Value proposition

To promote the client's products, services and image by applying best practice in English-language technical journalism and communication to each and every project. To this end, I translate more for my client’s customers and prospects than for my clients per se. This often involves taking considerable liberties compared with conventional approaches to technical translation. (This applies to publications intended to promote the client’s products, services and image, directly or indirectly, to a clearly defined target audience.)

Reading: On-screen vs. on-paper

Technical journalists and translators are just professions out of thousands that are – should be – themselves about how well they read and reread on screen versus on paper.

An article entitled Does reading on screen beat paper? by Rhymer Rigby in the Working Smarter

section of the Financial Times dated 15 December 2013 discusses the issue quoting, among others, Anne Mangen, an associate professor at the University of Stavanger in Norway, and Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University in the US.

One factor makes generalisations both difficult and subject to rapid obsolescence is the subject's "history of screens – the more you have used them the more chance there is that you like them. Even so, studies suggest some 'digital natives' sometimes do better with paper."

Final quote, from Prof Wolf via the FT article: “My personal feeling is that paper is better for deep, focused reading, especially if you grew up with it”.

The good news is that reading specialists are working on the subject. 

Cross-cultural user interface design

In September 2011, under the heading Seeking_#1: Graphic standards to accommodate cultural preferences, I asked the question:

Can anyone point me to a graphic standard (charte graphique) catering for  the cultural preferences of readers of the different language versions of bi- or multilingual technical publications?

Today, thanks to an article entitled Why we can’t let American tech take over the world (my decapitalisation, as usual when quoting American sources) by Sean Madden in Wired magazine dated 12 December 2013, I have something of an answer. Madden's contribution links to the feature article in the April 2013 issue of Human Factor International's UX Design Newsletter (UX for 'user experience') entitled Cross-cultural considerations for user interface design (my decap) by Nehal Shah. (For past issues of the UX Design Newsletter, see here.) For an explanation of what HFI means by 'user experience' and the return on investment it offers, view this RSA Animate presentation.

Shah's article provides some of the background theory while Madden's gives a number of interesting examples from web sites for mass consumer goods and services. Neither refers to technical communication on advanced-technology capital-intensive industrial products.

Interesting to note that Madden's opinion piece -- it appears on the Opinion page of Wired -- raised the hackles (see the comments section) of some American web designers. Perhaps if these designers looked at the English-language versions of some European or Asian websites that, in their view, are unlikely to achieve the desired effect on American readers (despite apparent success in their home cultures), they might realise that they entirely missed the point of the article.

To summarise the state of the art in cross-cultural user interface design and graphic standards, I invite feedback on the following tentative conclusions:

• some large corporations selling mass consumer goods and services have moved beyond the early 2000s approaches to website localisation (l10n) and globalisation (g18n) to culturally tailored text, graphics and layout based on evidence-based cross-cultural user experience methods and/or similar strategies
• few if any companies selling advanced-technology capital-intensive industrial products and services appear to have picked up on this trend (the situation may be different in the software sector)
• few if any graphics agencies and the like in western Europe and working for companies selling advanced-technology capital-intensive industrial products -- and more specifically agencies employing or using freelance technical writters, journalists and translators -- appear to have picked up on this trend.

Link this, link that...

For a lesson in branding and marketing jargon, take a look at the *Santa* brand book.

For an excellent post from the highly competent and highly regarded but not modest* Kevin Hendzel, read Bad advice for novice skydivers: “Learn as you go.” (my decapitalisation).
* Kevin describes himself as an 'award-winning translator, linguist, author, national media consultant and translation industry expert' (again, my decapitalisation).
Quote, unquote (my character attributes):

Translation is an audacious act.
It requires not only that you know what you know – easy enough, for sure – but it also requires you to know everything the writer knows.

Translation buyers in the quality sector of the market actually talk about who is good and who is not, and who produces at the top of the field and who does not, as well as why that is so.

For the first of a series of articles by Lucy Kellaway on the Golden Flannel Awards 2013 (for the finest examples of corporate drivel written or uttered in the last twelve months), see here.
Quote, unquote:

The point of my Golden Flannel Awards (now in their splendid 8th year) is to celebrate business leaders and companies that have gone the extra mile to push the envelope when it comes to creovative, best-of-breed drivel.

Enjoy these links, even if they do go way beyond this blog's usual scope.

• For a terrifyingly frank outburst on tax avoidance, watch this clip. (Not my politics, but full marks for clarity and honesty.)
• Body surfer Mark Cunningham: article, video.
• Excellent article in Wired by Sean Madden on the cultural impact of American technologies.

Applying OSASCOMP to military terms, part 1

On 2 December 2013, Jane's Defence Weekly wrote, under the heading Norway bridges JSM funding ahead of Storting vote:

Norway's Ministry of Defence has awarded Kongsberg Defence Systems a ... bridging contract to maintain work on the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) programme ahead of a parliamentary vote on funding for full-scale development... Derived from Kongsberg's Nytt Sjomalsmissile/Naval Strike Missile (NSM) surface-to-surface guided missile, already in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy, the JSM is a stealthy air-launched multi-role precision-strike missile specifically designed for internal carriage in the F-35A and F-35C variants of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Let us now attempt to apply OSASCOMP -- that's opinion size age shape colour origin material purpose noun -- (see post below dated 2 December) to the term
stealthy air-launched multi-role precision-strike missile.

The first thing to observe is that the analysis is not a straight forward as one might have hoped.

The second is that, as an experienced reader of technical journalism on military issues, the term reads well and appears to be well formed.

My first guess at assigning the components to the different roles would be:

stealthy = opinion
air-launched = origin
multi-role = purpose (??)

precision-strike = purpose (??).

Questions:

• each step of the analysis presents a challenge (Is stealthy an opinion? Does air-launched correspond to an origin? Multi-role to a purpose? Idem for precision-strike?)
• if multiple qualifying elements are assigned the same roles (in this case 'purpose'), how does one determine the correct order of the said elements?

Clearly, analysis of complex multi-element military terms according the OSASCOMPN rule is by no means straight forward.

It is beginning to look as though the long-standing question mentioned on 2 December still awaits an answer meeting the needs of technical journalists and translators.

Comment just posted on Mark Forsyth's Inky Fool blog:
Mark. After reading your article in the Spectator, I posted to my own blog, on 2 December, under the heading 'Answer to a long-standing question'. Today, I posted again under the heading 'Applying OSASCOMPN to military terms'. Turns out that I had trouble applying the rule. If you could spare a few minutes to take a look and clarify, I would be very grateful indeed.

Marcom

​'Marcom' (or 'marcomm') stands for 'marketing communications', a term I only learned recently. Wikipedia has an introductory article here and WhatIs.com has a definition here. The WhatIs definition reads, in part: Marcom is targeted interaction with customers and prospects using one or more media.

As a long-time freelance translator working for French groups in the defence and advanced technology sectors, the thing I find interesting about this concept is simply the close connection between the words 'marketing' and 'communications' (as in 'corporate communications'). One of the mysteries associated with ​​working for​ ​the ​corporate communications​ ​departments of ​such groups ​is​ ​​that freelance language service providers are seldom if ever in a position to exchange information with product marketing teams​. This means that it is generally impossible to​ ​​discuss ​product​ designations ​and descriptions​ ​in different languages, ​obtain background information on product names, ​and so forth.

Sounds incredible doesn't it? But I can assure you that it's true. I could write pages about the consequences, but it might be best if I simply leave it to your imagination.

Conquérir des marchés étrangers | crédibilité et réputation

Encouraging news and an encouraging post under this heading by Patricia Lane here.