Yesterday’s post was about publishing fees on your website. I’ve had my say, now it’s your turn. Take our poll and let us know what you think! (Or — especially if you select “Other” — tell us in the comments). By Marian Dougan
Author archives: Marian Dougan
Fees: to publish or not to publish? (1)
After much humming and hawing, I’ve finally taken the plunge and published my fees on my website. I know that many translators and other small-business owners prefer not to do so. Some say that as they provide a service, not a product, their fees are not — should not be? — easily quantifiable. Others feel …
Smart quote-marks for smart translating
I wrote on 21 July about quote-marks — how to decide whether you should be using curly (smart) or straight quotes and, once you’ve decided, how to type them using keyboard shortcuts where necessary. Translators, however, need to decide not just which quote marks to use but whether or not to “translate” them. For example, …
Festival Times: Milngavie Book and Arts Festival
I haven’t had time to post anything recently as I’ve been working on Milngavie Book and Arts Festival, as Twitterer-in-Chief (follow the Festival on Twitter) and Deputy Webmaster (ie, I mess things up and the true Webmaster, Anne Nelson of Intuitive Internet (isn’t that a great name?) sorts them out). If you live in Central Scotland …
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Portuguese pick-ups
We’re just back from holiday in Portugal, with a mid-year resolution to sign up for Portuguese lessons at Glasgow University’s Department of Adult and Continuing Education, which thankfully seems to have survived the threatened budget cuts. As my daughter put it, we felt like such tourists, not being able to speak the language. However, not speaking …
Want to look trustworthy? Write it right.
Word geeks like translators and editors are always wittering on about poor translations or badly written web material being bad for business, because they make a company look sloppy or unreliable. Well, I saw this belief in action during our recent trip to Lisbon. We needed to hire a car, and I asked my 16-year-old daughter, …
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Smart quote-marks for smart writing
Keyboard shortcuts are a great timesaver when you’re spending hours typing away on your computer. I’ve just learned a couple of new ones, for inserting smart (curly) quotes in text where autoformat functions, such as Word’s, don’t work, and for doing the opposite: inserting straight quotes when you’re working in AutoFormat mode. I discovered these tips …
The language, or the message… Why not both?
I’ve just read an opinion piece on transcreation by Steve Puttock of Schawk, Inc. in the PopSop brand magazine. The article begins: The global marketplace is providing businesses with fantastic opportunities but also, inevitably, moving into new markets can cause headaches! One area for particular concern is around the creation of international advertising and marketing campaigns. For the …
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Top 100 Language Lovers and Top 25 Language Professionals Blogs, 2011: we’re well chuffed!
“Words to good effect” is one of the winning blogs (we came 3rd!!!) in the Top 25 Language Professionals Blogs 2011 competition organised by LexioPhiles and Bab.La. We came 30th overall in the Top 100 Language Lovers category. We’re totally chuffed! A big Thank You to everyone who voted for us! By Marian Dougan
The king’s speech — and how to translate it
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve had a speech-flavoured working week. Translating a speech is a good opportunity for translators to provide added value for their clients. Not only should our translated text read fluently and naturally, it should also be easy for non-native-speaking clients to read aloud (and for their audience to …
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