: Which English grammar should be followed when writing for a global audience? In relation to my question on Usage of 'z' in the word serialized in English?, it seems I was mistaken in assuming

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Most often, you write according to your background. If you are American, you write using American English and if you are British, you use Brit. This is usually applicable for novels and other long material. This was the method used by old writers like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. If you book is really popular your publisher may make conversions to make it more readable in a particular area.

If you are writing for a magazine or similar source which would be marketed in a particular area say the US, then it would make sense to target the English spoken in the target area.

Hope it helps.

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Seconding Kate's suggestion of the Chicago Manual of Style, and I'd also add Strunk & White's Elements of Style as another indispensable reference.

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I think it depends what you're writing. If you're writing fiction, you need to make choices based on the setting of your story, the identity you've established for your narrator, etc. Your characters will obviously speak with the idioms of their culture, and your narrative voice will probably be rooted in a specific tradition as well.

If you're writing non-fiction, I'd look at the dominant dialects used in your target market. I'm hard-pressed to think of any piece of writing that is aimed at the entire world. So analyze your target market. What are they used to reading? What will they best understand? How are the popular/dominant works in that field currently written?

I sense that you want something more concrete, though. The North American market is huge, and due to the American media presence, it's familiar to most literate people of the world. You could use CMOS (The Chicago Manual of Style) if you want something firm and straightforward.

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