: In terms of just writing for non-native speakers, the Simple English Wikipedia has some good guidelines for writing articles that seem applicable here. There's a fair amount of detail and

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In terms of just writing for non-native speakers, the Simple English Wikipedia has some good guidelines for writing articles that seem applicable here.

There's a fair amount of detail and some examples in the article itself, but a brief summary would be:

Prefer common words to more unusual ones
Use simple grammatical structure: avoid long compound sentences with multiple clauses if possible
Do not use idioms
Do not use contractions "as this allows learners to recognize familiar grammatical patterns"
Use correct grammar and spelling

Documentation that sounds a bit too formal isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I agree that it can be at odds with wanting to make it flow well.

There's probably a balance to strike, and how far you lean one way or the other probably depends on what kind of documentation it is. How-tos are often more informal, sometimes with humour mixed in, while it's more important for technical reference documentation that information is absolutely expressed accurately and precisely.

Overall, you'll probably need to consider your audience when making this choice: if you're happy making your text a little less easy to read for non-native readers, you may be able to make it more comfortable reading for native speakers. There's no perfect method to satisfy both, I think.

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