A decision tool for the six treatments in the Arabisation Framework: when to translate, adapt, rewrite, restructure, edit or write Arabic from scratch, with if/then rules and worked scenarios.
Knowledge hub
Writing on Arabisation
Answers to the questions that come up repeatedly in Arabic projects: when translation from English is the right treatment and when the Arabic needs adapting or rewriting, how websites, campaigns and corporate content should be handled, and where AI-generated Arabic falls short.
Start here
The pillar guide. The sub-guides below go deeper into parts of it.
What is Arabisation? The Arabisation Framework
Arabisation is the process of making communication work properly in Arabic. The Arabisation Framework evaluates Communication, Arabic and Project before deciding whether to translate, adapt, rewrite, restructure, edit or write from scratch.
Sub-guides
Arabising a website means adapting navigation, structure, interface text, headings and metadata for Arabic readers, not only translating page copy.
AI can produce accurate Arabic quickly, but professional review is still needed when meaning, terminology, voice, structure, audience or communication purpose must work in Arabic.
An Arabic press release can be written directly from a brief rather than translated from an English draft. Starting in Arabic allows the structure, opening, quotations and emphasis to be built for Arabic media from the beginning.
Modern Standard Arabic, dialect and a controlled mix each solve a different communication problem. The choice should follow purpose, audience, context, channel, reach, risk and voice rather than a general preference for formality or friendliness.
An Arabic campaign should preserve the communication objective, not the English wording. Headlines, concepts, calls to action, scripts and supporting copy may need different levels of translation, adaptation, rewriting or recreation to work in Arabic.
Corporate Arabic becomes inconsistent when terminology, titles, voice and editorial decisions are made separately across teams, agencies and channels. Consistency comes from managing those decisions as one language system rather than reviewing isolated files.
Arabic can be accurate and still sound translated when English syntax, rhythm, emphasis and structure are carried across too closely. The solution is usually editorial, not simply terminological.
Executive thought leadership works in Arabic when it preserves the executive's judgement and voice rather than the sentence structure of an English draft. A practical guide to extracting a point of view and choosing between translating, rewriting and writing directly in Arabic.