Many years ago, to get into university to study medicine, botany, pharmacy or law you had to have studied Latin for up to 5 years.

Nowadays there are only a handful of Latin abbreviations that are used regularly in English. In less . . . → Read More: How to master Latin abbreviations in five minutes]]> Do you struggle to understand Latin abbreviations? Maybe you hadn’t even realised they came from Latin.

Many years ago, to get into university to study medicine, botany, pharmacy or law you had to have studied Latin for up to 5 years.

Nowadays there are only a handful of Latin abbreviations that are used regularly in English. In less than 5 minutes you can have them all at your fingertips.

A quick reminder on punctuation rules for Latin abbreviations
An abbreviation is usually followed by a full stop, this shows some of the letters have been removed.

etc.

Et cetera which translates as ‘and the rest’.
Use et cetera to continue a list of items in the same category.
For ex: We need to order some office supplies: papers, ink cartridges, pens, etc.

If etc. ends the sentence – as above – only one full stop is necessary.

i.e.

Id est which translates as ‘that is’ and means ‘in other words’.
Use it to make something clearer, to give another definition.
For ex: I am writing a Latin post, i.e. I’m explaining Latin expressions to my readers.

Trick to remember it: think of it as standing for ‘in essence’ or ‘in effect’.

e.g.

Exempli gratia which translates as ‘for example’.
Use it when you want to give specific examples.
For ex: I am writing about Latin abbreviations, e.g. nota bene, exempli gratia, et cetera and id est.

Trick to remember it: think of it as standing for ‘example given’

et al.

et alii/et alia which translates as ‘and others’.
Use it when you want to shorten a list of names.
For ex: Drs. Smith, Baker, Brown and Jacobson would be referred to as Smith et al.
Probably best kept for academic writing these days.

There is no full stop after ‘et’ as it’s a whole word that means ‘and’ in Latin

N.B.

Nota bene which translates as ‘note well’.
When you want the reader to pay close attention to something.
N.B. The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author alone.

Nota bene is always abbreviated with capital letters, e.g. N.B.

Have you come across any other Latin abbreviations in your work? Please share your comments below.

Our web design partner firm, Them Pro, introduced us to Lex Uomo, a knitwear company for whom they have built an e-commerce site. Lex Uomo is a French firm . . . → Read More: E-commerce: internationalization and localization]]> Internationalization and localization: optimizing an e-commerce site for your global shoppers

At English Trackers, as well as offering English editing services we also provide content translation and localization services.

Our web design partner firm, Them Pro, introduced us to Lex Uomo, a knitwear company for whom they have built an e-commerce site. Lex Uomo is a French firm producing knitwear exclusively for men.

We were originally asked to provide an English translation of the ‘About Us’ section. The first thing we did was visit the site to get a feel for the brand and most importantly to see the style of the English web content so that we could match it.

We immediately saw that some English editing was required. The product names were not clear and a mixture of American and British English had been used. Overall we saw we could help Lex Uomo with the internationalization and localization of their e-commerce site, as well as improving the flow and style of the English so that it matched the French text.

These are the steps we took to localize the site:

British English or American English? That is the question.

This is always the first question we ask clients with online shopping websites as the answer affects more than just the spelling – the English editing work we did on this site illustrates this point well. Although Lex Uomo is a European company, their web marketing strategy does not specifically target the UK market, so we advised them to opt for American English.

Their tagline, ‘Men with Colors’, already used the American spelling of ‘color’, so this was a first indicator that they should use American spelling in their web marketing materials.

If they wish to continue with the internationalization and localization of their online shopping website and target other countries such as the UK, we would advise them to develop content specifically for the British market.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of products names

It’s pointless adding other foreign languages to an e-commerce site if you don’t work hand in hand with SEO engineers. We are used to working with Them Pro who build SEO-optimized sites for clients. They generally give us the keywords that we need to include in our translated or edited web content.

For the product categories and names, we worked closely with Them Pro’s SEO account manager to produce a list of localized and SEO-optimized knitwear keywords.

The differences between American English and British English are quite pronounced for clothing. Here are a couple of examples:

British English    American English

Turtle neck or polo neck?

Tank top                       Vest

Polo neck                     Turtle neck

Localization of web content

Since French marketers originally wrote the web content for French consumers, some localization was required. The sizing chart was all in centimetres – neither the Brits nor the Americans use metric measurements for clothes sizes. Any references to sizes in the fashion news and blog sections were also changed to imperial measurements.

Transcreation not translation

For the sections where we needed to provide an English translation, Lex Uomo requested that we use the same tone as the French. Their style is very inclusive; Lex Uomo talk to their clients in a friendly tone yet they also wish to impart their professionalism. To achieve the same voice in English, we put on our ‘Transcreation’ caps and strove to deliver an English translation that flowed and sounded completely natural. Our interpretation of the ‘transcreation’ of web content is recreating the message of the source language naturally in the target language so that the target audience believes it has been written especially for them.

Most companies start by writing their web content in their mother tongue and then slowly add additional languages; English obviously being one of the first choices for non-English speaking companies. It’s vital to remember that not only English speakers read the English version, but just about everyone else in the world. So it’s important to get your English translation right, and we think our work will contribute to driving traffic to the site as well as improving a potential client’s visit.

Impact of English Trackers’ work on the internationalization and localization of Lex Uomo’s online shopping website:

The quality of the English translation of the site matches that of the French in terms of style and tone.

The English has been unified and American English is used throughout.

Product names have been optimized for SEO purposes. The most commonly used expressions for knitwear need to be selected so that clients are directed to the site with ease.

If you are thinking of adding English to your website and need help ensuring it reads as if written for native speakers, please contact us for more information, or visit our English editing site.

Not . . . → Read More: How to cut out word noise]]> An entrepreneur’s journey to brevity

Picture an iconic place in your capital city. There are probably around 20 to choose from. Have you selected one yet? Now, imagine you’re going to take out-of-town visitors there. How would you describe it to them? Oh, and did I mention, you’re only allowed one picture and less than 15 words?

Not easy is it? Rurik Nyström has perfected this particular skill of describing a place in so few words, in fact, he’s built a business out of it. His company RedBANG has produced maps of over 29 cities in China, Brunei, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Holland and the UK. The editor in me wanted to know how RedBANG had perfected the art of writing so compactly.

They have set up a process. They identify a city’s top 20 sites and then research each one in depth. Online, they trawl through Wikipedia, history archives, travel sites, they even visit the city virtually on YouTube. They pick out key facts and identify what Rurik calls the ‘value words’; descriptive words used by other authors. These key facts and value words are then passed to a professional writer who distils them into an sms-length word-bite.

The words are important, but to Rurik what’s more important is to ‘show’ the city to a visitor. He believes tourist offices and travel guides show too much; he’s striving for the opposite. His readers, he says, are smart, short on space (his map is small and light) and short on time. Rurik’s job is to guide visitors around a city with good graphics and signage.

I ask Rurik how he developed his passion for condensing cities into a few words. In short – how did he become a mapper? A childhood spent following a diplomat father meant he was always arriving in new cities and posing the same questions as tourists. A 13-year stint as a Concept Specialist at IKEA honed his design skills. Creating RedBANG allowed him to fuse his many loves: travel, design, mapping and a passion for presenting information in an innovative, original way.

I’m still struggling to describe the Forbidden City in a few words. I’ll leave you with RedBANG’s version:

FORBIDDEN CITY
Built 1406-1420 by a  million laborers. Home of emperors, servants, concubines and eunuchs till 1924. Includes the huge and fascinating Palace Museum. Opening hours….

For more information: www.redBANG.com

English Trackers Blogger

“Ah!” I hear you say, “but at English Trackers proofreading is your livelihood; of course you believe in proofreading.”

True. But humour me on this one.

Say you’ve just written a book. You’ve got something to say and you’ve written it all down. You’re an expert in your . . . → Read More: Self-publishing: to proofread or not to proofread?]]> To proofread or not to proofread?

Surely that’s a stupid question?

“Ah!” I hear you say, “but at English Trackers proofreading is your livelihood; of course you believe in proofreading.”

True. But humour me on this one.

Say you’ve just written a book. You’ve got something to say and you’ve written it all down. You’re an expert in your field and you want to share with others. Everyone is writing books and self-publishing these days. It’s easy.

You’ve spent the hours doing the research, you’ve taken time out of your hectic schedule to write it, you’ve organised the cover, you’ve figured out which self-publishing route to take…

Stop! This is where I want to ask my stupid question: “To proofread or not to proofread?”

It seems that many people either don’t ask the question or give the wrong answer. I’ve just read a self-published book on my Kindle. The author chose not to proofread and I’m still trying to figure out why.

Here’s how it went for me.

Last week I attended a conference in China (where I live). One of the speakers particularly impressed me, and I introduced myself, got her business card and later wrote and requested a meeting with her company. Before the meeting, I visited their website and noticed the CEO had written a book on the conference subject. The Kindle version was only U$3, so I bought it and started to read.

Not a pleasant experience!

Granted, being a professional proofreader can be a handicap, as mistakes tend to jump out of the page and punch you in the face. If I carry that analogy through, you could say that I needed facial reconstruction by the end of it. I can say without a doubt that the CEO in question (a native English speaker) did not spell-check his work, nor did he ask a second party to proofread it.

Why does all this matter?

If the book sells for U$3, the author is probably only getting around U$2.10 per sale; therefore we can assume he’s not doing it to make money. Anyway, he’s an entrepreneur and CEO, presumably he makes money via the expertise he’s expounding in the book.

So, why is he self-publishing a book?

To demonstrate his expertise, to impress clients, to be able to say he’s a published author.

However, by not proofreading his book:

-    he has given a damaging impression of carelessness and unprofessionalism;
-    he has probably alienated many potential clients with his book; the content may be good, but it’s not engaging and it’s painful to read;
-    he has left a lasting trace of his poor writing for all to see, and that may lead to adverse commentary online, including perhaps a negative review on Amazon.

Not only will readers not be sharing his book, he is actually damaging his brand and his company’s image. And his readers – and potential clients – are annoyed at having wasted their $3.

I think it’s great that the barriers to publication have been removed.

I have enjoyed reading many books that would not have been published via the traditional publication route. However, I hope every writer venturing out into the self-publishing world will know how to answer the question that started this whole post:

To proofread or not to proofread?

To proofread!

If you are interested in using our proofreading services, we invite you to visit our online English editing site.

To discuss your writing project with us, contact us at info[at]englishtrackers[dot]com or via our site.

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy  To self-publish or not to self-publish?, our interview with self-published author Anne Garrigues.