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Introduction
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Editing is often a bit of a sensitive topic.
Someone has worked hard to translate company materials into English and
they feel ownership of the English text. Unfortunately, working
hard is often not enough when working in a foreign language.
Even if you follow every rule of
grammar the text will often feel stiff and formal; you will have
noticed this if you have had the chance to read Swedish written by a
non-native speaker. Something just feels wrong even if all the words are
grammatically correct.
Since moving to Sweden, I have been
amazed by how well so many people speak, read and write English.
Their skills have allowed me to work and live comfortably here in my
newly adopted country.
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Edited
text examples |
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How best to demonstrate the difference
between a translated webpage and a translated and edited webpage? For
obvious reasons, I do not want to identify the businesses whose text I
have used as an example, but each of the following comes from a real
website.
| Example 1 |
Original text:
...to better exploit
the business opportunities on the growing Chinese
market, a decision has been made...
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Edited text:
...to better exploit
business opportunities in the growing Chinese market, we
have decided...
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| The total number of words
has been reduced, the grammar improved and it has been
changed from an indirect, to a direct statement. |
Top of Page
| Example 2 |
Original text:
...a
high level of it expertise...
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Edited text:
...a high level of IT
expertise...
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| In English 'it' is a
word. IT is the abbreviation for Information Technology. |
Top of Page
| Example 3 |
Original text:
...Despite extensive
internal has many of our customers experienced errors...
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Edited text:
...In spite of
extensive pre-release testing, many of our customers
have had problems...
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| The problems in the
original text can be difficult for a Swedish writer of
English to see, but they are quite obvious to an English
speaking editor, and customers. |
Top of Page
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CURRENT NEWS
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At the moment the whole site is news. I will be adding to it in the
future though, so check back now and then to see what might have
changed.
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A
small photo of me. |