I belong to that technologically in-between generation. The
first half of my childhood I spent time locating library books using card
catalogs, calling my friends using our home’s land line, and learning to type
on an electric typewriter. By the time I reached middle school, though,
computers had taken the place of typewriters. And by high school, most
households had an internet-connected computer, and many of my friends were sporting
pagers, which were quickly upgraded to fancy flip mobile phones.
Now in 2019, it’s hard to image life without my tiny pocket
computer (a.k.a. my cell phone) that allows me to stay connected no matter
where in the world I am. Distant are the memories of writing a paper by physically
going to a library for research, taking notes by hand, and then typing it up on
my clickity Olympia typewriter.
Looking back, it is amazing to realize how much life has
changed since my early childhood—a fact that is really brought to light by this
entertaining ABC
News flashback from 1993. Enjoy!
Ghostwriting
isn’t just for celebrities or high-powered CEOs looking to publish their
autobiographies, memoirs, or advice. While it’s true that many ghostwriters do
specialize in writing books for the famous and wealthy, it’s a myth that
ghostwriting is strictly for celebrity tell-alls or corporate memoirs. There
are plenty of ghostwriters out there who specialize in helping regular people
who have a story to tell.
Another common
misconception about ghostwriting is that ghostwriters only write non-fiction
books. They do write non-fiction books, of course. But ghostwriters can help
with a wide variety of other writing projects, from works of fiction to blogs
to business communications.
In this post,
we’ll go beyond autobiographies and business books and take a look at four
types of writing projects that a talented, flexible ghostwriter can take on.
1. Novels, screenplays, scripts for television, and plays.
Most people feel they have a story
inside them just waiting to come out: A bestselling spy thriller; an
award-winning romcom; the next “Breaking Bad” or “Game of Thrones.” There’s only one problem: They
aren’t experienced writers, and they aren’t sure how to get their ideas down on
paper in an engaging way.
How a ghostwriter can help:
Fiction ghostwriters have the experience necessary to turn a good idea into a great story great. They understand things like character development, plot, and pacing. And, most importantly, they have the skills and experience needed to see a fiction project through to the end. A ghostwriter can also help ensure that your finished piece is tailored to publishers or producers, and he or she may even be able to help with next steps like pitches or self-publishing.
2. Articles for print and online publications, blogs, and e-zines.
A great way to build your brand, position yourself as a subject matter expert, or generate sales is to publish articles and blogs that showcase your knowledge. But industry experts often find that writing for a wider audience is can be a challenge: They’re often too close to the material to determine if their message is clear, conversational, and, most importantly, interesting to the average reader.
How a ghostwriter can help:
A ghostwriter can help you get your message across in a way that resonates with a general audience. A ghostwriter can also help you do things like avoid industry jargon or technobabble. And, of course, any ghostwriter worth his or her salt will also ensure that the end result sounds like you: Your voice, your ideas, your unique perspective or industry expertise.
3. Business marketing and communication projects
Running a
company in today’s competitive market can be a challenge. You need a marketing
plan with plenty of content — from whitepapers and case studies to
newsletters, social posts, and corporate communications — to engage your
customers and stakeholders. And you need to do create all of this content while
also keeping up with your other business-related tasks. Most companies simply
don’t have the time to churn out this much copy without sacrificing quality.
How a ghostwriter can help:
Creating top-notch content and communications is vital to the success – or failure – of your business. Hiring a ghostwriter can help you do that. A good ghostwriter can take your content ideas and minimal direction and run with it, creating shareable, high-quality content that reflects your company’s voice and brand, improves SEO, and gets you noticed — all while ensuring that you have the time to focus on other aspects of your business.
4. Speeches and presentation scripts
You’ve been
invited to give a keynote address at an important industry event. Your sales
team has to give a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation about your latest product.
You need to pitch your company’s services to a new potential client. You’ve been
nominated for an award.
And, you’re
terrified.
Let’s face it:
Even the most experienced public speakers out there – politicians, celebrities,
and business leaders – use speechwriters to help them plan what to say and how
to say it. Being prepared can help take the pressure off and ease the anxiety.
How a ghostwriter can help:
Ghostwriters with experience in writing speeches and presentations can help you craft a memorable, interesting speech or presentation. And they can ensure that it matches your unique voice, includes your key messages, and, most importantly, fits within your allotted timeframe. Not sure what to say? A ghostwriter with speechwriting experience can also help you generate topic ideas and organize your ideas.
Regardless of
the type of project you need written, if you don’t have the expertise or the
time, hiring a ghostwriter to write it for you can be the perfect option. A
ghostwriter can bring your project to a higher level of professionalism and
success.
And the best
part? You still get to retain all the rights, credit, and potential prestige
that comes with the finished work.
As with every form of art, we writers are constantly working
to improve our craft.
From reading the works of great writers to attending writing
workshops and checking out the latest and greatest grammar rules and
regulations, we try very hard to stay at the top of our writing game.
In our never-ending search for interesting new ways to help
us grow as writers, we came across this inspiring article from The
Writing Cooperative on 7 unusual tips that will “explode” your writing
skills. The article suggest things such as hand-copying the works of great
writers, as well as breaking down entire novels and analyzing the complete
portfolios of successful writers.
If you are like many people tackling the project of writing your family history book, you probably have a mountain of old paper documents, photos, and information you printed from online sources. Does this sound familiar?
You know the hard copy of the family tree on your mother’s
side is around somewhere, but it might be buried beneath the notes you took
while interviewing your uncle. Or, maybe it ended up in the pile of legal
documents, among old property deeds and immigration materials.
Perhaps the most daunting part of documenting your family
history is organizing your research. With a combination of paper and digital
materials, it’s easy to misplace or misfile something, leaving a hole in your
writing.
“If I had to start again, I would create an organization system from the start and be consistent.”
Lynn Palermo, Armchair Genealogist
What Type of Book Are You Writing?
Whether you are creating a memoir, biography, scrapbook or some other work, the time invested in creating an organization system is invaluable. Spending time getting organized on the front end can save much more time and a great deal of frustration later.
The process can be overwhelming. No matter how you plan to
document your family history, there are two crucial components to the process: asolid
outline and a good organizational system for your research.
Before you begin to draft an outline, you need to define the
scope of your book. Who and what are you writing about? Is it one specific ancestor or an entire branch
of the family? Does it cover a specific
event or period of time, or is it a general overview of all the research you
can find?
Once you answer those questions, you are ready to begin
organizing the framework of your book.
Creating an Outline
There is no perfect formula for outlining the information in your book. This is a personal decision, based on how you want to present your findings and what makes the most logical sense to your story. Some common ways to divide up the information are by:
Date/Period of Time
Family Branch
Geographical Area
For example, if your book encompasses everything you can find on all of your ancestors, then organizing the book by date may be a good plan. It becomes a chronological story with different ancestors discussed within the larger framework of a timeline.
Or, you could organize the book based on different branches
of your family. The major sections of your outline would include each of the
family groups, with descendants’ information and stories underneath.
If your lineage includes people from multiple regions of the
world, then you might consider dividing your outline by geographical area. Each
chapter could represent a different area of origin, with stories of specific
ancestors told within.
Go Beyond Names and Dates
Once you have the larger framework established, it’s time to
integrate your research and notes in a way that truly tells the story of your
family. What interesting information did you find that surprised you? Which topics are most important to you? You may have found similar themes, like common
occupations or military involvement, among many of your relatives.
Be Flexible
Your outline should be the backbone of the book, but don’t
be afraid to move things around if research leads you in a new direction. Let
your findings lead the process, and revise the outline until you have the
information organized in the best possible way.
How to Organize Your Notes and Research
Researching your family history can have a snowball effect. One finding leads to another, which leads to another, and before you know it there are random bits of information scattered across a number of topics and people.
“We are so excited for the hunt of our ancestors, we don’t take the time to save our discoveries adequately in the beginning. By the time we realize we need a sound organization system, we are knee deep in genealogy stuff.”
The goal is to take all of your information and plug the
substantive material into the outline you created. A good place to start is
simply reviewing your research to see what works within the outline. Here are
some things to consider including in your book:
Family papers, correspondence, etc.
Property deeds
Wills
Immigration documents
Existing family trees
Diaries
Photos
Interviews
Tip: Don’t forget to keep detailed source citations. Decide on a citation method and be consistent across all sources, as you go.
A common pitfall among first-timers is to throw everything into one big pile (or one computer folder) and figure you will divide it up later. Let’s be honest…you probably won’t, and it will be a challenge to locate what you need to plug into your outline.
“File your documents as you find them. That catch-all folder, whether it’s for paper or digital, it is just an excuse to put off what you should be doing immediately, keeping your research in an organized fashion.”
Lynn Palermo, The Armchair Genealogist
Create Digital Files
Palermo encourages compiling your notes into word documents. Create one computer folder for each family group, with sub-folders for individual family members.
Tip: Regularly back up your computer to protect your notes.
What goes in the sub-folders?
A good place to start is to create an overview document for each person. In that document, include a simple form so you can consistently collect basic information like names and dates. This is also the document for more substantive material, like transcribed interviews or notes you jotted down from online research. When you uncover new information, you can easily enter it into the overview document, knowing it will be parallel to the material you have on other family members.
For example, you might create an overview document with
sections like these:
Name
Birth/Death dates
Place of birth
Parents
Children
Occupation
Notes/Interesting Information
In addition to the overview document, each person’s subfolder should also include any scanned documents and photos you find. Here’s an example of what this folder structure might look like on your computer:
Next, create separate subfolders for pictures and other scanned documents that apply to the entire family, rather than just one family member. These subfolders logically fit within the larger family folder.
Here’s an example of how this might look on your computer:
Consider Electronic Organization Platforms
If you want a more sophisticated way to keep up with your research and cross-reference data, look into cloud-based storage systems. Lots of options exist with capabilities like uploading audio and video files, scanned documents, and photos taken with your smartphone.
These platforms also have tagging functions so you can
easily sort through materials to find and group things in a way that makes
sense for your outline. And, because your information is stored in the cloud,
you can access materials from any device, anywhere.
In an article
for Family Tree Magazine, writer
Lisa
Louise Cooke recommends using Evernote’s free Web Clipper function to
manage large online resources. The Web Clipper allows you to save a specific page
or section within a website. You can easily save a full web page, even if it is
larger than your computer screen and not visible all at once.
Create Research Binders
While it’s a good idea to scan hard copies to keep in your
digital files, you still need a place to keep the original documents. Consider
using three-ring binders to house your hard-copy documents.
These should mirror the digital files, with one binder for each family group. Divide individual family members into separate sections, with tabs, and include pockets for scanned photos and other documents.
Ready, Set, Write!
Your outline is complete, and your notes are soundly organized. Are you ready to start writing? Getting to this point has taken considerable time and effort and may have seemed like the hardest part of the project. But, if you’re not comfortable with the actual writing process, you still have a large hurdle to clear.
Consider hiring a ghostwriter. You can hand over your digital and hard-copy files to an experienced writer who can turn your notes into something truly memorable. Professionals can help define and narrow your focus and also expand on your research and interviews to tell your family story for generations to come.
In Part
1 of this blog, we shared some strategies and best practices for creating
an editorial calendar that you’ll actually want to use. In this installment,
we’ll continue the discussion by taking a look at some common stumbling blocks to
avoid in the process.
We’ve identified seven common pitfalls that can derail
even the most carefully planned editorial calendar – and what you can do to
prevent them before they become an issue.
1. Forgetting the editing and proofreading stages.
Every piece of content, if you want it to be of high-quality and free of errors, needs time set aside for editing and proofreading. Don’t forget to include time for editing and proofing as you create your schedule.
2. Overloading your staff and coworkers.
Unless you are doing everything yourself, from idea generation to the published content, you need to consider others who will be working on the project. Review their workload and how it might impact the project timeline. This information will help ensure that you assign the tasks to the right people so you can stay on target with your set deadlines.
3. Neglecting external deadlines.
If you are creating content for clients or submitting your content to outside publications, you will need to schedule your projects around their editorial calendars, too. Take into consideration their workflow and task due dates and incorporate them with your own calendar. This will help you make sure you can effectively meet deadlines when mixed with all your other projects.
4. Not giving yourself enough wiggle room.
It’s happened to all of us: You look at an assignment and think it will be easier, faster, and less time-consuming than it turns out to be. A few small setbacks (an interviewee has to reschedule at the last minute; your editor gets the flu; your client asks to move the deadline to yesterday) and you’re suddenly rushing to beat the clock. A good rule of thumb is to double the time you think it will take you to do the task.
5. Providing too much information. Or not enough.
This can be a tricky balance: You don’t want to bog down your editorial calendar with unnecessary information – that just makes it confusing for everyone. At the same time, though, you want to make sure that you’ve given your team enough to work with. There’s a bit of trial and error involved here – try to keep things simple and ask for feedback from your team.
6. Not sticking with it.
Too often, the tools we create to make our lives easier end up being pushed aside. An editorial calendar is useless if you’re not using it. Commit to using it. Check it daily. Update it as your schedule changes and deadlines shift. Pay attention to what’s working and what’s not – and tweak it to fit the way you work.
7. Choosing the wrong format for your team or your content.
You may have a colleague who used only spreadsheets for their editorial calendars. Another one might use a fancy, high-priced piece of software. While that may work for them, they also may not work for you. Don’t use these programs simply because someone else does. Use what works best for your content tracking needs. Use programs that not only help you get the most out of your plan but that you are comfortable using and will use.
Six Great Tools For Creating and Managing Your Editorial Calendar
There are many ways you can create and track your
editorial calendar. Before you decide on a tool, consider the number of people
who will be accessing and using the calendar, the complexities and the number
of projects you need to manage, as well as the potential features you will want
in your calendar.
Here are six great tools that can help you build and
manage your editorial calendar successfully and for the long-term.
Microsoft Office and Google Docs, both of which are easy to use and you probably already have access to, have spreadsheet features. Using a simple and basic spreadsheet might seem a little old school, but it is still a useful tool for creating a decent editorial calendar, especially if you are the only person creating content or if you have only a few types of content projects to manage. Spreadsheets programs, like Excel, allow you to have numerous tabs within each document as you need, unlimited columns and rows, and has highlighting, color, bolding, and other design features to help you organize your content. Many people who regularly create and publish content (like their own business blog) use WordPress content management system (CMS). WordPress had several great plugins that help organize your blog posts to be published on their platform. These include Editorial Calendar; Stresslimit Editorial Calendar; Edit Flow; and Future Posts Calendar. Keep in mind, however, that using plugins can lower your site’s page speed so using an external spreadsheet for your editorial calendar might be a better option.
The HubSpot Editorial Calendar is perfect for beginners new to creating an editorial calendar. They offer a free template and have formats for Excel, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar. They also have social media calendar templates and content editorial calendar templates which include written instructions for easy use. The free template has many of the basic fields you need in an editorial calendar already created so you can get started right away and it’s customizable to expand upon as you grow.
CoSchedule is great for creating and tracking your blog content, but you can create a workflow of your email marketing campaign and social media publishing, allowing you to keep track of all of it in one place. CoSchedule has many features and it easily integrates with other programs such as WordPress and Google Docs.
DivvyHQ is designed for companies that have high volume of content. If you’re to the point where your business or content plan has grown enough that you have trouble keeping up with it, give this software a try. The editorial calendar offers a simple dashboard that lists tasks to be accomplished as well as an unlimited number of shared calendars and workflow management for your whole team.
Trello’s editorial calendar template works whether you have a very simple content process or multiple steps to your workflow. It allows you to map your flow of work and content, set permissions, assign necessary tasks, and track progress all in real time with collaborative features such as boards, lists, and cards.
While it can be time consuming on the front end, designing an easy-to-use, effective editorial calendar isn’t as hard or intimidating as it might first seem. It’s definitely worth the time you put into it to get clear, organized, and stay on track. It will show in the time you save, the number of projects you’ll be able to complete, and even in the quality of your content.
One of the biggest challenges that writers face is time
management. We often have several projects going on at once, which can leave us
feeling like we are running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
While there are many different productivity tools out there
that promise to help with time and task management, many of them end up being
more time consuming and distracting than the actual projects themselves.
Are you new to content creation? Having trouble keeping tabs on
projects with multiple deadlines and lots of moving parts? Still looking for a
good way to organize all your projects?
Designing an easy-to-use, effective editorial calendar is the key
to creating consistent, successful content for yourself, your business, or your
clients. It might also be the key to keeping your sanity in the process!
What is an Editorial Calendar and Why Do You Need One?
An editorial calendar establishes
what projects need to be completed, outlines the workflow or tasks of each
project, and helps you track the progress of those projects.
Editorial calendars have been used
in the publishing industry for years to help magazine and book editors stay on
top of their projects and deadlines. When you or your clients have an online
presence and social media platform, an editorial calendar can help you create,
publish, and track ongoing content.
Getting Started: The Main Parts of an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar can be as detailed as you need it to be. Some editors and project managers prefer to focus on the big-picture stuff like topics and deadlines. Others track projects down to the tiniest details, keeping tabs on things like keywords, audience profiles, click-through rates, social media shares, and more. Regardless of the level of detail and what format or program you use, there are seven key parts to an effective editorial calendar:
The name of the project to be completed.
The type of project, whether a social media
post, blog, magazine article, book, etc.
The purpose of the project (inform, announce,
get sales, get leads, entertain).
Tasks involved in the project and who is
responsible for those tasks
Where the content will be used, sent, or published.
Deadlines for both project completion and
publishing.
Estimated time for each project and each project
task.
Once you have the basic parts of your editorial calendar, you can expand on them as needed. The idea is to create the best calendar for you, one that is fluid so you can grow it as your content needs and projects grow. Need inspiration? You can click here to see some examples.
Creating and Using an Effective Editorial Calendar
The most effective editorial
calendars clearly organize the tasks and timing of multiple projects in one
easy-to-use tool. It also tracks the flow of each individual project to see
progress and completion of the work at hand.
Use these eight time-tested strategies for getting your editorial calendar right from the start:
1. Use one calendar for all content projects.
No matter how many or what types of projects you are trying to manage, or if you have multiple people involved, use only one editorial calendar to track it. Keeping everything in one easy-to see calendar means you’re less likely to miss a deadline or overextend yourself or your staff. Using one editorial calendar also makes it easier to update and revise as needed.
2. Identify outside influences that may impact your calendar.
If you’re submitting content to an outside publication, you’ll make sure that your editorial calendar aligns with theirs. Depending on your company’s industry or area of expertise, your editorial calendar may be affected by current events, conferences and tradeshows, sales goals, product launches, and more. Make sure to identify these potential sources of conflict and adjust your schedule accordingly.
3. Plan your work, work your plan.
An editorial calendar should show your content plan as a whole, with an emphasis on when it needs to be done and who is in charge of doing it.
From there, break down each project further, showing every task involved from start to finish. This will help you allow enough time to complete the work involved with each task.
In most cases, each individual project’s tasks will include things like creating the topic idea, assigning the content piece, research, interviews, outline, draft, editing, photos, links and credits, approval of writing, proofing, and publishing.
4. Plan for the unexpected.
If you can, keep blocks of unscheduled time to add projects in or move them around as needed. The calendar should be a clear working plan but one that also allows for changes you may need to make in your projects and workflow.
5. Add key information.
Add to your calendar as you become more comfortable and consistent with using it. In addition to including basic information, you can start to add more details like keywords, audience, the number of social media shares, click-through rates, original publishing dates, how often the content was published and where, and spin-off ideas from the original content.
6. Decide how far ahead to plan.
Some content plans encompass a whole year while some may only go six months out. Ultimately, you decide what is appropriate for your goals. Going too far out in advance, however, can be overwhelming, especially if this is your first time using a content plan. Smaller timespans may be easier to stick to at first.
7. Develop a system.
Whether you use a spreadsheet, a calendar program, or a good, old-fashioned paper planner, it’s important that you have a way to easily identify the different elements of each project.
Create
multiple tabs or areas on the single calendar based on the type of project,
timing, or person assigned to the task.
Use color
to identify projects, assigned people, timing, or tasks. Create notifiers or
alarms so tasks don’t go missed. Flag or highlight important notes that your
team can see.
8. Share and protect.
Make sure that your calendar is available to everyone on your team at all times – and that everyone is aware of important updates and changes.
Of course, there are risks to allowing everyone to access and update the calendar. It’s a good idea to take some steps to safeguard against accidental deletions or changes. Spreadsheets and other programs will allow for certain fields to be locked and still give others access and updating abilities. Allow for others to update their progress and make notes on the calendar but protect all the main fields such as headers, categories, critical projects, and firm deadlines.
The Next Step:
Now that you know how to create an effective editorial calendar that meets your needs, check out part two of this series to learn about the common pitfalls you should avoid when designing your calendar. You’ll also learn about some of the tools available to help you create this critical document for your content plan.
As writers, we are generally limited in the fonts that we
can use. While a fancy font may seem more fun and exciting than the basic
Arial, Times New Roman, or Calibri, we have to be sure that the fonts we use
can be easily read and understood.
Every once in a while, though, we have the opportunity to
color outside the lines and use a font that has a bit more pizzazz. On those
occasions, it is important that we find a font that is not only perfect for the
particular project we are working on, but is also free to use.
This awesome blog from Hubspot.com
has proven to be the perfect go-to for great font downloads that are also free.
They have come up with a list of 33 of the best free fonts, and have even
provided samples of each, to make it easier to decide which one(s) you want.
At The Writers For Hire (TWFH), our client base includes companies from all over the world. We love meeting and working with clients from other cultures – but collaborating on English-language writing projects with non-native speakers can definitely be challenging. In this installment of Copywriter Q&A, the talented, multilingual Jennifer DeLay explains how to make the process go smoothly – and to ensure that nothing is lost in translation.
TWFH: Can you talk about your experience editing material written by non-native English speakers?
JD: In the 1990s, I served as section editor and then managing editor of New Europe, a weekly newspaper based in Athens, Greece. My boss and several of my co-workers were not native English speakers. Most of them were Greeks, but a few of them came from other backgrounds – e.g., Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, Russia, and Georgia.
I then spent two multi-year stints as editor of FSU Oil
& Gas Monitor, a weekly trade publication covering oil and gas developments
in the former Soviet Union, between 1998 and 2015. About half of the
freelancers I worked with there were not native English speakers. They were
native speakers of German, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Turkish, Chinese, and
… I know there were more, but I can’t remember them all.
TWFH: What are some common editing issues/challenges that arise when working with a non-native English speaker?
JD: There are certain idioms or very specific ways of saying things that make sense in their original language but don’t make any sense when translated into English. For example, one colloquial way to express victory in Greek is “to make someone eat wood.” That doesn’t make sense in English. Or in Russian, the word for “oil pipeline” is neftetruboprovod. This literally translates to “oil pipe duct” in English, which doesn’t really have the same meaning.
TWFH: Are there any English-language conventions that are especially confusing to non-native English speakers? For example, one of our international clients prefers to avoid contractions and idioms as she says they can be unclear/confusing for non-native speakers.
JD: Figures of speech and business jargon can be confusing because they often don’t make literal sense and/or they draw on specific cultural trends that are off the radar in other countries.
TWFH: Do you have any tips/best practices for editors working with non-native English speakers?
JD: Cultivate a basic level of familiarity with the topic. If you do this, then your alarm bells will ring loud and clear when you read text that seems to be at odds with the source material – and you will know what to ask about when drawing up questions for the writer. In my experience, it’s easier to get questions answered when they are phrased along the lines of “You said A, but I read B in source material X. Could it be that you meant C? If so, I’d like to rephrase this as D.”
Another practice that I’ve found helpful is to read the
whole piece from start to finish before I do any editing at all. If I’m still
shaky after that, I read it again – out loud. (Thank goodness for the home
office.) The point is to get an idea of what the writer is trying to say before
I get into the details.
TWFH: We’ve found that if a piece needs very extensive edits, we have trouble refining it once we’ve fixed the big-picture stuff. So we’ll do a bunch of work and someone else will look at it and see a ton of stuff we missed. Any advice here?
JD: If something has been very hard to get into shape, I send it to another person to read because usually by that point I’m no longer seeing it. So I send it to someone with notes and explain that I’m trying to make sure it flows and that the narrative makes sense.
TWFH: A review by a fresh set of eyes can really help. We’ve also found that it also helps to set the piece aside for a couple of days and come back to it for a re-edit.
JD: Do both of those things if you can! Another approach is to communicate with the writer enough that you’re sure what point he/she is trying to make and then hand it over to another editor with some guidance: “So-and-so is trying to argue that A and B are not good options for scenario X. Please read with the intent of assessing whether that message is clear.”
TWFH: Is there a gentle way to basically say, “the way you wrote this sounds really wrong to a native speaker” without offending someone?
JD: I’ve found that most writers writing in another language are not particular about copy editing — unless it’s a trademarked name, such as the name of a product or a company. Some companies can be particular about using an ampersand instead of “and.”
Other than that, I haven’t had too much trouble with
suggestions for moving text around or rewriting. Most people, when they’re not
writing in their native language, are not going to make a point of saying, “Of
course I spelled this name right! How dare you!”
TWFH: Do you have any other tips or advice for native English-speaking writers working with people from different cultures?
JD: It helps if you have a knowledge of the culture. For example, if you’re working with a writer from Japan, it might be helpful to know that in business discussions, it’s rare for Japanese people to say “no” directly. Instead, they might say, “It would be prohibitively difficult,” or “This is not the right time.”
A few other examples: People in Israel can be blunt in
stating their opinions. It helps to know that so you’re not taken aback by it.
And in general, Italian and Greek culture is less formal than, say, Norwegian
culture.
I also try to keep an eye out for things like how much small
talk people prefer in their communications. Sometimes they get straight to the
point, with no boilerplate cordialities, and if that’s the case I say something
like, “Hello and thanks for XYZ” and then get down to business. Sometimes they
ask me about the weather where I am or ask a question out of curiosity, and if
that’s the case I make a point of doing something similar in future
communications since that seems to make them comfortable.
TWFH: So it comes down to knowing the culture and how people work together and communicate.
JD: It helps to have that cultural understanding of what they are saying. Here’s another example that may shed some light: In Greece, I was tasked with editing a translated version of a piece written by a Russian trade ministry official. But the official never spoke to us directly. He would only communicate through one of his deputies. And even then, communication was difficult: If I tried to get clarification or talk about deadlines, I didn’t get a whole lot of communication back; my calls were ignored. Eventually, we went ahead and printed what we had. I got a panicked phone call from the deputy, saying, “You have embarrassed trade minister!”
That incident led me to make a point about being clear about expectations on both sides.
TWFH: Do you ever run into situations where there’s not an exact English translation/equivalent for whatever the original writer was trying to say? What do you do in that case?
JD: If I know the writer’s native language, I try to reverse-engineer it into something that makes a similar point in English. If I don’t, I try to ask the writer whether a substitute phrase would work.
Reading, in general, has a lot of benefits. And the benefits
to reading nonfiction are even greater. For one, nonfiction books can teach you
valuable life lessons and ways to deal with adversities in your own life. Nonfiction books can also help to expand your
vocabulary and improve your concentration.
But, let’s face it; sometimes it’s hard to find the time in
our busy days to sit down and read a book.
If you are looking to start a new book, but don’t have time to tackle a 1,000-page novel, we have found the perfect solution. Here are 15 fantastic short nonfiction books that could easily be read in one day.
