punctuation in English – Dragoman Transcreation

Use a comma after introductory adverbial phrases

Posted on April 28, 2020June 29, 2020 Translation_Tips

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) “An introductory adverbial phrase is a phrase at the beginning of the sentence that tells something about the main verb, such as when it occurred, how, or to what degree. Consider this sentence. “After reading the newspaper, John felt relaxed.” The phrase “after reading the newspaper” tells when John felt relaxed. This phrase is an introductory […]

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 […]

Hyphen, En Dash or Em Dash?

Posted on October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 Editor Notes

Let’s clear up the confusion surrounding the use of hyphen, en dash and em dash. The hyphen (-) Dragoman follows the AP Stylebook, so we use hyphens to indicate ranges or to clarify that we are using a compound modifier. Please use no spaces before or after the hyphen. Examples: The first leg of the training was held in Şanlıurfa on May 22-23, 2019. Our state-of-the-art warehouse facilities are 80-percent automated. Each year, we endeavor to create a first-rate academic […]

Punctuation Troubleshooting

Posted on August 6, 2014January 27, 2019 Translation_Tips

One of the principal reasons for a style guide is to ensure consistency. Our translators work from a wide range of languages and are based around the world. The style guide is what helps ensure all Dragoman output is presented in a professional, clear and uniform manner. Adhering to Dragoman style isn’t difficult; it just takes the self-discipline to reference. That said, when it comes to punctuation and formatting, there are some recurring issues that are nevertheless time consuming to […]