42
2016
COVER STORY
Professional Development Day
BREAKING NEWS
SENSE Guidelines Go Public
BEST PRACTICE
Sally Hill on
How to Quote for Jobs, Part 2
GUEST BLOG
Marianne Orchard on
English+Dutch, a Language Apart
OUT OF OFFICE
Intuitive Jessie Cat Kelley
ENGLISH USAGE
John Linnegar on Adjectives
IN THIS ISSUE
FROM THE EDITOR
Life in the fast lane of the language professional ...................................................... 3
BREAKING NEWS
SENSE guidelines for student texts go public ............................................................ 4
EC BULLETIN
No strangers in Paradijs ..................................................................................... 5
COVER STORY
Something for starters and seasoned professionals alike ............................................ 9
SIX QUESTIONS
Sharing the basics of marketing ......................................................................... 12
BEST PRACTICE
How to quote for jobs, Part 2 ............................................................................ 13
PUBLICATIONS
New Van Dallas is out now ................................................................................ 15
ENGLISH USAGE
Applying adjectives with aplomb ........................................................................ 17
OUT OF OFFICE
An intuitive optimizer, Jessie Cat Kelley .............................................................. 19
GUEST BLOG
Not English, not Dutch, but a language apart ......................................................... 21
HI SOCIETY
Summer social a historic success ........................................................................ 23
TECH CORNER
Making life easier on the road ........................................................................... 26
FROM THE EDITOR
Life in the fast lane of the language professional
The sun is sizzling, it’s unbearably hot and here we are, faffing about
in our home offices with not a lot to do. We’ve done the filing, done
Twitter and Facebook, the dishes, even done the doggy (taken her for
a walk, that is). Tempus ‘fidgets’ slowly and we’re fretting – no, frantic
– about the dire dearth of deadlines.
No use feeling sorry for ourselves! Off we go, tapping out an
email advising our regular clients (plus a few more whom we don’t
know so well) that we may have ‘availability coming up soon’.
Next day (hooray!) our inbox is jammed with job offers and before
we can sing ‘Hi-diddle-dee-dee, a freelancer’s life for me,’ we’re
back at work, full speed ahead, taking on jobs left, right and centre,
hitting deadlines with alacrity, when Shock! Horror! One blazing hot
day the phone rings and someone from a corporate accounts
department is calling to check if we really did mean to send in that
invoice not once but twice, or was it perhaps a mistake we made
(ahem) in the heat of the moment?
Not that this sort of thing would happen to me, oh no! This is a hypothetical case, purely an example of what could
happen to a sun-frazzled language professional rushed off her footsies by an utterly welcome deluge of work.
Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But enough about ‘we’; this issue is about you. It’s full of material that
might not be about you personally (better yet, by you personally; we always welcome contributions) but it is about
people you are likely to know in SENSE or perhaps would like to get to know. All the stories are tuned in to life in the
fast lane of the language practitioner. And, like the title of our cover story on the Professional Development Day
suggests – nay, states – as usual this summery issue of eSense is offering a range of tasty little somethings for
starters and seasoned professionals alike.
Happy reading!
eSense 42, July-September 2016
My grateful thanks go to all the volunteers who helped make this issue a success.
Contributors: Claire Bacon, Carla Bakkum, Curtis Barrett, Pierke Bosschieter, Paul Bonants, Joy Burrough-Boenisch, Camilla
Brokking, Linda Comyns, Robert Coupe, Martine Croll, Michael Dallas, Alison Edwards, Kirsten van Hasselt, John Edmund Hynd,
Kumar Jamdagni, Jessie Cat Kelley, Frans Kooymans, Wil van Maarschalkerweerd, Marianne Orchard, Anne Paris, Tony Parr,
Helene Reid, Jackie Senior, Peter Smethurst, Lee Ann Weeks, Justine Whittern and Jenny Zonneveld
Photographs: Michael Hartwigsen (SENSE events)
Columnists & copy-editors: Sally Hill, Anne Hodgkinson, Hans van Bemmelen, John Linnegar and Cecilia M. Willems
Editor: Ragini Werner at [email protected]◄
© SENSE August 2016. Unless otherwise credited, all photos appearing in eSense are public domain images or have been used
with the consent of the relevant photographer or author. The author of any work appearing in eSense retains the copyright in that
work. Please feel free to share eSense articles, giving due credit to the author, SENSE and the issue of eSense concerned.
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eSense 42 | 2016
BREAKING NEWS
SENSE guidelines for student texts go public
The SENSE Guidelines for Proofreading Student
Texts are now available via a special button on the
Home page of our website. This SENSE publication is
the first to follow eSense into the public sphere and be
made available to language professionals worldwide.
Members can also
click the Guidelines
button to access
the documentation
without needing to
log out.
‘Proofreading’
here also means
editing, as used by
the University of
Essex (UK). This
term is explained in
the Guidelines.
The documentation is based partly on the guidelines
produced by other bodies (SfEP, University of Essex,
IPEd in Australia, among others), and partly on the
unique requirements of the Dutch market for this sort
of work.
SENSE members will perhaps be familiar with the
documentation by its informal title. Joy BurroughBoenisch explains, ‘We always referred to it as thesis
editing guidelines but the actual name is Guidelines for
Proofreading Student Texts. We explicitly say “student
texts” so as to be able to include term papers, work
experience reports, etc.’
Camilla Brokking, who came up with the idea of
creating guidelines for SENSE members, adds, ‘It’s
important to know that our guidelines only cover
students’ monograph-style texts (Bachelor and Master
theses, plus certain types of doctoral theses), but not
compilation doctoral theses, which are made up of a
collection of published papers with multiple authors.’
Although available now for SENSE members and the
public, the guidelines will remain an organic entity and
are expected to evolve. Jackie Senior says, ‘We
welcome comments and suggestions. We’re especially
keen to hear how best to acknowledge and clarify the
language professional’s contribution to students’ work
that will be assessed and count towards their degree
or diploma.’
• SENSE Guidelines for Proofreading Student Texts
(download pdf here)
• SENSE Form to Confirm Proofreading Services
(download docx here)
You may adapt the confirm services form for your own
use, but please keep the SENSE logo on it and
acknowledge the source. If you wish to get in touch
with the compilers of the guidelines, please send a
message to [email protected].
Members, see ‘A work in progress’ in eSense 34
and (via Professional Support) the members’ version
of the page to learn how the guidelines were compiled.
– Ragini Werner◄
Three members of the working
group that compiled the SENSE
Guidelines for Student Texts:
Joy Burrough-Boenisch (left),
Camilla Brokking (chair) and
Jackie Senior. The remaining
members of group were:
David Barick, Curtis Barrett,
Maartje Gort, Mike Hannay,
Michelle Mellion and
Fulco Teunissen
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eSense 42 | 2016
EC BULLETIN
No strangers in Paradijs
– Jenny Zonneveld
How time flies! It seems only yesterday that I was writing to say how well the AGM went. Much has been happening
behind the scenes since. The key event for the EC in this past period was our team-building afternoon, held in glorious
sunshine at a location given the delightful name of ‘Paradijs’.
The Executive Committee, no strangers in ‘Paradijs’ (l-r): Jenny Zonneveld (Chair), Robert Coupe (Workshop Coordinator), Kirsten van Hasselt
(Membership Secretary), Wil van Maarschalkerweerd (Secretary), Linda Comyns (Web Manager), Frans Kooymans (Treasurer), Ragini Werner (eSense
Editor) and John Linnegar (Member-at-Large/Inter-society Liaison). Inset: Curtis Barrett (Programme Secretary, who unfortunately
was unable to come). Photos: Michael Hartwigsen (above), Annemarie Koppenaal (below)
Under the expert guidance of trainer Annemarie Koppenaal we talked about our trepidations about being on the EC,
our aspirations, and the responsibilities involved. We had a grand time practising giving each other positive feedback
(literally). The time spent brainstorming together about communication style enabled us to build on our working
relationships – these are partly personal and partly business. And without the personal part, we realized there can be
no business relationship.
This ties in with a tip given at the recent Social Media workshop:
‘tickle the personal aspect of your client relationship occasionally
– it will pay dividends.’
Which brings me to the next major SENSE event that I’m
very much looking forward to (I’ve even arranged my holiday
around it): the Professional Development Day. The organization
of this one-day mini-conference is in the very capable hands of
Martine Croll and Lee Ann Weeks (see the cover story on p.9)
and promises to be especially rewarding. Whatever stage you
are at in your personal and professional development, this day
will help you take the next step forward.
I wish you all a wonderful summer break and look forward to
seeing you at the Professional Development Day on 16
September!◄
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eSense 42 | 2016
EC BULLETIN
Mid-year, SENSE is in good shape
– Frans Kooymans
Halfway into 2016, SENSE’s financials are in line with the budget submitted at last March’s
AGM. Membership stands lower than expected, but new members will surely arrive in the
coming months. Of the three workshops held so far, one made a profit and all had enthusiastic
attendees. Executive Committee activities cost more than in the past, mainly due to the full
team of nine members. The SIG budget has lots more room for regional and thematic activity,
so SIG conveners: go out and use it! Much work remains to be done in website development, a
good reason to assume that the full budget is realistic. Mentoring and Handbook activity should
pick up as only minor charges have been incurred, but photography is clearly under budgeted:
both eSense and the new website call for good pics. All in all, SENSE continues to be financially healthy enough to
make it the number one society of English-language professionals in the Netherlands. Members, you can read my full
report on the forum.◄
Let’s get rid of those faceless profiles
– Kirsten van Hasselt
Not long ago I asked you to update your profile in the membership database. We are
still missing photos for several members. Uploading a photo only takes a few minutes
of your time and makes it so much easier for other members to find you and recognize
you at our many SENSE events. You know the SENSE forum is private, so outsiders
cannot see your photo. If you really don’t want to be identifiable online, why not post
your company logo? Let’s get rid of those faceless profiles on the SENSE forum.◄
And the winner is…
– Curtis Barrett
SENSE has always been the Society for English-Native-Speaking Editors. But after 25 years this tagline was well past
its expiry date. At this year’s AGM, we finally dropped the distinction between full and associate members (native and
non-native-English-speaking members), because we felt it was high time that we embrace and reflect the rich diversity
of language professionals who grace our membership, which includes not only editors,
but also translators, copywriters, teachers, interpreters, and so many more.
As part of the Society’s makeover, the EC invited members to send in suggestions
for a new tagline, after which members voted for their favourite. From the 15 or so
excellent submissions, a clear winner emerged, submitted by Tony Parr (shown here
with Bonnie, aka Bonners, the Bilingual Sheepdog of the ever-popular Facebook
page). For his winning tagline, Tony receives free admission to this year’s Annual
Dinner. Congratulations to Tony and a special ‘Thank you!’ to everyone who submitted
a tagline, to all who turned up at the polls to vote, and to Jenny Zonneveld for her
work on preparing the survey.◄
AGM index is well underway
– Wil van Maarschalkerweerd
I am very glad to say that Angela Sullivan has responded to my call on the Volunteer Job
Board for someone to go through all the SENSE AGM Bulletins from the very beginning,
extract all of the recorded decisions and put these together in an index for easy future
reference. Angela expects that she will finish the job in a couple of weeks and then we will
make this new resource available to members on the website. I want to say thanks to all
the volunteers who have said they are willing to handle a project. While some projects don’t
require much time, others are more energy-consuming. Thanks to the time and effort of our
volunteers, I feel that SENSE is really becoming more and more OUR Society.◄
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eSense 42 | 2016
EC BULLETIN
Social media workshop a success
– Robert Coupe
One social media expert, on top of his subject and with a relaxed style of presentation.
Ten eager participants poring over our laptops, discovering hitherto unsuspected
business potential in two social media giants – LinkedIn and Facebook. Lively
discussions between colleagues with a vast range of experience and talent. Lots of
practical tips to take home and try out. All of this, and a tasty lunch! This workshop
coordinator is relieved and pleased with his first attempt. Members, if you haven’t
already done so, read Marianne Orchard’s great review of the day.◄
Behind the scenes on SENSE 2.0
– Linda Comyns
Rogier Willems, our external Joomla
expert, and other EC members on the
website team have been doing a lot of
work on SENSE 2.0 behind the scenes.
We now have a project plan in place,
using JIRA software to track progress.
To make the new website more userfriendly and easier to navigate than our
present website, we are reorganizing
the content and improving the layout.
On the left is a screenshot of the new
public homepage. We are adding new
functionality, updating some of the
content, and compiling a user manual.
After the summer break I will be
looking for beta testers for the new
website, and I'm still looking for people
to help us track down and fix broken
links to external sources, so keep your
eye on the Volunteer Job Board!◄
Making a splash on social media
– Ragini Werner
I’m very happy to report that Anne Paris has already joined
Jenny Zonneveld and me on the Social Media team and
Marianne Orchard will be joining us soon. As SENSE page
admins (SPA) we schedule daily posts for SENSE on
Facebook and – did you know – these posts also appear on
Twitter. You personally can help spread the news of our
online presence by liking the SENSE page on Facebook,
following @SENSEtheSociety on Twitter and sharing our
links with your friends and client networks. Since we activated the Facebook page, we have more than doubled the
reach, from a humble 80-odd to 179 followers to date. That’s not bad for starters, and now we are looking ahead to the
next challenge: to start developing the currently dormant SENSE group on LinkedIn. If you’d like to join us in the
SENSE ‘spa’, jump right in! The input is only about an hour a week.◄
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eSense 42 | 2016
EC BULLETIN
Top honours for SENSE volunteers
– John Linnegar
SENSE members are showing their
volunteering mettle to help get small but
important jobs done for our Society. For
instance, top honours for embracing SENSE
volunteerism must go to Jessie Cat Kelley
(see p.19), who offered her services to create
a new template for the forthcoming revision of
the Handbook so that all the chapters follow a
consistent look and feel. Whiz kid Jessie Cat
produced the goods with aplomb in a
breathtakingly short period of time – much to
the delight of the EC and the Handbook
Coordinator Lee Ann Weeks.
Now there remains only the veneer of
consistency to be applied to the various
chapters, and a few gremlins (widows,
orphans, fused words, spacing) to be sorted.
The copyediting task is being adeptly
accomplished by Paula Truyens and Ken
McGillivray. Meanwhile Angela Sullivan is
liaising with the SENSE authors to finalize the
details.
Five years ago, Lee Ann last updated the
Handbook with the help of two other volunteers, Camilla Brokking and Maura Lobatto. Now it’s time to pass the
baton, which means that Lee Ann is looking for two new volunteers to join the Handbook Committee. Are you
interested in helping SENSE draw out the – sometimes hidden – writing talent that it has? Please visit the Volunteer
Job Board for more information and contact details.
As for all the other volunteer jobs posted on the forum, you only have to speak to those who have given their time
and expertise to discover how little commitment it takes to make a really BIG difference by helping to get things done.
Hearty thanks to you all.◄
Welcome to the Volunteer Job Board
SENSE has lots of small jobs that need to be done for which our
current volunteers just don’t have the time. Yet they need doing,
some of them urgently, all of them invaluable. With minimal time,
effort or commitment, but BIG benefits.
You can take on one of the volunteer jobs solo, together with a
friend/colleague or another volunteer (to become your new friend
and colleague), or become part of a volunteer team! Whichever
form you choose, it’s guaranteed to be gezellig! Will YOU become
one of our extended team of SENSE volunteers?
If you would like to suggest a new volunteer job, or you have any
questions about any of the available positions, or about volunteering for SENSE generally, please contact John Linnegar on the
forum.◄
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eSense 42 | 2016
COVER STORY
Something for starters and
seasoned professionals alike
SENSE’s Professional Development Day
promises to be a convivial, inspiring event
Martine Croll (left) and Lee Ann Weeks hard at work having fun organizing this major event on the Society's calendar. Lee Ann
is a former workshop coordinator and Martine is a former programme secretary; they currently coordinate the Mentoring
Committee together. Lee Ann is also coordinator of the Handbook Committee. Photo: Marie Louise Nijsing
Lee Ann Weeks: The purpose of the day is to provide a supportive environment for people facing similar challenges
and help them confront these challenges along with the fears that often accompany them. Attendees will be
encouraged to get out of their comfort zones, identify a niche for themselves, take action and not be afraid to fail. After
all, when you are talking to prospective customers in order to get started as a business owner or to branch out into a
new direction, you have to be able to state not only what you do but also what makes you different from all the others
in the field. And this year’s Professional Development Day (PDD) will most certainly help you do this!
Martine Croll: We’re making attendance as affordable as possible so nobody should find the cost an obstacle.
Registration is open on the SENSE website, €48.50 for SENSE members and registered students and €65 for nonmembers.
Lee Ann: These events are worth their weight in gold because they offer so much information on often very sensitive
questions that generally don’t get addressed elsewhere (eg, how can I describe what I do in an interesting way that
makes people want to hire me, how do I find clients, and how do I distinguish myself?).
Martine: The programme features a session on marketing yourself and your services by a leading consultant in the
Netherlands, Paul Bonants (see his interview on p. 12). And as usual, we’re getting our own members involved as
presenters: there’s such a wealth of know-how out there among our members.
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eSense 42 | 2016
COVER STORY
Professional Development Day: Programme
9:30 – 10.00 Get acquainted
10:00 – 10:05 Brief welcome – Lee Ann Weeks
10:05 – 11:15 Boosting your business with improv
wisdom – Martine Croll
11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 12:30 What toilet paper and translation have in
common – Paul Bonants
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch & mingling
13:30 – 14:30 Professionals on the podium
– Cathy Scott, Curtis Barrett, Jenny Zonneveld
and Lee Ann Weeks
14:30 – 14:45 Tea break
14:45 – 16:15 Realizing your potential as a language
professional – You, you and you!
16:15 – 16:30 Final questions and discussion
16:30 – 17:00 Drinks (courtesy of SENSE)
More information is available on the Events calendar.
Registration is open for members and non-members alike.
Martine: We have Jenny Zonneveld (translator), Cathy Scott (copywriter) and Curtis Barrett (editor) joining Lee
Ann on the panel to discuss how they got their careers going and what key actions and events shaped their language
businesses the most. And thanks to the interactive set-up of the programme – you won’t just be sitting around
because we’ll get you literally moving about – by the end of the day you (you and you!) should be ready to take the
next step with both your business and your professional life.
Mentoring in SENSE
The precursors to this year’s PDD are the first and second SENSE Starter’s Days, which were held in Utrecht at the
Park Plaza in 2010 and Seats2Meet Hoog Catherijne in 2013. These professional development events were and still
are closely allied to the SENSE Mentoring Programme.
Lee Ann: When I started my stint on the Executive Committee back in 2010, mentoring was one of the cornerstones
of the professional development programme I outlined. All kinds of businesses and organizations use mentoring to
show newbies ‘the ropes’. I felt strongly about encouraging people to act more professionally than I sometimes
experienced in SENSE and other language organizations in the Netherlands at that time. For example, don’t sign
emails with just your first name and nothing else – recognize that every communication is an opportunity to promote
your business. I also knew from experience that starting a business all on your own can be an uphill struggle.
When we were brainstorming the SENSE Mentoring Programme, I looked at what other organizations did, and
consulted people from the American Translators Association (ATA), the Institute of Translation and Interpreting
(ITI) in the UK, and the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), also in the UK. In 2011, the SENSE Mentoring
Programme was launched. To our pleasant surprise, we had plenty of people volunteer to serve as a mentor. I’m
always amazed by the willingness of so many people in SENSE to share their experiences and expertise!
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eSense 42 | 2016
COVER STORY
Lee Ann: The first Starter’s Day was held in 2010, prior to the
launch of the Mentoring Programme but still as part of the same
PDD. The aim was to gather and share crucial information for those
just starting out, those changing fields and those expanding into a
new field. The questions that we shared were addressed by people
coming from very different walks of life: business-to-business
communication, academic editing, marketing, translation, and so
forth. The questions were things like: how do I get started? What are
some clear dos and don’ts? And how do I provide quality under
ridiculous deadlines?
Promoting the event
Martine: Since that time, we’ve also held a SENSE Orientation
Afternoon to tell people everything they always wanted to know but
were afraid to ask about the fields of legal translation, medical
translation, scientific editing and transcreation. This was followed by
the second SENSE Starter’s Day in 2013. We were very pleased to be able to get Carol Fisher Saller in as guest
speaker for that event, as well as two other ‘outsiders’ who talked about the benefits of PZO membership and the ins
and outs of the Broodfonds.
As for promoting this year’s event, we are advertising it among students at ITV and LOI, offering them an incentive
to attend (and join SENSE): the same price as for members on proof of registration at ITV or LOI. Besides sending
sensenews messages to reach all members at home, and posting updates on the SENSE Events Calendar and the
forum, we will also place announcements on the SENSE members’ group on LinkedIn, as well as the public SENSE
pages on Facebook and Twitter, hopefully to attract other professionals (non-members). And we encourage you to
share these links with your own networks to reach out to anyone who might be interested in coming along.
Martine: We’ve chosen to put on the 2016 event at Seats2Meet because it is centrally located in Utrecht, just a fiveminute walk from the railway station and for folks staying overnight at Park Plaza, it’s just a 12-minute walk from the
hotel. The inspiring surroundings of this location were much appreciated by all who attended the event in 2013.
Finally, the Professional Development Day is a perfect opportunity to get back into gear after the summer holidays
and pick up on all those things we’ve put on our ‘to do’ list. It will help you get started taking real action. We hope to
see you there on 16 September!
– Ragini Werner◄
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eSense 42 | 2016
SIX QUESTIONS
Sharing the basics of marketing
– Cecilia M. Willems
Paul Bonants is a Dutch marketing consultant who has guided many businesses to
marketing success. He’s slated to share his marketing expertise with SENSE at our
Professional Development Day on 16 September
1. In an online profile, you say that marketing is more than
advertising. Can you explain, briefly, what you mean by that?
Marketing is an overarching discipline containing a number of subdisciplines, including advertising. But there is far more involved, such as
market research, product development, promotion, online marketing,
customer relationship management, lead management and branding.
Paul Bonants is founder/owner of Crebo Concept and a senior expert for the nonprofit organization PUM Netherlands. Paul’s photo – taken from LinkedIn – shows
how adding a personal touch can make your business profile memorable. What is
that adorable dog’s name? Don’t you want to know? Perhaps we shall find out what
his pooch is called when we meet Paul on Professional Development Day
2. You say: ‘It’s not about the product/service
you’re selling. It’s about the need that product/
service meets’. What if potential customers don’t
recognize that need? How do you convince them?
People have needs that they are aware of (known in
the black box, ie, the consumer’s mind) but people
also have latent demands (not yet known in the black
box). So it’s very important to really know your
customer. What’s their hidden wish list?
3. How can we market something as intangible as
language use – especially in a foreign language,
where customers can’t really judge the quality for
themselves?
Maybe your customer isn’t able to make the right
judgement but you still depend on their judgement.
You have to get them to trust that you are the best
choice for the job. You can underline this with
references. See a new customer’s first assignment as
an investment. The proof of the pudding is in the
eating. Pitch your interaction with the customer at a
higher level (quick feedback, clear and competitive
offer, excellent level of service). Build a relationship,
but don’t stalk them.
4. Language professionals generally run oneperson businesses from their home offices, often a
spare bedroom. We’re far from the corporations
that you usually deal with. Do the same marketing
principles apply to us?
The starting point of marketing is always the same. In
big corporations as well as small companies, the basic
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eSense 42 | 2016
question is always ‘What’s in it for me?’ – from the
point of view of the customer/client, of course. How
can the customer be supported or unburdened?
Whether it’s a one-to-one business or a mass
consumer product, the principle is always the same.
5. How can language professionals brand their
business so that they really stand out?
Everybody knows the term ‘unique selling point’ or
USP. This is a main condition for building a brand.
What are my skills, do I have special experience in a
certain industry or branch, and is there a need in the
market for my skills? When everybody is fishing with
the same equipment in the same pond, you have a lot
of competitors. But your distinctiveness is the basis for
your success. So get to know the market you are in
and know your main competitors. Fish in a different
pond, using other equipment, based on a good
segmentation of your market, and focus on your top
skills. In short ‘make yourself unique’.
6. What three things do you hope that people
coming to the SENSE Professional Development
Day will learn from your presentation?
First I hope to share my knowledge of the basic
principles of marketing. It’s the starting point of thinking
when you’re starting a business. Next, I hope that they
realize that their client is mostly not the final consumer
of their work. You and your client are a team who
serve the client’s customers. And finally, I hope they
will learn the answer to the question ‘Why should this
client come to me? ◄
BEST PRACTICE
How to quote for jobs, Part 2
– Sally Hill
In the first part of her Best Practice series Sally Hill talked about quoting for
translation jobs. Here she continues the theme in relation to editing jobs
Before I get started on how to quote for editing jobs, let me
touch on the thorny issue of the different levels of editing. After
all, what I do as an editor may not be the same as what other
editors in SENSE do, and this will of course affect the rate we
charge and the time it takes to edit a text.
Sally has gone Dutch. If you want to know why, see the forum thread on
Brits in NL and if you want to see the first part of this series, find it here
What do we mean by editing? What does the client expect?
In their chapter of the SENSE Handbook entitled ‘The Ins and
Outs of Editing’, co-authors Lee Ann Weeks and Ann Bless
make the important distinction between ‘editing’ and ‘editors’ as
referred to in the publishing world and the terms as used by
most editors in SENSE. They also set out the difference
between ‘proofreading’, ‘copy-editing’ and ‘substantive editing’,
or what is generally understood by these terms. They use
‘proofreader’ to refer to the person who ‘compares the
penultimate version of a text (ie, copy) with the final typeset/
formatted version of the text (ie, galley proofs, page proofs,
uncorrected proofs).’ This is similar to the definition used by The
Society for Editors and Proofreaders in the UK. Their website
provides useful information on the distinction between copyeditors and proofreaders. A useful rule of thumb the SfEP provides is that a proofreader does about ten pages
(some 300 words per page) an hour. If what you do takes considerably longer, you are probably copy-editing and not
proofreading. But ‘proofreading’ is also used in other contexts and I
discuss this a bit more below.
You should be aware of the level of editing that you offer – and of
course inform your clients of this. For new clients you could offer to
edit the first page or so for free so they know what to expect. I
sometimes include a sample edit with my quote so the client knows
what they will be getting for the amount quoted. A client just expecting
corrections regarding grammar, spelling, syntax and consistency
(what I call language editing) may not appreciate me changing
sentences around or commenting on content. As an editor used to
substantive editing – and particularly used to educating PhD students
while editing their work – I find it hard to limit myself to just language
editing. If a new client asks me to do so I pass on the name of a
colleague. For more on sample edits, see this forum discussion.
Or is what I do proofreading after all?
If you are more of a fixer and a flagger, then the other type of ‘proofreader’ may be a term more applicable to what you do. And if you
proofread student manuscripts and PhD theses then you are also in
luck – the guidelines compiled for members working in academia by
the Thesis Editing Working Group are available on the website.
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BEST PRACTICE
They include such useful items as suggestions for acknowledgements and a form to clarify the help editors provide to
students. In these guidelines the term proofreader is defined as ‘third party interventions (that entail some level of
written alteration) on assessed work in progress’.[1]
So I know what I do but how long will it take me?
This is one of the hardest things about being a freelancer and a sample edit can really come in handy. For me, when a
new manuscript comes in I can now estimate from the length and the quality of the English how long it will likely take
me to edit it. But when I first started doing this work, I would edit one or two pages and time myself before getting back
to the client with a quote. Sometimes this would backfire if the quote was too high and the client went elsewhere, but I
learned quickly to quote a range. I tell clients that it may take me less time than the number of hours indicated but it
will not cost them more than the maximum quoted, even if I go over the maximum number of hours (my loss). And
when I find myself going off on tangents while editing a text that is just too interesting – when the time I spend on
research (eg, reading up on certain molecular pathways or surgical interventions, or scanning other publications to
see how other authors use certain terms) exceeds that strictly needed to edit the text – I do not bill the client for that
extra time.
Quoting a range of hours not only allows you to invoice the client for less than the maximum if you don’t need all
the hours (never a problem), it also gives you a bit of a safety net in case some sections of the text need extra
attention. However, some editors quote and charge by the word, which has two advantages: both parties know
beforehand what the costs will be, and as an editor you don’t have to keep track of the time spent on the text. A huge
advantage if you are easily distracted by incoming emails (just close the program – works wonders!) or need to stop
regularly while editing to answer the phone, feed the kids, hang up the washing, take the dog out, etc. Although you
will need less time to prepare your quote, don’t forget to have a good look at the text before you start! This is of course
the case if you charge per hour. After all, some texts have multiple authors and you want to avoid nasty surprises.
Handy pricing calculator
You can of course use both hourly
rates and word rates depending on
what each client prefers. A post in
April 2016 on the Facebook page of
the Board of Editors in the Life
Sciences’ points to a handy pricing
calculator that allows you to see the
equivalent fee per hour, per page, or
per 100 words according to manuscript length and the editing level
required according to ‘pages-perhour’. Not only useful for editors but
also for translators and writers. The
Excel calculator is available for free
via the website of the US-based
Copyediting-L email discussion list
and generously provided by David Newmarch. You can download the calculator. It is a little cumber-some in that it is
based on a page count, but if you have a word count then dividing by 250 will give you the page count to fill in. And
you cannot actually type numbers in the spreadsheet so it takes a bit longer to fill in your rate and your speed. But...
once you do, you can compare per word and per hour pricing options and also calculate what your weekly earnings
are based on your rate and number of billable hours. And as I mentioned in part 1 of this series, paying attention to
rates and earnings is an essential part of running your business.
I have not mentioned specific rates. What you charge will likely depend on your experience and should be a
combination of what you feel you are worth and what your clients are prepared to pay. If you find it hard to know what
to charge then just ask around – in my experience other SENSE members are happy to tell you what they charge, just
not online. And that is one of the many reasons for attending SENSE workshops and SIG meetings and chatting with
fellow language professionals. The results of SENSE’s 2012 rates survey indicate that rates for editing vary from €30
to €80 per hour, the average being around €55 (use the pricing calculator above to convert this to a word price).◄
[1] Nigel Harwood, Liz Austin & Rowena Macaulay (2012) Cleaner, helper, teacher? The role of proofreaders of student writing, Studies in Higher Education, 37:5, 569584 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2010.531462
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PUBLICATIONS
New Van Dallas is out now
Michael Dallas has kindly made a new version of his invaluable Supplement to Het Groot Woordenboek NederlandsEngels van Van Dale (Van Dale Dutch-English dictionary) available in the SENSE online library, for members.
Michael, who is well-known in SENSE as as one of the regular
contributors on the forum, explains, ‘It’s been several years since my
last supplement to the Van Dale N-E was distributed in SENSE, so I’ve
uploaded a new one. This MS Word document has 638 pages, 50 more
than the previous one.’
Van Dallas, as Michael’s extensive word list is affectionately known
to members, basically contains terminology from specialisms in social
sciences, welfare and mental health and ordinary words with many
possible translation options. ‘The list doesn’t usually give translations
already contained in the original Van Dale N-E, so either the digital or
the book dictionary ought to be used alongside it. In other words,’
Michael says, ‘I don't pretend it contains the best translations, but
mainly supplementary ones. I hope it will be helpful.’
Members do find the Van Dallas very helpful, as is attested by
these comments on the SENSE forum:
David Alexander: Thanks again – the Van Dallas is one of the most useful resources I have.
Christine Gardener: I love the incomparable Van Dallas! Great resource for those moments when you just can't think
of the right word.
Diane Schaap: Thank you, Michael. It's very generous of you to share your resources – and the time and energy it
takes you to make them available. Your Van Dallas has saved me buckets of time and improved so many of my
translated and edited documents.
Paula Truyens: Today your Van Dale supplement came to the rescue again, this time with aansturen. 'Coordinate' fits
the bill perfectly in the context of what I'm translating. Thanks!
Jan Klerkx: Many many thanks Michael for this invaluable resource!
Susan Massotty: I've dipped into your Van Dallas countless times and inevitably found a useful translation that I
never would have come up with on my own. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity in sharing this
with your colleagues.
Members can download the Supplement to the Van Dale N-E dictionary.◄
Rave reviews for English in the Netherlands
A new book by Alison Edwards, English in the Netherlands – Functions, forms and
attitudes, has been extremely well received in the field; here are just two rave reviews:
‘A highly competent and valuable investigation into whether Dutch
English exists as a cohesive variety.’
– Laura Wright, University of Cambridge
‘This volume is insightful and innovative; it is valuable both for its
rich and eclectic disclosure and compilation of new data of various
kinds and for its theoretical ambition and significance. It represents a
substantial scholarly contribution to the field.’
– Edgar Schneider, University of Regensburg
Alison herself is rather more modest about the achievement. ‘I guess since it’s a slightly revised and shortened version of my thesis, it feels
about a million years old by now. But of course I’m very happy with the reception.’
The volume has a hefty academic price tag. Before you rush out to buy it (click on the book), you might like to
know that Alison has generously made the complete 2nd proofs available so that you can peruse the contents at
leisure before you buy. Meanwhile, if you’d like to read something that Alison has written on a somewhat lighter note,
you can read her deliciously wicked snark attack on inburgering in the Netherlands.◄
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eSense 42 | 2016
PUBLICATIONS
Illuminating editing by SENSE founders
Claire Bacon hopped over the German–French border at the end of June – ‘oblivious at the time
th
that this luxury was going to be snatched away by the Brexiteers’ – to attend the 13 European
Association of Science Editors (EASE) conference in the charming
historical town of Strasbourg.
In the closing session of the conference, prizes were awarded to EASE
members who had given the best poster presentations. ‘I was sitting beside
author-editor Valerie Matarese,’ says Claire. ‘She was surprised to win a
prize for her poster Supporting research writing in non-Anglophone
contexts: role of language professionals. It presented an overview of
Valerie’s book Supporting Research Writing, which contains an illuminating
chapter on “Defining and describing editing” written by one of our founder
members, Joy Burrough-Boenisch. Valerie also presented another poster describing her new book
Editing Research, which will appear in September and contains detailed interviews with exemplary
authors’ editors, including another one of our founder members, Jackie Senior.’ Click on the books
to order. And watch out for Claire’s full review of the EASE conference in the next issue of eSense.◄
Naughty-naughty Songs of Love and Grammar
– Helene Reid
It’s funny about funny verse: you only find it funny if you thought it was funny to start with.
I loved the idea of poems that dealt with love as well as grammar but in this case it turned
out to be conceptual art. Good concept, doubtful product. James Harbeck is a linguist,
professional editor, designer and writer who maintains Sesquiotic, a marvellous blog for
word-lovers. The poems in his first book, Songs of Love and Grammar, ostensibly deal
with points of grammar that are either overlooked or mistakenly obeyed, and the love bit
means that most of them are naughty-naughty in a cross between prudery and
salaciousness.
On the split infinitive
For Shakespeare addicts like myself there is a
(does ANYONE still
pastiche which begins:
believe you mustn’t?), for
Shall I compare you to a semi-colon,
instance:
a pause, a dot, a stroke, a sideways wink?
A fetching young virginitive
Have you become a half-stop lightly fallen
sought out a buff grammarian
upon my page in form of dots of ink?
both lusty and contrarian
to split her sweet infinitive.
For the rest you’ll have to order the e-book or
She said: ‘Please do it neatly –
paperback from www.lulu.com.◄
I’m sure it’s not a sin
to slip an adverb in
to split an infinitive sweetly.
Funny? Hmm.
I was faintly amused by the one on the serial comma:
I met a girl who was very sweet,
with a pretty complexion, peaches and cream;
I took her for an ice cream treat
covered with berries, peaches, and cream. [...]
She was fun, and so I saw her again,
and we dated a while, off and on;
I found she was moody now and then her switch was ‘crazy, off, and on.'
But again: Funny? Hmm.
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Helene’s usual Book Review will be back in the next issue of
eSense. Also watch out for her upcoming report on The Sociology
of Poetry Translation, a conference organized by the University
of Leeds and the Leverhulme Trust
ENGLISH USAGE
Applying adjectives with aplomb
– John Linnegar
In this part of our series on aspects of English usage
John Linnegar focuses on adjectives and participles
Experience has shown that columns on the nitty-gritties of grammar can be
considered either as a refreshing aide-mémoire to seasoned practitioners or as
convenient support for newcomers to editing in need of compelling reasons for
having made grammatical changes (especially when they are challenged by
authors).
In this issue, the aspect of English usage I’m focusing on (with the help of
some really smart authors) is the correct or preferred use of adjectives and
their close cousins, the participles. Incorrect usage of these word classes can
be considered gauche or clumsy – and possibly even damaging to an author’s
or editor’s image. Mastering correct usage is therefore essential, whether
you’re wanting to be regarded as an artful writer or showing an author’s words
off to best effect. Hopefully the collective wisdom of the authorities cited will
clear up any uncertainty you may have had on these questions.
Ordering adjectives correctly in strings
To ‘reveal all’ about the correct ordering of adjectives in strings, we have to start by considering the classes of
adjective. Two classes are most commonly used:
 Classifying: annual event; cotton fabric; German academic; virgin olive oil; green solution (ie, environmentfriendly); weekly newspaper. These adjectives tend to indicate the class or category to which a noun belongs.
‘Virgin olive oil’ is interesting because ‘olive’ is already limiting the oil to one class, but ‘virgin’ creates a
subclass, differentiating the olive oil from non-virgin pressings. They are generally not gradable (an oven
cannot be ‘fairly electric’), nor do they have comparative and superlative forms.
 Qualitative: tall gentleman; boring film; happy children; green container (colour). These adjectives are usually
gradable (extremely boring) and have comparative and superlative forms: tall, taller, tallest; boring, more
boring, most boring; happy, happier, happiest.
The general rule to apply is this: in a string of adjectives, the
classifier should be placed closest to the noun it qualifies: tall French
gentleman; rich silk fabric; colourful beach umbrella. Note the absence
of a comma between the two classes of adjective: this is correct.
But what of a long green container? There are two points to
consider here. First, two qualitatives are forming a string, so they
should be separated by a comma (the same would apply to a string of
classifiers, though these occur less frequently). Thus: long, green
shipping container; chubby, gurgling Chinese infant.
Secondly, the reverse order of the qualifiers sounds unnatural: a
green long container. But why? Well, the experts tell us that order is
important, and offer more helpful guidelines:
 Usually we place an adjective that gives an opinion in front of one that is either classifying or qualitative: nice
red dress; silly old man; horrible gold curtains.
 When three adjectives in a string comprise a qualitative, a classifier and a colour adjective, the usual order is
qualitative + colour + classifying + noun: long white stretch limousine; stubby blue ceramic knife.
 In strings of multiple adjectives, the preferred order is generally: (1) quantity/number; (2) quality/opinion; (3)
size; (4) age; (5) shape; (6) colour; (7) proper adjective; and (8) purpose/qualifier. For example (heaven forbid!):
Many top-quality large blue aluminium-bladed kitchen knives were on display. (No commas here between the
adjectives because they all belong to different classes.)
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ENGLISH USAGE
Adjectives ending in -able and -ible
One of the real dilemmas facing writers and editors having to deal with adjective formation is when to use either -able
or -ible as a suffix. English is rather unhelpful with conventions here, but one fairly reliable rule of thumb is this.
When the root is complete without the suffix, then the suffix is more likely to be -able. When the root is incomplete
without the suffix, then the suffix is more likely to be -ible:
-able
-ible
changeable
feasible
commendable
horrible
reliable
reprehensible
remarkable
sensible
saleable
terrible
Compound adjectives: when to hyphenate?
How often don’t we read statements such as ‘He is well-versed in Dutch literature’ and ‘That beautifully-crafted figurine
is Renaissance’. Hopefully, both will have been corrected, but if you’re wondering why they are incorrect, then this
section is for you.
A compound adjective is a single adjective made up of more than one word (eg, free-range eggs; 50-page report;
ill-fitting garment; one-year-old child; step-by-step explanation). In these examples, the compounds comprise
combinations of determiner, adjective, noun, present participle, past participle, adverb and/or preposition. The words
in a compound adjective are often linked by a hyphen (or hyphens) to show they are part of the same adjective,
especially when they occur in the attributive position in front of the noun they modify. But note that in instances such
as fully booked hotel compounding does not occur because the adverb fully ends in -ly and so there is much less
likelihood of its being associated with the noun hotel.
When they appear in the predicative position (verb + object(s) or complement), adjectives are usually not
compounded though there are exceptions (eg, He is old-fashioned; That idea
seems ill-considered). Why the compounding? Consider this:
A nan-eating buffalo versus
A man eating buffalo
In the first, buffalo is modified by the compound adjective man-eating to convey
one meaning clearly; in the second, man is modified by the adjectival clause
eating buffalo, conveying another meaning entirely.
When should we insert a hyphen? If you can use the word and between the two words, then a hyphen isn’t
necessary. For example:
 She has a big blue book. We can say: She has a big and blue book. So no hyphen necessary. But what about
a comma?
 He is a world famous singer. We cannot say: He is a world and famous singer. So a hyphen is necessary to
join the words world and famous.
 Also, look at the following: It’s an old coal-mining town. Inserting a hyphen between the words old and coal
would suggest a reference to a town that mines old coal. But it’s the town that is old, not the coal. Also, there
should be no comma between old and coal-mining because they belong to different adjective classes.
By identifying and correcting each of these tricky aspects of adjective usage in texts, and armed with sound
grammatical backup, you’ll convert your authors’ words into communications that will impress.◄
References
Kahn, J.E. (ed.). 1985. The right word at the right time: A guide to the English language and how to use it. Reader’s Digest.
New Hart’s Rules: The Oxford style guide. 2014. 2nd edition. OUP.
New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. 2014. 2nd edition. OUP.
Seely, J. 2009. Oxford A to Z of grammar and punctuation. 2nd edition. OUP.
Yagoda, B. 2007. When you catch an adjective, kill it: The parts of speech, for better and/or worse. Broadway Books.
http://www.grammar.cl/english/compound-adjectives.htm
www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/qualitative-and-classifying-adjectives
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OUT OF OFFICE
An intuitive optimizer, Jessie Cat Kelley
– Anne Hodgkinson
One of SENSE’s far-away members is Jessie Cat Kelley, who lives in Finland.
Besides editing, Jessie Cat has does a variety of interesting work. We had a
chat as she was stopping to catch her breath in between assignments
Jessie Cat Kelley runs a freelance business called Pencil Paws Consulting. Here she is in the fairytale woods of Kannelmäki, a city in
Southwest Finland, and rockin’ out with ‘her favourite Finn’, husband Juho Kilkku. ‘He’s the reason I now live in Finland. We met in
2011 in Sweden – that photo is from the first week we met’
Where are you from and how did you end up in Finland?
I’m an Australian now living in Finland – like most of the foreigners here, I moved for love. I miss the beaches and the
mangoes of my homeland, but absolutely love the fairytale scenery of my new country.
How did you get into editing?
When I was a kid, I dreamed about two future career paths: archaeology, and editing. I read a lot as a child, and
always had impeccable spelling and a sense of grammar (an intuitive sense anyway – even after studying linguistics
my academic sense of grammar is a bit iffy!). When I was ten, I had special permission from my class teacher to
correct her spelling on the blackboard. Being an editor just seemed like fun! Later I studied editing at a tertiary level,
and have been working in the field since I was about 18.
How did you hear about SENSE?
I joined Nordic Editors and Translators (NEAT), a relatively new group based in Helsinki, and through them I heard
about SENSE’s 2015 conference in Utrecht. I attended, liked what I saw, and joined as a member shortly after.
Do you do any translating, either from Finnish or Dutch into English?
No translating. Although I’ve studied a few different languages, I’m not nearly competent enough to do translations.
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OUT OF OFFICE
Do you ever combine event management and editing?
Definitely. Most of my fields of interest overlap and interact in some way or another – I think it would be quite difficult
to separate them! In the past I’ve worked in customer service, distribution, office management, museums, education,
archaeology, event management, not-for-profit associations, youth engagement, community engagement, graphic
design, and so on… everything I’ve learned along the way affects what I do now.
I see you also do ‘optimization’. Could you explain that a bit?
For me, editing is one form of optimization. An editor receives a manuscript, and must analyse and assess it, drawing
on their knowledge and experience to figure out how to make it better. That critical and constructive process is what
excites me, and I apply a similar process to all kinds of different puzzles. Saying that I do ‘optimization’ does not make
for a good elevator pitch, but it’s nice to have a broad scope to work within!
Over the past few months, I have helped clients with projects like:

I’m a belly dance teacher in Helsinki. How can I develop and improve my business?

I’m interested in buying a commercial property in Australia. What do I need to know before making a decision?

I need to apply for a grant extension for my business in Finland. How should I prepare my application?
Do you feel that one of these areas is the main focus in your work?
A few months ago I was in the middle of an editing stretch, and I
might have said that was the main focus. This month, I’m
working solely on events and community building. But looking at
the bigger picture, I feel that everything I do interconnects. I
can’t pick a favourite!
Jessie Cat enjoys painting in her free time. Here she’s creating a pair of Lego
figures for some Dutch friends who ‘are really into their Lego and have
these mini-figures of themselves. The painting is a memory of Christmas
they spent with us in Australia a few years ago'
I hear you’ve been working on the SENSE Handbook as
well. How did you get into that?
It’s a cliché, but it’s true that you get out what you put in. As I’m
quite new to SENSE, I thought that getting involved with some
volunteer project would help me to get to know the organization
and its members better, quicker! I felt qualified because my first
major editing role was as chief editor of TableAus, Mensa
Australia’s national journal, a job which included all the layout
and design work. Since then, I’ve had plenty more practice combining editing and layout – truthfully, I find it quite
difficult to resist meddling with layout, even when it’s outside of the task description. Bringing order to chaos is
something I find most enjoyable. Although the Handbook didn’t quite qualify as ‘chaotic’, it was still a pleasure to bring
order and consistency to chapters which had been written and reviewed by multiple people. I didn’t have so much
opportunity to work directly with any SENSE colleagues on this, but I look forward to more collaboration in the future.
Do you feel yourself being pulled in any new directions right now?
Not so much a new direction, but I do feel that many of my seemingly unrelated activities are coming together for one
big project — that’s quite exciting.
Finally, where does the ‘Cat’ come in?
I picked it up as a nickname in my teens – I was always pretty obvious about liking cats! Some people knew me as
‘Jessie’ and others knew me as ‘Cat’, and after a while I just started introducing myself with both names: ‘Jessie Cat’.
It was easy for people to remember, and I liked being able to distance myself from my surname, as I had a difficult
relationship with my father. Over time it just became part of my identity – I don’t think many of my friends would know
the name Jessica Kelley these days!◄
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GUEST BLOG
Not English, not Dutch, but a language apart
– Marianne Orchard
Our guest blogger Marianne Orchard muses on the pernickety niggles of
being coherent when trying to speak Dutch or English... or both at once
Marianne Orchard (2nd left)
schmoozing with fellow SENSE
members at the recent Social Media
workshop. Besides writing the
odd blog entry for Like A Sponge,
Marianne runs her freelance
business Orchard Text from her
home in Leiden
There’s a wok restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet
in the next village. The kids love it. It has sushi
alongside stuffed eggs alongside huzarensalade
alongside loempia’s alongside chicken nuggets alongside babi pangang alongside chips alongside soesjes
alongside chocolate fondue alongside lychees alongside ice cream. It’s a Chinese restaurant that caters to
Dutch tastes. It’s safe exotic without being too apart,
as my mother-in-law would call it. So it’s a Dutch
version of Chinese, which means that, in contrast to
British Chinese, babi pangang is a standard part of the
buffet. The main thing is that there is no meat-and-twoveggery and not a boerenkool in sight.
I think this is a good light in which to see the
version of English that crops up in the Netherlands
often, which we native speakers like to laugh at,
because it isn’t the English we speak.
Exotic but not too apart
You know the kind of things; Albert Heijn’s now
discontinued Euro Shopper line is a classic at them –
‘Puff pastry with meat filling’ for saucijzenbroodjes,
when sausage rolls would be what the British native
speaker would say; ‘Short cake biscuits’ for spritsen,
when the British native speaker would say Viennese
swirls (and the Austrian in turn would probably say
something else); and ‘rusks’ for beschuit.
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eSense 42 | 2016
And there’s the insistence, HEMA is a particular
offender, in using the term ‘Old Dutch’ when it doesn’t
have any significance to native-English speakers
because we don’t know – and if we do know it’s a sign
we’ve been living here too long – that it’s a literal
translation of Oud Hollands and for a Dutch person
invokes nostalgic images of when life was simpler,
when we were less druk, when we wore newspaper
trousers and clogs, and counted our blessings.
But these products aren’t aimed at the native
speaker of English, so it’s none of our business
whether it means anything to us because that’s not the
point. It’s just like the Chinese restaurant isn’t aimed at
Chinese people. It’s about giving a feeling of something being exotic but exotic within reason, exotic that
we can understand.
It’s within these kaders that we should attempt to
understand that old Dutch Eurovision entry, ‘Birds’ by
Anouk. The whole time I was thinking ‘huh, I don’t get
why she’s singing about birds falling from the roofs’,
even if I disregarded the niggle that surely they can’t
fall down the rooftops but should be falling from the
rooftops. They could fall down the roofs but not down
the rooftops, but that wouldn’t scan in the song.
This was just a pernickety niggle compared with
the bigger one of what’s going on with all those birds?
My husband solved that conundrum by saying in one
GUEST BLOG
those voices that imply that what he is saying is
obvious, ‘It’s a saying: vogels vallen dood van het dak.
You say it if it’s really hot. Then it’s so hot that the
vogels vallen dood van het dak.’
However, now I’ve looked up the lyrics to the song
it still doesn’t make much sense to me. But maybe
there are layers of meaning that a native speaker of
Dutch would understand just as they would understand
why you need stuffed eggs and huzarensalade with
your sushi.
Ben ik al aan de bird is a Dutch bilingual pun. ‘Bird’ sounds like
beurt meaning ‘turn’. So Anouk is saying ‘Is it my turn yet?’
Exploding rookworst
We had rookworst recently. It wasn’t just any
rookworst but an ambachtelijke rookworst. As an
ambacht is a trade or craft, it would have been a
pleasant surprise if Sir Ambachtelijke Rookworst of the
Poiesz had been wearing a codpiece and carrying a
gourd in true tradesperson fashion (my anachronistic
view of medieval fashion).
But let’s step away from talk of sausages and
codpieces before it all degenerates into something
unseemly and instead turn our attention to the word
ambachtelijk. As I said already, ambachtelijk comes
from ambacht, as in trade or craft. So it has the same
meaning as the English artisan, as in an artisan
bakery. However, it has reached a point in its evolution
where if it is being used about rookworst sold in a
supermarket we can be sure it doesn’t hold much
meaning but is being used instead to convey an
emotion.
Ambachtelijk can therefore signify a product that
has been handmade by a skilled tradesperson. But it
can equally signify one that has been developed in an
industrial process to resemble a product that has been
made by hand by a skilled tradesperson. Or it can
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eSense 42 | 2016
signify any old crap that the marketing department
thinks will sell better with its addition.
Our rookworst ended up looking less than
ambachtelijk after it exploded in the pan because I
forgot to prick it. Which is symbolic of ambachtelijk
because the word has become so full of meaning that
it has exploded and now means nothing.
Words don’t come easy
I thought this post could do with some musical accompaniment from the 1980s. So here it is: Words by F.R.
David. And, how apt, words not coming easily is the
focus of this post. Because they don’t. Come easily.
Words, that is. In conversation anyway. Writing is a
different kettle of fish because it gives me time to think
and revise and think and revise and leave things to
stew for a bit. With conversations, though, I find that if
I’m speaking English, Dutch words (and the odd
German word, but this is very rare) will jump in and try
to clothe my thoughts – a bad metaphor perhaps
because it makes it sound as if my thoughts are
obscene when they’re probably not obscene enough.
It’s the same if I’m speaking Dutch, but this time
it’s the English (and occasional German) words that
are doing the decent thing. What I’ve concluded is that
when I speak Dutch I’m pretending to be someone
who speaks only Dutch and when I’m speaking English
I’m pretending to be someone who speaks only
English when really I’m someone who speaks both
languages and needs both of them to come out with
anything coherent.
So if we look at the process, a thought forms and it
wants to be clothed in some words. Like in that sinister
Amazon warehouse in the UK where the workers are
treated like robots, the order arrives and the message
goes out to the workers that some words need to be
picked.
The system and drones in my brain, however, are
a lot crapper than the Amazon system. So the order
comes in and the workers scurry off without bothering
to check whether the product needs to be in Dutch,
English or, on rare occasions, German. They scramble
and come up with anything in either language that
looks like it might just do, often producing a word that
doesn’t match the original request anyway. And this is
OK if I’m talking to someone like me who functions in
both languages, because I can then say things like,
‘Yeah it was the avondvierdaagse last week and it
wasn’t too vreselijk and was actually quite gezellig but
we’ve got a verjaardag this weekend and that’s going
to be really doomy and all oh lekker kopje koffie-ish…’
So we actually have our own language, which is
neither Dutch nor English but both. And it’s a lot easier
to speak than Dutch or English separately. I don’t
know how polyglots do it.◄
HI SOCIETY
Summer social a historic success
This year’s Summer Social was held at Museum
Broeker Veiling. The event began with lunch – a
Westfrisian koffietafel – and included a guided tour of
the museum, a boat ride and a live re-enactment of the
famous, timed ‘Dutch auction’ in its proper context.
Indeed, a hefty dose of history was imparted on the
way.
John Edmund Hynd reports, ‘It's always good to
hear Dutch people talking history – something they do
very little and the English do too much! We learnt that
the bishop of Utrecht first invited monks from England
and Scotland to farm the land. This led to them creating
parcels of land from the fertile silt and in the end they
created more than a thousand of these market garden
islands. It was all very interesting. And,’ John adds, ‘we
had sunshine all day long.’◄
Left: Attendees reflecting on Dutch history during a guided tour of
the museum boat house and auction room that has been in
operation since the 1920s.
Right: Having a good laugh while waiting for the auction of market
garden produce to begin. Enid Tomkinson (bottom left) has written a
great review of the day
Guess who’s going to Frankfurt
For someone who loves books (and not just the ones she
indexes for a living), going to Frankfurt Book Fair must be
like having your dream come true. And so it is for SENSE
member Pierke Bosschieter (below).
Pierke is giving a talk at the forthcoming Frankfurt
International Indexing Conference that is being held in
conjunction with the famous book fair. ‘It’s the first time I will
be going to Frankfurt, ’ says Pierke, ‘and it’s always been on
my bucket list so I’m really excited.’ Pierke’s talk is geared towards publishers (Dutch and German mostly), who don’t
see the advantage of an index and especially don’t see the advantage of an e-book index (e-books have a search
function, so why include an index?). ‘I hope to remedy that in my talk. I’ve talked about indexes before so I’m not that
nervous yet, but maybe I will be a couple of hours before I
go on.’
Nervous or not, Pierke is bound to give an interesting
talk. Watch out for her report on the indexing conference in
eSense.◄
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HI SOCIETY
Gratifying Eastern SIG meeting
– Kumar Jamdagni
The most recent Eastern SIG meeting was gratifying in the sense that all but one of the members attended, plus a
potential SENSE member, Maartje Roozeboom. Maartje gave us a professional’s look at how one might use SEO to
enhance the power of online texts without having to resort to tactics to try to trick
Google into giving a website a high ranking. For those of us looking to use online
marketing more effectively or who, like me, translate websites on a regular basis, I
would definitely recommend picking Maartje’s brains.
Another topic we discussed was the broodfonds – the Dutch disability insurance
that has become so popular among freelancers due to its low level of contributions
compared with insurance companies. Sally Hill outlined her experiences as a new
member, and I provided the view of a veteran of three years. There is now a new
element designed to address the Achilles heel of this system – a lack of funds,
particularly in the beginning, to deal with a sudden rise in members requiring disability
payments. A kind of overarching fund across all 200+ broodfondsen in 100 locations is
now available should such an emergency situation arise.
Future Eastern SIG meetings will focus more on the informal and social aspects of our professions rather than, but
not excluding, the professional.◄
As she likes it
In her spare time, Anne Paris (seated) loves nothing more than to don a
cool costume or glitzy gown and take to the stage to sing and act in
musical theatre productions. Here she is playing the part of the Pharaoh
of Egypt in Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida, recently put on by the Manteau
theatre company in Gorinchem. Anne is also a member of two vocal
groups, Klink and Rosé, and regularly takes part in music festivals and
concerts. For another taste of Aida, see Manteau on Facebook◄
Copywriting trends, the Copywriting
SIG, and the power of three
– Justine Whittern
Starting with a short list (or is it shortlist? See below) of
copywriting tips for discussion and finishing with an add-on
app that dissuades working late into the night, the recent
meeting of the Copywriting SIG covered a broad range of topics: how to spice up your copywriting, when to follow
trends or use jargon, and the power of three. (See what I did there?)
The attendees were Carla Bakkum, Martine Croll, Stephen Johnston, Paul Osborn,
Cathy Scott, Jenny Zonneveld and your trusty reporter. Throughout our discussion, the
identity of the reader or the target audience came up as the foundation: who are they, what do
they know, and what do you want them to do? Will they be reading your text on a print-out
(unlikely), a desktop (rarely), a tablet (common) or a smartphone (increasingly likely)?
The crowd-pleasers were Google’s Ngram viewer that tracks word variants over time,
the f.lux add-on that makes the colour of your computer's display adapt to the time of day –
warm at night and like sunlight during the day – and the use of a full stop as a point-of-petulance by texting teens,
rather than an elegant end-point to sentences for grown-ups. One thing remains true – communications evolve ◄
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HI SOCIETY
Tech talk rules OK at Zuid-Holland SIG
– Hans van Bemmelen
Members of Zuid-Holland SIG relaxing in
the comfort of the convener’s home (l-r):
Arsen Nazarian, Peter Smethurst, Jenny
Zonneveld, Joanna Bouma, Michiel
Meenk, Reinie Erné and Hans van
Bemmelen (host and convener). Their next
meeting will be in September at Joanna
Bouma’s place in The Hague. See the
EVENTS calendar for the date
This meeting of the Zuid-Holland
SIG, on improving productivity, was
mostly a continuation of the
discussion at the last meeting.
Some of us use a workflow where
paper still plays a major role, while
others work almost exclusively on
screen. Several people get the textto-speech function of their computer
to read their work out aloud. We
also discussed back-ups. One
member prefers to back their data
up weekly to a DVD+R DL, the idea being that ransomware might encrypt not only the data on your PC but also on
any external hard drives that are connected to it when making a back-up. However, a DVD back-up would not be
affected by that. Others use external hard discs, sometimes with software such as SyncBack by Two Bright Sparks, or
a cloud solution such as CrashPlan.◄
A workshop on taming financial jargon
Carla Bakkum has been in business as a specialist in financial translation for
nigh on 32 years.* She joined SENSE in 1998 and over the past nine years has
held various positions on the EC and other committees, making her one of our
longest-serving volunteers. Now Carla is serving fellow translators, both in and
outside of the Society, by conducting an interactive workshop, ‘Financial
Translation Ned-Eng’, under the auspices of OCPE (see below).
‘The finance sector seems to be all about the numbers,’ says Carla, ‘but what
about the words in between the numbers? In my workshop I’ll deal with the
language of the accountant, banker, stock market analyst and pension manager –
a language with its own, difficult terminology – and I’ll be sharing my strategies for
taming that jargon and turning it into readable English that suits the target
audience.’
OCPE (Opleidingscentrum Permanente
Educatie) is a recognized training body for
sworn interpreters and translators that offers PE points to attendees. Carla’s
workshop, ‘Financial Translation Ned-Eng’ (in English) will take place on 13
October 2016 at Aristo in Utrecht. For more information on OCPE and how to
register for the workshop, click here.
*A ‘line tamer’ from way back, Carla hasn’t always specialized in finance. As a young
doctoral student she helped create the massive, iconic Dutch-English dictionary Het Groot
Woordenboek Nederlands-Engels van Van Dale – see the story on ‘Van Dallas’ on p.15 and watch out for an article on the general
joys and terrors of financial translation by Carla in the next issue of eSense.◄
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HI SOCIETY
Welcome to SENSE
A very warm welcome to our new members:
Joan Loonen, Weert
Mariana Orozco Fernandez, Utrecht
Marja Stack, Geraldine, New Zealand
Sarah Hiley, Maastricht
Simon Adams, Utrecht
Kenneth Ivor McGillivray, Antwerp, Belgium◄
Join the fun on Facebook
TECH CORNER
Making life easier on
the road
– Hans van Bemmelen
In the Windows environment, each drive of your
computer has a drive letter (eg, C: or D:). It is a good
idea to use different drives for Windows and software,
and for your data. Often, the drive letters on your
desktop PC will differ from those on your laptop. For
example, on my desktop PC the data drive is F: and on
my laptop it is D:. It can be confusing and inconvenient
when moving data between these computers. One
option to get around this would be to keep my files in
the cloud. However I prefer not to do that, because of
security concerns and occasionally having intermittent
internet access when travelling.
Fortunately, Windows offers an easy way around
this. You can create an alias so that a directory on
your laptop can also be accessed by using the same
drive letter of the data drive on your desktop PC.
Alias example using Windows 7
I have a Desktop-files directory on drive D: of my
laptop. When I’m working away from home, I copy the
files I expect to need on the road, maintaining the
same directory structure as on my desktop PC. To
access this directory as F: I set up an alias:



Go to Start
In the search box, type: command and then
click the Command Prompt item
In the Command Prompt window, type: subst
f: d:Desktop-files. The F: drive is now
visible in Windows Explorer and I can use it in
the same way as F: on my desktop computer
If you restart Windows you have to create the alias
again. You could also add this step to the start-up
sequence so it is created automatically. Although
creating an alias works, the next time I get a laptop I
will change the letter of my data drive to F: before I
install any software on it. That will make exchanging
files with my desktop PC even easier.
SENSE members, join our closed group on Facebook for a good
giggle and refreshing break from the daily grind. Here we post
the fun stuff that we used to share in the Non-SENSE group on
Yahoo in ye olden days. Come along and join the fun. Go to:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/sense.online/ and ask one
of the admins to let you in. SENSE members only, mind.◄
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Macintosh
As the Macintosh operating system does not use drive
letters, the above issue is less relevant. However, if
necessary you can create an alias: select the item, go
to the Menu Bar, then choose File > Make Alias or
press Command (⌘)–L.
With thanks to Peter Smethurst for providing the
Macintosh angle.◄