Dragoman Transcreation

The following text is taken verbatim from the book, 300 Days of Better Writing: A daily handbook for improving your writing written by David Bowman (2010) “(Note to our friends in Great Britain: reverse the tip in the next paragraph, and you will probably do fine.) When providing a direct quote or using quotation marks to indicate that you are writing about a word or phrase, the comma or period that ends the phrase or sentence should be placed inside […]

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A percentage point or percent point is the unit for the arithmetic difference of two percentages. For example, moving up from 20% to 42% is a 22-percentage point increase, but is a 110 percent increase in what is being measured. Let’s see this with an example: Source Text:                         Trump’s job approval has risen from 44 percent on March 16 by 5 percentage points to 49 percent nine days later on […]

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Using too many ‘thats’ will rob your sentences of their pace and spontaneity. This is especially true for verbs of speech or thought such as say, think, know and so on. Read or listen this example carefully: Bolton said that he will make a statement about the share repurchase plan on Monday. Better:    Bolton said he will make a statement about the share repurchase plan on Monday. But not all thats are the same. Although some thats sound superfluous, not all […]

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Writing long sentences will alienate your readers and would even cost you your customers. Try to shorten your sentences whenever possible: Long:       The company will invest $2billion in a new semi-conductor manufacturing plant in San Jose, California, which will have living quarters for engineers, a school, a swimming pool and a  recreation center. Better:    The company will invest $2billion in a new semi-conductor manufacturing plant in San Jose, California. The plant will have living quarters for engineers, […]

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Zoom has become an essential part of our lives during the global lockdown. Families, friends, teachers, schools, government agencies and private corporations are using Zoom on a daily basis. For us, the interpreting agencies, Zoom offers another great possibility: remote language interpretation. If you have a paid Zoom account (minimum Pro account plus a webinar package), you can add simultaneous interpreting to your meetings in up to eight languages. Advanced settings of Zoom can be tricky and if you are […]

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This article series aims to eliminate usage errors and help non-native speakers to write clearly and fluently. We suggest that you always do proper research and use style guides effectively. For anything you are not sure of, feel free to ask us. Misused word as Alternatives because Explanation “As” is sometimes used to mean “because.” But do not use it if there is any chance of ambiguity. In the example below, “as” could mean “because” or “when.” Example Avoid “We […]

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This article series aims to eliminate usage errors and help non-native speakers to write clearly and fluently. We suggest that you always do proper research and use style guides effectively. For anything you are not sure of, feel free to ask us. Misused word while Alternatives although, whereas Explanation Avoid using “while” to mean “although” or “whereas” if there is any chance of ambiguity. In the example below, “while” could mean either “although” or “at the same time that.” Example […]

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This article series aims to eliminate usage errors and help non-native speakers to write clearly and fluently. We suggest that you always do proper research and use style guides effectively. For anything you are not sure of, feel free to ask us. Misused word since Alternatives because Explanation Do not use “since” to mean “because” if there is any chance of ambiguity. In the example below, “since” could mean “because” or “from the time that.” Example Avoid “Since we won […]

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This article series aims to eliminate usage errors and help non-native speakers to write clearly and fluently. We suggest that you always do proper research and use style guides effectively. For anything you are not sure of, feel free to ask us. Misused word actual Alternatives current, present. Explanation “Actual” is sometimes used to refer to something that is happening now. However, in English it means “real” or “existing”. Example Avoid “This appropriation is intended to cover basic salaries of […]

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Are you as old as I am and therefore able to name the NBA team the legendary basketball player Clyde Drexler is most commonly associated with? If you are getting somewhat on in years and you also follow NBA basketball, then you would answer: Portland Trail Blazers. What I will focus on throughout the rest of my entry is the verb “to blaze a (new) trail.” If you set an example by being the first to do something, you blaze […]

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