for Translators and Translation Editors Note-Taking presents... by Riccardo Schiaffino CTA 3rd Annual Conference Boulder, May © Riccardo Schiaffino, 2013

Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors 2 Introduction Have you ever found yourself looking at a piece of paper where you had scribbled some phone number or other information, but forgot to add what it was about?

3 Introduction Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

4 Introduction If you find yourself regularly looking at scraps of papers or post-it notes on which you wrote " ", without any hint of who the phone number refers to, any explanation of what it was about, and you cannot remember whether it was someone you were supposed to call, or a call you received... Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

5 Introduction

6 Introduction... Then it means you need to put things in better order! Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

7 Introduction What you'll get out of the presentation: A good way to take notes during translation and make your life easier and your work better. And why you should care: Good notes help make your translations better and more consistent. If you take and keep good notes (and act on them!), you won't forget to ask important question, or make essential changes to your translation. Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

8 The Problem Our memory is unreliable - if we don't write something down, we probably won't remember it. A good note-taking system should help prevent such problems as: Inconsistent work during translation or editing Not asking all the questions we should ask Not taking full advantage of the answers provided by the customer Not applying terminology changes to the whole document Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

9 The Solution A system for taking structured notes, designed to fit your needs and working habits Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

10 A Suggested Structure for Your Notes The structure I suggest for your notes is something that works well for me. You may adopt a different system, but whichever system you use, it needs to be consistent. Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

11 A Suggested Structure for Your Notes Information to track during a translation project: 1.Work Management a)Information about your customer or prospect Company Project Manager b)Information about your project Instructions PO Word counts Rates, conditions and deadlines Time sheets Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

12 A Suggested Structure for Your Notes 2.Project Notes Terms to research  Results of such research Questions to ask the customer  Answers received Changes to make to a translation  Record of having made said changes Errors found in the source text  Record of having communicated such errors to the customer Useful reference materials you have found Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

13 A Suggested Structure for Your Notes Normal contents of a note: Title Source Body (text) of the note Project Link (sometimes) Tags (to group the note) Time stamp Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

14 Staging Notes The system must allow changing the tags that define each note's status Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

15 Staging Notes For example, for each project, from /Questions/To_ask to /Questions/Asked and then to /Questions/Answered Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

16 Staging Notes and, from /Changes/To_make to /Changes/Made Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

17 Team Notes When you work on projects that involve other team members it is important to share notes, questions and answers. For this, it is important to have available some tool that can be updated and seen in real time by all participants. Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

18 Team Notes Google Drive shared spreadsheet Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

19 Note-Taking Tools Software... Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

20 Note-Taking Tools...or pen and paper? Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

Pen and paper Pros No need for yet another software tool Immediate Cons Not searchable May easily dissolve into a chaos of bits and pieces of paper 21 Note-Taking Tools Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

22 Note-Taking Tools Software Pros Searchable May help to keep your notes in order Easy to convert to other applications Cons Yet another software tool to get and to learn Even simple software tools tend to become more complicated over time Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

23 CintaNotes, an Excellent Note-Taking Tool Fast Easy to learn Simple and intuitive to use Especially suitable for the type of system I just described Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

24 CintaNotes, an Excellent Note-Taking Tool Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

A note in CintaNotes 25 CintaNotes, an Excellent Note-Taking Tool Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

26 Dangerous Practices Inline notes Alternative translations "Questo articolo tratta del diritto inglese / della Common Law e della sua applicazione in Inghilterra nel XIX secolo." Inline comments "Questo articolo tratta del [ask customer if they prefer "diritto inglese" or "Common Law"] e della sua applicazione in Inghilterra nel XIX secolo." Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

27 Dangerous Practices Comments E.g. the "Comments" feature in MS Word or similar features in other programs Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

28 Conclusion Organize your notes in a manner that makes sense for you, and that helps your work Keep your notes on your computer: that way you can search them easily Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

29 Where to download this presentation You can find the most updated version of this presentation on my blog, About Translation. ( If you are interested in the program I have shown (CintaNotes), you can find it at ( CintaNotes has a special offer for the CTA conference – let me know if you are interested Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

30 The End Thank you, for coming to this presentation! Questions? Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

31 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

32 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

33 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

34 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

35 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

36 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

37 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

38 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors

39 CintaNotes in Action Note-Taking for Translators and Translation Editors