus ‘program’, respectively.

The BRAC English Writing and Style Guide is therefore a helpful resource for both native Bangla and English speakers at BRAC, and I would encourage everyone to take a look. A copy of the document can be found here.

Isabel Whisson is communications and knowledge management officer of BRAC’s microfinance programme.