Style – Dragoman Transcreation

Avoid artificial superlatives

Posted on April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 Style

The following text is taken verbatim from the book, 300 Days of Better Writing: A daily handbook for improving your writing written by David Bowman (2010) “Artificial superlatives are words like really, super, and very. People use them in an attempt to get the reader excited about some idea or topic. Consider these sentences. “The Broncos are really great. They are having a very good year.” The problem is that these words don’t actually add anything to the meaning. For […]

US English: Place ending punctuation inside the quotation marks

Posted on April 28, 2020May 8, 2020 Style

The following text is taken verbatim from the book, 300 Days of Better Writing: A daily handbook for improving your writing written by David Bowman (2010) “(Note to our friends in Great Britain: reverse the tip in the next paragraph, and you will probably do fine.) When providing a direct quote or using quotation marks to indicate that you are writing about a word or phrase, the comma or period that ends the phrase or sentence should be placed inside […]

Percents – Dragoman Style

Posted on November 25, 2019November 25, 2019 Style

Do you use this: % symbol, or this: percent (spelled out)? Read this article to understand Dragoman Style, which is mainly based on the AP Style Guide and enriched by Diana Hacker’s, Brian Garner’s and Strunk & White. 1. The word percent is one word. Do not use U.K. spelling, i.e., per cent. 2. Always spell out percent in paragraph content as in 30 percent, 3.5 percent, 66 percent. 3. For percents “less than 1” use zero before the decimal […]

Capitalization for Headlines – Dragoman Style

Posted on October 29, 2019October 29, 2019 Style

Here is another quick tip on capitalization. Our aim, as always, is to teach our audience at least one good trick in less than a minute. This time we are discussing capitalization of headlines. If you are involved in translation, copy-editing or proofreading or in general in publishing, you will find our posts very useful. Do not use ALL CAPS for headlines and headings! Use ONE of these styles instead: 1. Lower case, except for the first word and proper […]

Definite Article (The) with Initialisms and Acronyms

Posted on October 25, 2019October 25, 2019 Style

Dragoman prefers preceding initialisms with a definite article. An initialism is an abbreviation formed from initial letters. They require “the”, because they are pronounced letter by letter. Incorrect: Trump told world leaders to support overhauling U.N. Correct: Trump told world leaders to support overhauling the U.N. An acronym, on the other hand, is a word made up from the first letters of the name of something such as an organization. For example, NATO is an acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Because they are pronounced as words, there is no need to precede them with definite article: […]

Titles of Magazines, Newspapers, Journals – Capitalization

Posted on October 24, 2019November 8, 2019 Style

This piece is a part of our capitalization series. Proper capitalization in English is tricky. Stay tuned with our Language Tips for more. 1. If magazine or journal is part of the title, use upper case New York Magazine Journal of the American Medical Association 2. If magazine or journal is not part of the title, use lower case Time magazine 3. Capitalize the article the if part of the title of a newspaper, magazine, or journal The Washington Post […]

Starting a Sentence With a Number

Posted on October 2, 2019October 9, 2019 Sentences

Never begin a sentence with a numeral. There is one exception: a numeral that identifies a calendar year. When translating press releases or annual reports, we occasionally come across situations where we have to place the percentage at the beginning of the sentence. E.g.: Twenty-eight percent of the participants passed the test last year. Although this sentence is correct, it looks odd. Where possible, recast the sentence so that the numbers are expressed in figures. Better: Last year, 28 percent […]

Style Guide for Medical Journals

Posted on October 1, 2019October 2, 2019 Style

As we continue to gain more clients from the medical community, a few style notes on how to translate medical files has become necessary. A full style guide has not yet been written. One option is to subscribe to the online style guide of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In the interim, please follow these rules of style: Use the Dragoman Style Guide for Figures. This style guide applies to ALL copy. Use the Dragoman Style Guide […]

Style Guide for Magazines and Journals

Posted on October 1, 2019October 2, 2019 Style

General Style for Content Language and Syntax Contractions Quotation Marks Capitalization and Style for Headlines, Headings, and Subheadings Awards, Prizes, and Categories of Awards Titles of Books, Short Stories, Newspapers, Magazines and Journals Titles of Films and so on Academic Writing Sources: AP Stylebook and Dragoman Style General Style for Content The clients determine the final layout and preferences for magazines or journals. If the client does not have an in-house style guide or preferences, follow these rules of style. In all cases, be […]

Style Guide for Annual Reports

Posted on October 1, 2019October 2, 2019 Style

General Rules An annual report contains a company’s achievements and financial figures and is provided to shareholders, stakeholders and potential investors. The report uses several styles of writing: descriptive, corporate, advertising, financial, and legal. Previous reports are good benchmarks. Research is key to successfully translate an annual report. Search not only on client’s website but also on other related websites for benchmarking purposes. Try to find sources in written in the target language, not translations of local corporations. Internet is […]