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October 2, 2007 at 4:32 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Spelled Grammar. There has been a growing trend, in academic circles and in my own life, to place grammar and its larger rules upon an impeachable pedestal. A growing number of people who seem to cling to the rules of grammar as if its only through the memorization of these rules and strict adherence to them that proper communication can be achieved. To these people I have but one word: Hogwash.
The application of grammatical rules is not the holy grail of the writing world. If anything the exact opposite is true and it is nothing but silly to pretend otherwise. There have been far too many different great works in far too many different phases of these rules to believe that the standards we have now are entirely correct and always will be.
Joyce never used quotation marks, Melville loved run-on sentences, and Kerouac barely even seems to be speaking English at times. Should we assume that these authors and their works are no longer worth reading because they do not adhere to the strict grammatical rules in use today? Or, even worse, should we retroactively edit their words, changing their concept of what they wrote so that every quotation mark follows a comma and semicolons are used correctly? Of course not.
These works should no more be touched than arms should be affixed to the Venice De Milo. They were created when different rules applied, and this should be respected. But this does not mean that those different rules are antiquated versions of the written word when compared to what we have now and that today’s standard is the correct one. Today’s standard is simply the phase we are slipping through at the moment, and it is bound to change as well.
The rules of grammar should be like the rules of law, stable but never standing still. To create a system of rules for writing and yoke the written word to these rules is going about things backwards. Writing comes first and then the rules, not the other way around. Those rules are in place to aid writing, not to stifle it, and they should bow out gracefully once the world has moved on without them. They work for us, as I’ve said, not the other way around.
This notion of the rules stepping aside for the writers is not a request, I should point out; it is an out and out threat. Experimentation with literature and the unavoidable influence of the spoken word on writing insures that the language will continue to shift and change, and if these rules and the people who cling to them will not yield, then they must be broken.
The stricter the set of rules is, the smaller your reachable audience becomes, either in time, or in space, or in both. Let’s say that a unique thought about life occurs to you in the abstract, and that you then put voice to this thought. And let us say that you construct the most perfect sentence in impeccable Queen’s English to express this thought. You have now encapsulated it for transmission to other people and you will be understood completely over three continents. The only problem is you have alienated the rest of the world. Nobody who speaks Chinese, or Greek, or Russian or Spanish will understand you. Likewise, a century from now your words will seem somewhat quaint. Two hundred years from now they’ll be downright archaic.
The use of language for self-expression is an act that began back during our days of living in caves. It was, and is, a much needed way of communicating thoughts and ideas to those around us by creating an agreed upon methodology for this communication. But, again, it is used to communicate with those around us, those with the same agreed upon terms, and those terms are radically different as the world, and the shared experiences of those in the world, begin to vary with space and time. It’s only natural.
Language changes over space, and lingo changes over time. The more you specify your rules for communicating, the smaller your audience becomes and any attempt to actually lock those rules down into an unchanging law will only result in the suffocation of communication, not the perfection of it.
Or we can go back and look towards my previous comparison of the rules of grammar to the rules of law. They are not very different, after all. The law has a strict set of definitions and rules for words so that minimal subjective interpretation is allowed. People go to school for years to, in part, learn this strict language, and that is my point entirely. The stricter the rules, the more learning is required to apply them, and more expertise is then required to interpret them, and thus, the audience becomes smaller as less and less people have the acquired skill needed to communicate and that is not self-expression. Self-expression needs to breath. And, in some strange way, self-expression needs the ability to be misunderstood.
We can also take this notion in the exact opposite direction. If more rules produce a smaller audience, then fewer rules must produce a larger audience. This, as it turns out, is exactly the case. As anyone who has ever found a bathroom in a foreign land by acting out the motion of pulling down their pants, as anyone who has been involved in a puppet show to figure out what is on a dinner menu, as anyone who has found a hotel room by tilting their head and pretending to sleep will tell you: there is an international language, but it’s not love or Esperanto, it’s mime. The more basic your method of communicating, the easier you will be understood.
I am not, of course, advocating some sort of grammatical free-for-all where we throw out all of the rules at once and ignore the fact that I used "its" instead of "it’s" back in the first paragraph. These rules provide a much needed service because, while it may be true that the more grunting you do the more you’ll be understood, it also happens to be true that the more basic your method of communicating the less complex your thoughts can be. There is no way I could mime the New York State Penal Code. All I’m saying is, we shouldn’t take it too far the other way. There is a reason the Tower of Babble fell over.
That being said, I suppose I should relent just a bit here about something I said earlier. Maybe I shouldn’t have threatened the rules of grammar exactly. As a writer I need and depend upon those rules to get from abstract thoughts in my head to paragraphs of 12-point font. So I take back that threat, but I leave a warning in its place: Don’t stand too firm, you believers in grammar, don’t hold too fast. This is all just a phase and the assaults on your rules taking place every day are just language attempting to move forward.
The next time you want to complain about high-schoolers text messaging each other while spelling the word "cool" as "kewl", take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Is this pure stupidity and a sign of the crumbling of our civilization? Or is it something else?" (It’s something else. On a standard cell-phone keypad, the number 6 represents the letter "o". To type "cool" with proper spelling during text-messaging on a cell phone requires you to hit the number 2 three times for the "c", then to hit the 6 three times for the first "o", then (and here’s the important part) to wait, and wait, and wait until that letter reads in before hitting the 6 three times again for the second "o", then on to the 5 three times for the "l". The word "kewl" requires no such waiting; none of the sequential letters are represented by the same number and all can be hit in succession with no pauses. Trust me. Try it.)
Language changes for a reason. Sometimes, as in the coining of a phrase like "hogwash," a saying becomes so popular that it automatically enters the mainstream lexicon. Sometimes, as with the mutation of a word or phrase into different meanings, like "holy grail," it’s because verbal exchanges have brought the word into use with a wholly different connotation. And sometimes, as with the word kewl, it’s just easier.
Rules of grammar are just fine, but please don’t try to make them into laws. They will not hold. You might as well go back in time and try to tell Rodin that he can sculpt anything he wants, just so long as he always uses Lego Building Set #6948B and his airplane always turns out the same way.
Or you might as well tell Van Gogh to go ahead and paint, just so long as he paints by number. (Ironically, that’s pretty much what happened to Van Gogh, an inspired painter who did not follow the strict rules of Dutch oil painting as they were at the time and thus only received scorn while he was alive. Of course, if that’s what the man saw when he looked at a haystack, I’m willing to admit that there might have been some other issues at play. Plus there’s the whole ear thing.) And you might as well tell me to stop interrupting my essay for parenthetical asides containing chatty writing. That’s how I’m most comfortable writing, and I’m not going to change it just to make you feel comfortable.
But I suppose I really do have to back off a bit and repeat: that’s a warning, not a threat. Grammar freaks, you had better learn how to bend because language is most certainly going to change throughout time, and if you will not yield for its passage it is going to leave you broken in its path.
About the Author
Joseph Devon is the author of "The Letter" and is a freelance writer living in New York City. To read more about him, please visit josephdevon.com
October 1, 2007 at 4:32 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Freelance Translator. A problem most freelance translators are facing with is how to receive payment. In particular: How to receive payment for small jobs. Many translation agencies are reluctant to pay small fees via wire transfer due to the transaction fees; often they will send you a check instead. And I suppose I don’t have to tell you: The banks charge an enormous commission when you come and want to cash in your check.
Then along came PayPal ?
Basically PayPal lets you send and receive payment over the Internet. It bases its service on the existing bank and credit card networks, but it is not a bank in itself.
Registering is free; all you need is an email address. Sending money is free - receiving money however, is not. You pay 3.4 % of the received amount unless you are receiving dollars; in this case you pay 2.9 % of the received amount. Then you have to pay a flat fee for each transaction: 0.35 Euros or 0.30 Dollars. In addition you have to pay a cross boarder fee of 0.5 % - 1.0 % if you receive payment from someone located in another country.
Then you have to pay a small fee when you withdraw your money to your regular bank account. (Unless your bank is located in the United States; then you don’t have to pay this fee.) How much this is depends on the country you are located in. I for instance live in Switzerland and have to pay 0.50 CHF to withdraw to my account. Banks in countries within EU, except the United Kingdom, all charge 1.0 Euro.
Lets have a look at an example. I perform a small translation and charge a minimum fee of 20 Euro. 3.4 % of 20 Euro is 0.68 Euro, plus the flat fee of 0.35 Euro. Add the cross boarder fee of 1%, which is 0.20 Euro. So, of my 20 Euros PayPal takes 1.20 Euros. In addition comes the fee of 0.50 CHF for withdrawing the money to my regular bank account.
If the agency sent me a check instead of using PayPal, my bank would charge 7.50 CHF (4.80 Euros) for cashing the check for me. Each bank has its own fees for cashing checks and receiving wire transfers. But for smaller amounts PayPal is definitely the cheapest way of accepting payment. You will have to do a small calculation and see how large amounts you can receive before the PayPal fees exceed the fees your bank charges.
But is it safe?
Most freelance translators using this way of receiving payment are satisfied with the service and have had no problem with PayPal. I have only heard of one-two translators having their accounts frozen by PayPal for no legitimate reason.
Some negative aspects of PayPal
The problems with PayPal only start when you have a problem, so to speak. Resolving a problem can be very time-consuming and frustrating, and in many cases no solution is reached. Their customer support is not exactly something to brag about. It is very difficult to get behind their wall of auto responders and answering machines!
Another thing to be aware of are scams. There are numerous scams around, from people sending out emails pretending to be from PayPal asking you to confirm your credit card numbers, to hackers going in to your account and spending all your money.
Other negative aspects of PayPal are that it is not available in all countries and you can only receive payment in a few currencies.
By using PayPal you take a large risk compared to using the normal banking system. The chance of loosing your money is there. At the moment there are several lawsuits filed against PayPal and a lot of people who have lost money and not received any compensation.
Have a look at these web sites:
http://www.paypalwarning.com
http://www.aboutpaypal.org/
A few tips for using PayPal
The majority of the people having problems with PayPal are people selling items via auctions etc. Some examples: Payment is cashed from the buyers account and not transferred to the sellers account. A buyer uses a stolen credit card number to purchase items from you and your account risk being frozen for being involved with criminal activity.
As long as you use PayPal to receive money and don?t connect you PayPal account to a credit card the risk is relatively low. In the worst case you could lose the money available on you PayPal account, threw whatever reason: hackers getting in to your account, PayPal freezing your account etc.
Having read a few of the horror stories about PayPal, I am very cautious using their system. But I still use it for receiving small payments. Basically out of lack of alternatives. PayPal was the first company to offer this kind of service, and for a long time it was the only company providing this service.
In the last year or so a few other companies have started providing the same service or very similar services. Most of them are very new companies and still not industry standard. When I ask agencies if they pay via Moneybookers for instance, they have never heard of this. But many of them can offer payment threw PayPal.
I am sure there soon will be very good alternatives. But for now it seems we are stuck with PayPal whether we like it or not.
Guidelines for using PayPal
The only advice I can give is to be careful using PayPal. Here are some tips to help minimize the risk of loosing money threw PayPal.
1. Only receive smaller amounts through PayPal.
2. Never leave large amounts on your PayPal account: Withdraw your money as soon as you have a couple of hundred Euros/Dollars.
3. Log in to your account and check that everything is ok each time you expect to receive payment.
4. Be prepared to lose the money on your account.
Get more info at Vertaalbureau Metamorfose Vertalingen
Khalid Belamdini is a freelance webmaster working at Vertaalbureau Metamorfose Vertalingen
September 30, 2007 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Grammar of Good Communication. No, this is not a rehash of primary-school grammar; nor is it a discourse on the finer points of rhetoric!
There are some practical points which can make a powerful difference in the efficacy of your communication — whether on the job, with your spouse or when you are among friends.
What is "good communication?" Much of what passes for conversation is a play with two performers, each impatiently waiting for the other to finish so they can declaim the lines they’ve been preparing as the other is talking.
Good communication is using words to express meaning — clearly, efficiently and without ambiguity. This is most important in the communication which takes place between two people who want to make themselves understood in order to have a useful exchange of significant information about themselves or their relationship.
This information is likely to have an emotional component, and may be a complex mixture of fact and feeling. This is typically the language of relationship, though in reality many relationships are rather devoid of this level of communication.
I read a research study long ago which looked at the quantity and quality of communication between spouses with children. The overall amount of communication between spouses was surprisingly small (twenty minutes a day, or thereabouts); of that some eighty to ninety percent was spent talking about the children, the day’s schedule, plans to be made, or tasks to be done. Only some ten to twenty percent (of the twenty minutes!) was "relationship talk" between the spouses, where they shared feelings or meaningful dialogue about the nature of their relationship.
The need for more quality communication within marriages is the subject of another piece. Here I wish to make some structural or grammatical suggestions which can greatly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of complex communication.
It is important to make "I statements" — sentences which begin with the word "I". "I feel tired today;" I am upset about X;" "I would like to go out to dinner tonight,". A common colloquialism in America is to say something like "You feel mad when someone cuts you off in traffic," when the meaning intended is "I feel mad when someone cuts me off…".
Attention to this simple structural detail of communication will greatly add to clarity and increased understanding. Too much important communication is muddied with vague or imprecise language. Of course, sometimes it feels safer to hide behind ambiguities or vagueness than to say what is really felt.
The little word "but" is very important — it subtly but firmly negates all that has gone before. "You look nice in that dress, but…". That word signals the listener to pay particular attention to what follows, because there is the real point of the message! "I like you a lot, but…" In emotional or relationship communication, "but" is a slippery character. It allows the speaker to say all the right things in the first part of the sentence, and then slip the verbal knife between the ribs with the "but."
"Never" and "always" are likewise tricky words — and rarely accurate. Communication which includes statements like "You always…" or "I never…" are likely to generate more heat than light. Life is rarely so simple that something is always or never the case.
In everyday speech, we often confuse feeling and thought. "I feel that the world would be a better place if…" is not a statement of feeling (emotion), but a thought or cognition. Relationships between people are based upon emotion; we are constantly listening for the subtle cues in conversation to see where we stand, or how our friend/spouse/lover is feeling towards us at this moment. Clarity in labelling emotions and thoughts helps the listener know how to receive the message.
Precise communication which captures the richness and nuance of emotion as well as thought is learned behavior. None of us is born knowing how to communicate clearly. It is possible to improve relationships by improving communication. Simple, direct, clear and unambiguous communication with those persons who are most significant is a skill well worth learning.
David Yarian, Ph.D. is the creator of The Guide to Self-Help Books, http://www.Books4SelfHelp.com and co-author of Self-Help Central, an ezine to help you build a better life with self-help resources. He is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Certified Sex Therapist in private practice in Nashville, TN. His professional website is http://www.DavidYarian.com.
September 29, 2007 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Check Your English Grammar. As an International language, English has been used widely in online world. Whether you use it to write a sales letter, a follow up, ads headline, an article, and so on, you need to use it correctly.
Now, by using search engine (Google, etc), you can check:
- Typing error.
- Grammatical structure.
This sort of tutorial is intended for you who have some basics in English.
For the first example, if you want to check whether the right word is "below" or "bellow", just type the word in the search box.
Here are the steps:
1. Type the word "below" in the search box and click "Search".
2. When the search result appears, click a website that uses the word to make sure that the website use it correctly.
3. Notice the search result.
4. Now, type the word "bellow" in the search box and click "Search".
5. Repeat step 2 and 3 for the word "bellow".
Here are the signals whether the word is right or wrong:
- The search result shows a list of websites that use the word. In other word, if the word is wrong, the search result will show nothing.
- If you find that both words have search results, notice the number of websites that appear and compare both words. Usually, the right word has more search results.
- Don’t forget to notice what is the language of the website. For example, the word "biz" and "bizz" both have many search result. But only the word "biz" is used in the English website.
Sometimes some websites have typing errors. Be cautious about it!
The same technique can also be applied to check a grammatical error.
For example, if you are in doubt which one is the right sentence:
"The brave man swam over the river yesterday." or "The brave man swam accross the river yesterday"?
Follow the steps above, but don’t forget to put the (") symbol in the beginning and in the end of the sentence, in order that Google will not cut it.
If your sentence is too long, try to cut it.
For the above example, just type "swam over the river" and then "swam accross the river".
However, you should take care in checking sentences, because not every sentence can be checked with this technique.
One more thing, it is very difficult if you want to check emotions of a sentence. For example, you can not check whether "Would you please…?" is more polite than "Will you please…?" by using this technique.
That’s why you should use English everyday on any occassion, so that you will get used to it.
About the Author
Heris Yunora concentrates on providing tools for online promotion at http://www.soft-promotion.com.
September 28, 2007 at 4:32 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Virtual Networking 101 for freelance translators and small translation agencies
by Christian Hansel, SiteFounder of babelport.com
This Article gives a little insight into the mechanism of online networks and their benefits for self-promotion and marketing of freelancers and small businesses
This is an edited reprint of an article written for babelport.com, the Translation Industry Information and Project Portal, and nakedtranslation.com, Céline Graciets excellent Translation web-log. The article offers a little insight into techniques of virtual self-promotion and networking for freelancers and small companies, especially in the translation industry. As a self-employed programmer and project manager I’ve had my share of experience in this but still I am far from being an expert. Nonetheless, here’s my compacted knowledge of what networking means and how networks are created, maintained, and extended.
What is networking?
Technically, a network is a collection of interconnected unique entities allowing for and generating multilateral transfers with redundant ways and strategies of interaction. Translating this techie-jibberish: a network is made up of individuals communicating with each other. To use an analogy: like a spider in his web you can go from one spot to another using the paths that connect the individual positions: The more connections are established in a web the more stable it is. In fact, personal and business networks very much resemble the web of a spider.
Through networks, new contacts are made: Imagine, your best friend’s friend introduces you to one of her acquaintances who will at a later point introduce you to your future chess club fellow whose cousin will turn out to become your wife/husband/friend - or may be a new client. There is a theory, called The Six degrees of Separation (more information) which basically says that you only have to know seven people who know seven others and so forth to know everybody on this planet. By making use of personal contacts you create and maintain networks daily.
In real life everybody has social networks: your family, your friends, your business partners etc. Networks are the most valuable resources we have - not only in business. When it comes down to business, however, it is vital to understand that you cannot have enough of them. As a professional in your specific field you are most likely already networking daily: Making sales contacts, calling colleagues, showing up regularly at your local professional association meetings, knowing your links to the Chamber of Commerce etc. Through this, you certainly have gotten most of your jobs so far and will in the future. If you are experienced in this kind of networking you may also be a member of a business group, which usually only allow a small number of each profession to join. This is real life networking you are most experienced with if you have not just started freelancing yesterday.
This article will concentrate more specifically on on-line marketing or self-promotion instead of repeating what everybody most likely knows. On-line self-promotion works along the same principles as its real-world sibling: You need to create networks, leave positive first impressions, and make sure your connections are redundant. In order to go into detail, however, it is necessary to have an idea about user behaviour and of how search engines work.
Search engines and your virtual self
Search engines gather addresses from header information sent by browsers when user point their browsers to Google and Co, as well as from threads in Usenet groups, news services, and, of course, web sites they have previously indexed. These addresses are stored into databases and spiders or robots, little programmes that browse these sites automatically, are sent to these websites regularly. My own site, for instance, is indexed by robots daily for new content (1.000 views per day) and every 5 or 6 weeks completely (25.000-40.000 views per day).
When indexing websites robots usually call pages more than once depending on the number of internal links. In that sense, a website is its own little network. Search engines distinguish between internal, incoming, and outgoing links. Internal links help to evaluate the ‘weight’ of the single page and its content, outgoing links are relatively unimportant for the evaluation of the site itself but represent incoming links for the sites linked to. Incoming links, however, represent the most important factor, apart from content, of course. The more incoming links a website gets the more valuable it becomes: it is represented in Google’s internal database and robots will index it more frequently. Like an introvert in real life a website without incoming links is practically isolated and virtually unable to network, hence it becomes vital for a business website to get as many incoming links as possible.
Apart from links a major factor that helps to promote your website - your virtual self - is well represented content. Search engines build their catalogues of key words from textual information you offer and combine them with the number of incoming links registered for your website. Of course, the information about you, your experience, expertise, products, services, and prices represent the core content. But surplus you offer on-line may be the key for virtual success. A news section, a web-log, or a glossary of your expertise represents such additional information. Larger companies offer forums, references, dictionaries etc. The important fact is that the content needs to be original - continuously reprinting is rather harmful. Blogs are good examples: Many offer little original content apart from copying texts found elsewhere; others, however, paraphrase and comment on recent publications, news, and events - thus, they create a surplus of information - an expertise. Remember, robots index your content regularly. It pays off to regularly provide up-to-date surplus information since more content will get your site being linked to more keywords in search engines.
Another way to easily produce a little bit of content is integrating news feeds. Some websites offer xml-based or javascript-generated news specific to your industry. Babelport.com, for instance, offers a News Feed for the translation industry that can be configured according to your needs. Babelport.com News Feed covers topics including translation markets, workshops & events, news about CAT-Tools and PC-Security relevant information up to six times a week. Using the Configurator< /a> you can generate html/php/javascript code that allows to integrate new and up-to-date content on your website easily and according to your layout-needs.
Content is best represented as text in plain html, with a well-done but simple design. Company websites should not have the most fancy design - in fact this may influence your ranking negatively. Flash driven websites are more difficult to index and don’t forget that many users disabled such features. Also robots only index plain html-links no popup, javascript, or flash-based links (See Google for more information how search engines index sites). Furthermore, as in real life a positive initial impression is everything: Users not getting the important information immediately will turn elsewhere - don’t expect them to spend minutes searching. Now that Google & Co have something to index you need to make sure they will findA your virtual self. Here networking and on-line self-promotion starts.
Creating networks online
If incoming links are so important to your site - how do ensure you get them? First, by regularly providing content: if you provide valuable information visitors will link to your site. Second, virtual business networks allow you to create profiles and get promoted for free or little money. Third, find means to demonstrate your special knowledge: engage in expert exchange forums, publish articles about your area of expertise on portals like babelport.com, etc.. Whatever you do make sure you provide your unique signature and your URL. Thus people will remember you more easily and you also become more visible (and your search engine rankings are improved).
Moreover, put a tagline to your signature in emails, forum posts, etc: A short but catchy slogan that represents what you do and how you feel about the kind of work you do. For some good examples you may have a look at the user profiles visible at babelport.com. Make sure, however, you don’t put superlatives in there - calling your self the fastest, most reliable, or best begs a challenge to this claim.
Joining business organisations and business portals is another major keys to successful virtual networking, whether you wish to bid for jobs or not. There are some out there addressing translators (including babelport.com) and some excellent general ones (e.g. www.openbc.com). Apart from the direct benefits of such platforms (creating personal networks, getting access to information, and, possibly, a job) you can only profit from signing up with such business portals. The reason is simple: Due to the amount of content, keywords, and incoming links portals like these are more frequently indexed than the website of a small business or freelancer. If you have a profile page on these portals, participate in forum discussions, or publish articles thAere your name, profile, résumé, tagline, and your URL will be indexed every time robots crawl the site completely.
Lastly, ensure a steady visibility on business platforms. Being advertised as featured member for only a day creates additional incoming links valid for some weeks if a robots indexes the page during that time (remember the daily indexing by robots). This will have more effect than paying for keywords on Google or banner ads in general web-directories. Also, the more articles and forum threads you post the more incoming links are generated for your own website. Redundancy only helps to strengthen your virtual networks (remember the spider analogy?): Be listed and engage in more than just one business portal. By creating profiles on and actively participating in multiple platforms your virtual self will be ranked higher in search engine results and connected to more keywords.
Continuous investment
As in real life, maintaining virtual networks is time and, sometimes, money consuming. You do not need to provide original content daily - but do it regularly. Give yourself at least three hours per week to write some content for your website and to participate in online forums. If you have gathered unique information in your business, or written essays on translation, tips for freelancers, or wish to publish new linguistic research results, contact our administrators who will put them online for free at babelport.com. Doing this you gain expertise and reputation directly and add to your virtual network at the same time.
Joining business portals does not need to cost money - there are many benefits you get for free. Investing in annual member fees for two or three portals, however, may cost you a couple of hundred Euros per year, but remember it is investing into your business and may earn you more reputation than spending the same money in printed newspaper advertisemenAt. It certainly creates more lasting links immediately and pays off in the long run. Especially if you are running a business with global reach - and as a freelance translator you most likely are - you will need to promote yourself as heavily internationally as locally. Business portals offer great opportunities for this.
Creating, maintaining, and extending your personal and virtual business demands continuous engagement and investment with success often not immediately visible. The benefits, however, will be measurable in steadily increasing website-traffic in the long run.
Christian Hansel
CEO cpi service, Leipzig, Germany
SiteFounder of babelport.com
September 27, 2007 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Grammar. If you’re like me, you’re not writing that ad, Web page, or radio script to make your English teacher proud. You’re writing to sell. If you get an "A" while you’re at it, great. But don’t count on it. To get prospects to click, call, or buy, you’ll need to take some liberties with the English language.
As direct-response legend Herschell Gordon Lewis so aptly said, "Grammar is our weapon, not our god." Although copywriting requires a different approach than Strunk and White would advocate, don’t burn your grammar books just yet. It’s important to know the rules before you break them.
Following are some rules to keep and some rules to bend or break. But first an important principle.
Clarity Next time you face a grammar grappler, ask yourself this question: Which word construction will be clearer to the prospect or customer? Clarity comes first because it’s the prescription for fast comprehension. Copywriting that blurs meaning (which sometimes includes grammatically perfect writing) slows reading and jeopardizes interest — and sales. WARNING: This isn’t license to play havoc with the English language. Literacy must prevail. Following are some rules to keep.
Rules to Keep Subject and verb agreement. Whether you’re writing an infomercial or War and Peace, singular subjects take singular verbs and plural subjects take plural verbs. Always. A simple rule, execution is sometimes problematic. The key is to clearly identify the subject of the sentence. The active voice. If you want your copywriting to have maximum punch, use the active voice at every opportunity. Active voice: I wrote the sentence. Passive voice: The sentence was written by me. Use of Modifiers. Modifiers can cause a variety of problems. There are the questions of which and how many modifiers to use. Again, let clarity be your guide. Also, poor placement of modifiers results in confusion, your enemy. To make comprehension easy, put modifiers near the words they’re modifying.
Rules to Bend or Break
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ushered in a new era in American literature. One of the main reasons was Twain’s use of vernacular. He wrote the way people talked, a departure from the stiff, formal English common during the Victorian period. For copywriters, writing the way people talk is absolutely essential. Why? Because copy that is friendly, informal and conversational stands a better chance of getting prospects to click, call or buy. Which is exactly why sacrificing the following conventions can be in the copywriter’s best interest.
Ending sentences with a preposition. To some a no-no, ending a sentence with a preposition can warm up your copywriting. Which sounds friendlier to you: "Here is the information you requested" or "Here is the information you asked for"?
Beginning sentences with a conjunction. Beginning sentences with conjunctions (and, or, but, nor) is more common, even in journalism. Not only is it the way people talk, it can shorten sentence length, a plus in delivering sales messages.
Other informal devices. Use contractions to warm up your message. Also, use sentence fragments. Not only do they shorten average sentence length, they add rhythm. And drama.
Punctuation. Use punctuation to your selling advantage. I’m inclined to use more dashes and an occasional exclamation point and ellipsis to add drama and excitement to the sales message. Commas can be pretty subjective, so I have a tendency to use the minimum amount to keep readers moving through the copy as quickly as possible.
Parting Reminder Keep that grammar book, stylebook, dictionary and other writer’s references nearby. You’re still going to need them. But don’t let grammar be your god, or your next marketing communication could be a giant sales flop. (c) 2005 Neil Sagebiel
September 26, 2007 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Studies show that your word-power determines your earning power, that your skill in self-expression determines your status in life.
The link between your vocabulary and your income is universally recognized. Researchers have discovered that college students with the lowest vocabulary scores usually end up in the lowest income group. So, if you wish to maximize your earning power, it is clearly vital to develop a powerful vocabulary.
Similarly, advancement in your career depends to a large extent on your capacity to express yourself with clarity and precision. Even the most cursory examination of job advertisements shows that employers value employees who can demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills.
Within most companies, the people with the greatest command of words generally occupy the most powerful positions.
It is clear then that the more words you understand and can use, the easier you will find it to impress the very people who have the power to fast-track your career.
A powerful vocabulary is a highly-prized asset both socially and in the business world. There are very good reasons for this. Words enable you to conceive and articulate complex thoughts and ideas. The person who can use the right words at the right time enjoys a powerful advantage in any situation.
The words of a salesman can secure a million dollar order. The words of a judge can imprison or set you free.
A powerful vocabulary can make you sound like a genius.
Every day we pass judgement on the intelligence, education, and status of complete strangers simply on the basis of hearing them utter a sentence or two. We accept or reject them on the evidence of the words they use.
Let us not forget that other people judge us in exactly the same way!
A limited vocabulary paralyses your powers of communication. It can even make you feel like a foreigner in your own country - hearing and reading things you cannot understand, struggling to express yourself while your more eloquent friends or colleagues are able to encapsulate every thought and idea with infuriating ease.
Remember that the more words you have, the more ideas you have. The more ideas you can express, the greater influence you will have on those around you. When you improve your vocabulary, you immediately supercharge your powers of expression.
Unfortunately, most people pick up words in a haphazard and serendipitous manner. As a result, their vocabulary is amorphous and demonstrably inadequate to their needs.
Everyday, they see and hear important words that they neither recognize nor understand; and, lost in a fog of confusion, they are at the mercy of word spinners, persuaders, and propagandists.
That’s why it’s so important for everyone to follow a progressive and structured vocabulary-building program.
From ‘15 Hours To A Powerful Vocabulary’
http://www.assignmentsplus.com/vocabularycourse1.html
written by Gerard McLoughlin and published by Assignments Plus Business Publications.
Gerard McLoughlin, author of ‘15 Hours To A Powerful English Vocabulary’, has contributed articles to hundreds of publications and companies throughout the world.
September 26, 2007 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Interpreters are in great demand in the current global climate. With people from all over the world participating in business meetings, conferences and events, overcoming the language barrier naturally becomes the key to ensuring all attendees contribute and benefit from such occasions. The interpreter is an integral cog in the wheel of cross cultural communication. Knowing how to hire and work with an interpreter is a must for international business personnel.
Hiring an interpreter is the easy part. Most agencies that provide interpreters will only work with qualified and experienced interpreters. In addition, they will ensure an interpreter is familiar with the subject matter, i.e. an interpreter specialising in medicine will not be used in an agricultural conference.
Working with an interpreter offers challenges. Interpreters on the whole have a stressful job. Unlike translators they do not have the luxury of breaks and time to think. Interpreters have to perform ?live? and in front of an audience. In order to ensure you get the best out of an interpreter, good communication is necessary.
By way of offering some tips on working with interpreters the following guidelines may be of some use:
1 ? Establish and agree ground rules with an interpreter. For example, try and communicate how you want a meeting run, the number of sentences to be translated at a time, the confirmation of jargon or idioms before they are translated, when breaks will be taken and seemingly trivial matters like seating arrangements.
2 ? Try and brief an interpreter prior to any face to face meetings. Familiarise them with the whos, whats and whys. If there is any specific terminology to be used ask them if they understand it. If you foresee any tricky issues or tense topics, prepare them for it.
3 ? If you plan to give a speech or read from a script, give the interpreter a copy. The more familiar they are with the subject matter, the better a job they will do.
4 ? While speaking through an interpreter always engage with your counterpart directly. Even though you cannot understand what is being said, show interest, keep eye contact and remain focused. If you start to converse through an interpreter you lose any chance of building trust, rapport or confidence.
5 ? Try and avoid humour. Most interpreters will agree that jokes do not translate well. If you are giving a speech and plan to start it off with a joke, it is advisable to consult the interpreter first to see if they think it will work.
6 ? Plan your time carefully. Conversing through an interpreter makes conversations twice as long. For example, if you are making a presentation remember that anything you say will first be translated, so the likelihood is that a one hour presentation will take two. Compensate for this by either cutting down your presentation or speaking in shorter, sharper sentences.
7 ? Do not rush. Interpreting is a taxing job and is mentally exhausting. To alleviate the pressure as much as possible, speak slowly and clearly. If you rush the interpreter is more likely to become stressed and the quality of the translation may drop.
8 ? Interpersonal communication, by its nature, involves emotion. An interpreter should never translate emotions. If the speaker is annoyed this will be obvious in their body language and tone. Never involve the interpreter at a personal level in any discussions and if you see an interpreter translating your emotions, ask them to stop. The interpreter is there to purely translate what is being said.
9 ? Make sure the interpreter is clear that they are never to answer questions on your behalf. Even if the answer is simple, the interpreter should still convey this to you. If an interpreter starts to speak on your behalf, this can have numerous negative consequences such as undermining your position or even losing face.
10 ? Ask interpreters not to change or alter what you say even if they think it may cause offense. If you plan to talk about a controversial issue let the interpreter know. Before discussing it with an audience announce that what will be said is not the opinion of the interpreter but your own. This then frees the interpreter of feeling uncomfortable and nervous.
These guidelines should enable you to get the best out of your interpreter and consequently your business meeting, presentation, conference or event.
Neil Payne is Managing Director of Kwintessential Ltd, a Uk based agency providing cross cultural training, translation and interpreting services. Visit their interpreting service at: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/translation/interpretation.html
September 26, 2007 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
How to Master Communication. Does the thought of knowing your verbs from your adjective scare you? Can the word syntax send you running for cover? Or perhaps putting two words together in front of a crowd sends your body into complete melt down. If so, there is help for you.
Have you ever wanted to communicate more effectively with other people, or dreamed of writing a novel. Maybe you just want to write better reports, get your points across more clearly or be able to stand up in front of people and give a talk.
Often people will say to themselves, "I can’t do that, I was never good at English in school." Yet, this feeling of not good enough is where many communication masters began.
I know of people who stuttered as children and were told they’d never be able to read or talk, yet are well known speakers today. One other person that I know, immigrated to the US and had to learn English, yet today he is a speaker and author. These people discovered that it takes more that knowing your nouns and sentence structure to communicate with others.
Part of the challenge is, we were taught that if we can write a proper sentence then we can communicate are thoughts correctly. That is like saying if you can see than you can read or if you can hear you can listen. Unfortunately, this is not true for reading and listening are skills that we need to learn.
There are many people who have grammatically correct sentences with proper punctuation who can not write anything creative or interesting. It takes more than grammar to connect with other people.
Getting your thoughts, feelings, views and values across to another person are skills that you can learn and master.
It is important to understand that connecting with people can be very intensive and emotional whether you are feeling fear; anger, joy or ecstasy and many people shy away from this. Most often people misunderstand one another because people see things differently and can get upset when people do not see eye to eye with them.
There is a lot of fear of being wrong, of making mistakes, of failing or being perceived as being stupid in anyway. Many misunderstandings lead to disagreements and violence in trying to make or force their way of thinking. People can act as though their lives depended on being right as apposed to having a different point of view. These create many barriers to communication which need to be overcome in order to connect with another person and master communication.
When you can release the need to be right, you can discover a whole new world of discoveries and wonders. Marianne Williamson said it well when she said, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?” It is important to understand, that to make the world work, we need different views, outlooks, likes and desires.
Many problems happen with people who share the same birth language. There seems to be an assumption that if you spoke the same language that the other person should automatically understand you.
What most people do not realize is that on a physiological level, our brains are all wired differently due to the way, environment and culture that we have been raised in. This also helps to create our psychological out look and personalities.
There is also our metaphysical nature which affects whether we are willing to try and connect with other people. We are influenced by Universal laws, even when we are not aware of them. For example, if you did not know that gravity existed, it wouldn’t stop you from falling off of a cliff. On a quantum level our beliefs and attitudes affects the outcome of our ability to interact with each other. For example many people have heard of "Cause and Effect". In this law, as you treat others, so shall you be treated. On a scientific level, we are electromagnetic spectrums of energy. So the energy that we give off, we attract back, because like attracts like. This means, when you give off anger, hatred, judgments or love, kindness, and understanding, you are attracting the very same behaviour back to you. This in turn, affects your ability to communicate and connect with other people.
Your beliefs have an impact on whether you are happy or sad, have abundance or poverty, health or suffering and even of what you can or cannot be, have or do. It is when we are aware of our own beliefs and values we can work on seeing if they work for us, or if we need to change or alter them. So maybe you’re asking yourself, where do I begin?
That question is easy to answer, with yourself. So often people have no idea what they want and hope that other people will figure it out for them. I have seen people get mad at other people for not knowing what they want or for misunderstanding them. It is important to realize that we can’t communicate to others before we clearly know what we want and where we are heading.
The people that I spoke about earlier; their lives improved when they clearly understood what they wanted, and then were able to ask others for guidance and moved forward in helping others. For communicating is connecting with others. The second area, once you understand yourself, is that it’s important to understand others and their reality. The next step would be to realize that what you think you are seeing and understanding may not be an exact representation of reality. Our brains filter out most information around us so as not to overload us. What it chooses to let through are things that are important to us and things that are a potential danger. Any information that is considered in conflict with our perceived reality and beliefs is filtered away. So you need to be open to learning and discovery.
Now, if you take this information, consider the following. What if you realized that reality is often illusive and personal? What if you where to discover that the main block to your growth and answers are in the way the you perceive yourself, the world around you and of what you believe you can achieve? And what if you were to understand that the answers weren’t out there, but inward and that you already have what you need to communicate clearly to others?
What if I told you, that what you had to do was to be willing to look anew, and that it can build from there? See if you can’t realize the possibilities from understanding yourself and others around you in order to master communication. Today, we are asking more questions and wanting more answers. Today more than ever people are asking, what if I can?
Maria Boomhower is a professional in communication, media relations and holds a Diploma in the Art of Applied Communication. She has won awards for excellence in her field. Her background in communication management has spanned from supervision and training to productions, photo journalism, running sub-press centres and security videos Her style has been to teach communication in ways that creates a win-win environment for those involved. Maria Boomhower The Master Communicator http://www.falconfreedom.com "Command Attention & Confidence" 1-250-389-0551 maria13-89433@autocontactor.com
September 26, 2007 at 4:32 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Foreign language vocabulary building can be one of the more tedious aspects of learning a language. Fortunately, there are various methods you can use to speed the process up, or at least to add a little spice. Before beginning to learn foreign words, there is one point that is often overlooked and this is that words should be divided into two categories. Words that you want to be able to use and words that you just want to recognize.
It is often said that 90 % of language is composed of 3000 or so commonly used words, but what is less often pointed out is that the other 10 % are pretty much endless. As a foreigner learning a second language the words that you want to use generally fall within the first 90 %. The others, by and large, just need to be recognized. So now, armed with two categories, lets look at some ways to improve vocabulary.
Vocabulary Lists The most obvious way of learning vocabulary is by making a vocabulary list and learning it. Its easy to write a list of words and doesn’t require much thought. Not very subtle. One thing (to remember) about learning and memory is that it is easier to retain language (and anything else) when active learning is involved. Organize your vocabulary list. Don’t just write it. Put the words into an order that makes sense to you. (Active learning).
It is also easier to learn words by category, so group words by category e.g. animals, fruit etc. In many languages different words have different genders. French, Italian and Spanish have masculine and feminine. German has masculine, feminine and neuter. As an aid to learning the gender of words try organizing vocabulary lists by gender. Word association Associate an English word with the foreign word you need to learn. For example, hortus is the Latin word for garden. Not very memorable in itself, but if you associate it with tortoise (because they rhyme) which lives in the garden, this mnemonic will help you remember the word.
The difficulty with using word association and lists as vocabulary learning tools is that they do not help you use the word. This is because they don’t give you any idea as to the context in which it should be used. The word will not necessarily spring to mind when you need it either. Name items Write words you are trying to learn on everyday items.
This is an easy way to expand your vocabulary. All you need to do is glance at the writing every time you use the item. So not only have you associated the word with the object, something that a straight vocabulary list does not do, but you are more likely to remember it when you need it. Learn complete sentences A very good way of vocabulary building is to acquire vocabulary by learning sentences. It is often easier to learn a complete sentence than the individual words contained .
There is the added bonus that you have an example of the word being used. Latin has so many pithy little expressions that it seems appropriate to use one to illustrate this. Magna est veritas et praevalet great is truth and it prevails Learning this sentence, you learn five words, and it is much easier to do this than learn the words individually.
The same is true for French, Italian, Spanish etc. Pick a sentence which illustrates a point for you, look up the words and memorize it. The downside of learning sentences to improve vocabulary is that this will not necessarily give you the gender of the words you are learning. These will need to be learnt separately. Finally No method of learning vocabulary is perfect. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. The surest bet is to use a combination of them all. Still interested in learning vocabulary ? Visit for more.
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