Category Editing
Delay ≠ délai; délai ≠ delay
In keeping with a promise I made to share some common Gallicisms with you, here’s one I constantly see in French copy and English translations: délai = delay, and vice-versa. As I was consulting my Facebook news feed this morning, I read the following French message in form of a camera shot (underlining is mine): « Madame, […]
Noun Strings, I Think I Love You. Not.
For some reason, some English writers love wordiness. Surprisingly, several newspaper journalists are notorious for this pesky practice. I have been a Globe and Mail subscriber for the past two years. Generally speaking, journalists write well. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that writing has become somewhat stiff, somewhat wordy. It seems that in-house or freelance editors no longer […]
Editors, anyone?
The following excerpts read: « … à des milieux de travail différents, à des besoins différents, à des clientèles différentes… » « Je désire remercier X… pour son invitation à participer à ce projet… qui nous a permis de vivre une expérience… Nous exprimons une vive reconnaissance à X qui nous a permis de vous offrir cette […]
Work, Collaborations…
I just realized that it has been three weeks since I haven’t posted anything on my blog. I tell you no lies: I have been really busy with many projects this month—so busy that I haven’t had much time to write texts. Considering that this may well be the last blog entry for this month, […]
Media: Singular or Plural?
Within the space of a week, Peter Mansbridge, anchor of CBC’s The National, and co-anchor Wendy Mesley have accompanied media with singular verbs when presenting a panel or an upcoming story in future broadcasts. Last night was no exception. In preparation for a discussion about the way in which the media are covering the ongoing […]
All about translation and editing
On September 11th, the Quebec City chapter of Quebec’s association of self-employed workers and small businesses in language services, the ATAMESL, held a workshop for translators and editors at the Café Krieghoff, located in the city’s Upper Town. It’s a part of the city that bustles with residents and tourists alike. The activity, mainly focused […]
Spanish: revisión, French: révision. English equivalent?
For quite some time, I have been asking myself the above question. I have also asked myself what the appropriate English terms would be for, say, the French révision linguistique ou unilingue and révision comparative ou bilingue. Spanish has no problem using revisión lingüística (monolingüe) and revisión comparativa (bilingüe). In either Latin language, the generic […]
Dwain Richardson 