The Savvy Newcomer aims to serve newcomers to the translation and interpreting professions by publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed content on a weekly basis. We strive to provide you with the answers to the many questions you face as a new or aspiring translator or interpreter.
Purchase Orders Revisited
This post originally appeared on the blog My Words for a Change and it is republished with permission. Way back in 2015, I asked my blog readers whether the purchase order I’d produced was merely a pipe dream or a document I could actually use with my clients. The general consensus was that my overly long PO would prove daunting for direct clients and unnecessary for agencies. After tweaking it a bit based on the many suggestions I received, I instead came up with a purchase order checklist. The idea was to fill it in ourselves using the information we gleaned in negotiations with clients and for it to be a handy reminder of what questions we should be asking. However, I have to admit this hasn’t always been my approach as I have given it to direct clients for two main reasons. Firstly, it serves as a more formal record of the provision of services than an email exchange, especially as I’ve included a link to my privacy notice and to the ITI terms and conditions. And secondly, clients can also provide me with the details I need to perform that service better. I always fill in as much of…
Read More
“Translations? Is that a thing?” In 2016 I started a BA in Translations. It was a new, exciting experience for me, being able to study something that I had decided to do in high school, but had to put off for two years because, you know, life. However, with my decision to become a translator—and eventually working as one—came a…
Read More
This post originally appeared on Anja Jones Translation blog and it is republished with permission. Translating marketing texts can be a tricky thing. We need to relay the information from the source text and make sure it sounds beautiful in the target language at the same time. Here are our top 5 tips for good copywriting that also apply…
Read More
As professional translators and interpreters, we are always striving to provide high-quality services to our clients, be that translation, interpretation, revision work, etc. Yet what does high-quality work look like as a language professional? How can it be measured and how do we know if we are providing quality work? Drs. Geoffrey Koby and Isabel Lacruz tackled this massive subject…
Read More
COVID-19 has changed the way we connect. For public health reasons, networking events are no longer taking place in person. Since February 2020, people around the world have been recasting their connections. What used to be in person is now done remotely if possible. What are we noticing? I have been attending meetings with my local Chamber of Commerce, which…
Read More
This post originally appeared on Translating is an Art blog and it is republished with permission. I find that a lot of people only use CAT tools for repetitive texts. And that is of course what they were originally developed for. Modern CAT tools, however, have so many other useful features that it’s worth considering using them for non-repetitive texts…
Read More
This post originally appeared on Copyblogger I don’t know about you, but when I started freelancing as a writer, I made a ton of mistakes. And by “a ton,” I mean everything I did was pretty much a disaster. Thankfully, you can fix mistakes. And contrary to popular belief, making mistakes is a good thing — provided you learn from…
Read More
Oftentimes, clients will have questions as to the style choices that language professionals make. Perhaps the target document may not appear the way they see it in English, or perhaps it does not coincide with other documents they have seen written in the target language. In order to alleviate some of the stress in this process, this style guide was…
Read More
Reblogged with permission I often receive emails from aspiring translators who are switching from a career in the fields of science or healthcare and are seeking advice from someone with the same language combination who made a similar change, albeit several decades ago. This blog post is an expanded version of my response, in the hope that it will save…
Read More
From time to time we at The Savvy Newcomer receive questions from our readers that make for great blog post topics. This is one of them! Here’s a question from one of our readers who’s just starting to pursue an interest in languages and wants to know how to get started. Q: Is there any advice you could give for…
Read MoreHow to Create an Ideal T&I Client Profile to Market Your Services
This post was originally published on Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo’s blog. It is reposted with permission. It is incredibly important to know your ideal client if your marketing efforts are going to be effective. After all, we want to work with our ideal clients, and not just anyone who crosses our paths, right? I mentioned recently in a webinar that I…
Read MoreRecent Posts
Subscribe to ATA News