Comments for Afia

Comment on Another nail in the apostrophe’s coffin? by Arjen

Arjen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:07:39 +0000

I am often shocked to see how even native English speakers mistreat their humble apostrophe and do not know anymore when to write their, there or they’re.

Comment on Another nail in the apostrophe’s coffin? by Ben Afia

Ben Afia — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:40:05 +0000

I’m not particularly possessive about apostrophes. I love them for contractions, like we’ll and you’ll, but can take or leave them for possession. They cause enough confusion, why don’t we just get rid of them?

Comment on Another nail in the apostrophe’s coffin? by Max Robinson

Max Robinson — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:21:52 +0000

I’ll be sad to see them go if they are ultimately killed off.

For my part, I’ve always struggled with possessive apostrophes and nouns ending in ‘s’, such as business.

Business’s, business’, businesses’….it’s a minefield.

Comment on Found, in translation by Richard Naish

Richard Naish — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:54:08 +0000

hi Sarah
Lucky you to be in swinging Osaka; the beating heart of straight-talking Japanese business. My fondest memory of Osaka was when visiting a great izakaya (pub with food) there we were told we were only allowed \’one dip\’ of our yakitori (skewered chicken) in the communal soy sauce on the bar. Once we had had a bite, we couldn\’t dip it in again. Great detail to hygiene!

As for Japanese language translations, I do agree that computers just don\’t do it justice. If I want to get a Japanese friend rolling on the floor laughing, I translate something with GoogleTranslate and email it over.

There are so many elements that makes it tricky; having the verb at the end of a phrase is just the beginning, so to speak. The other is \’tone of voice\’; like English, Japanese allows one to phrase things in several different styles according to who you are talking to, where you are talking and what you are talking about.

Even human translators get the wrong end of the stick when the corporate content gets a bit technical. So when we do English to Japanese translations for clients, we use a 2-translator process; one to do the first translation and then another review it thoroughly for sense-making in context of the English text.
Richard Naish
http://www.qiconcepts.co.uk

Comment on How not to write a strapline by business branding

business branding — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:27:16 +0000

It is a lot better to be in contact and create a much better relationship with a regional web design agency. Getting face to face with the another person and then shaking hands with her or him will be able to develop some level of trust. Furthermore it is faster and easier to inform the Brisbane website design agency the kind of concept you would like for your website and also to receive feedback should you sit across from one another.

Comment on Why people pay more for a bite of Apple by business branding

business branding — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:09:51 +0000

Comment on How to get a tone of voice working round the world by Ben Afia

Ben Afia — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:44:27 +0000

One company we worked with decided to focus on the central idea behind the brand. They then worked with folk in each country on how they’d apply that idea in their own culture and grammar. It seemed to work well.

Comment on How to get a tone of voice working round the world by Sarah McCartney

Sarah McCartney — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:13:01 +0000

Just last week I was in Belgium for a clothing company’s European sales meeting. Everyone spoke in English but none of them found it as funny as I did to be invited into a workshop called “Men’s bottoms”. (Jeans, to you and me.)
Just thought I’d mention it…

Comment on Is tone of voice just a buzz word? by Sarah McCartney

Sarah McCartney — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:23:15 +0000

I love John\’s point. I spend lots of time writing stuff to try to make people laugh, but it\’s not always for clients. One of the joys of writing the Lush Times for 14 years was that I was mostly left alone and could write stuff that was as funny as I wanted. My proudest moment was when a friend called to say she\’d seen someone crying with laughter on the tube while reading the Lush Times. I love messing about with words to make my writing funny. I love mixing long, lovely words with short snappy ones. I know that you can write \”give up\” instead of \”reliquish\”, but isn\’t relinquish fabulous?

Then again, I might not put it into a letter to someone whose reading age I can\’t count on. And I can see no point in writing utilise when you can write use. Some words are just long for the sake of it.

Whatever you call it, getting people in a huge organisation with its own corporate dialect to think about what they are writing and about the people on the other end, that\’s a good thing. I\’ve also had moments in training sessions when people see the light. My favourites are when they realise that there is no difference between someone calls herself a writer (me), and someone who writes all day for a living (them) but calls it customer service. We are all allowed use the same words. (Or even to utilise them if we want.)

Comment on Is tone of voice just a buzz word? by Nicola Cooper-Abbs

Nicola Cooper-Abbs — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:10:44 +0000

I’ve never liked the expression tone of voice. Even though I use it myself. The reason I don’t like it? Because you have to explain it. And if we (writers) are in the job of improving the ease and clarity of communication then why are we using jargon? That’s what ‘tone of voice’ is a bit, isn’t it? A phrase which shows how clever we are, excludes those not in the know and gives us a chance to show off.

Which leaves us with of a bit of problem – what do we call how an organisation sounds day in, day out. Yep it’s good writing, but it’s more than that. It’s, erm, tone of voice. Nope, just doesn’t sit right with me. It needs too much explanation, different people think it’s different things and it doesn’t adequately and beautifully sum up what we do. It’s like wearing a beige fleece to keep warm. Does the job fantastically but it’s just not stylish enough.