Fighting Bull in Business Speak

Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide (Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, and Jon Warshawsky) is an entertaining look at why business people use language like "We harness deep industry, process and technology expertise and unrivaled large-scale, complex change capabilities" and what can be done about it.

The bad news is that, as translators at least, there isn't much we can do about the "bull" that comes across our translation desks. We just have to make sense out of it and translate it. The good news is that understanding where the bull comes from will help us deal more effectively with the people behind it--our clients.

In their tirade against jargon, the authors propose a SCUBA (System to Clean Up Bogus Acronyms). They also recommend avoiding SGPs (Stupid Generic Photographs) as a way to add mass to our business newsletters without content, and often at no additional cost! Then there are the dreaded email subject line FW: Re: re: re: re: and the dangers of being "templatized" by PowerPoint.

One unique angle in this back-to-communication-basics book is insight into the psychological underpinnings of business-speak (primarily the forces that transform otherwise interesting people--on the weekends at least--into conformist business automatons as soon as they enter the workplace). But mainly, the Bullfighter's Guide offers a funny, irreverent review of the communication basics all business people should know about by now.

The importance of writing in business

I recently came across this podcast on the importance of writing for young PR professionals: http://www.forward-moving.com/blog/2006/09/01/forward-podcast-9-writing-with-matthew-stibbe/

Many of the tips recommended by professional writer Matthew Stibbe (articluatemarketing.com) also apply to translators. Here are the three that I took away from the podcast.

Read, read, read is one tip that cuts across industries. From a translation standpoint, I try to read the latest news and publications in the industries I work in. At the very least, this means reading a daily business newspaper in my target language (for me the WSJ online). I also read what relevant businesses put out there on the Internet with a critical eye. Reading what others write is a source of inspiration; and it can also teach you what to avoid in your own writing. Not everything out there is good.

Focus on proofreading is another universal rule of writing. Have a method for proofreading (one that works for you) and apply it systematically. If you can't put a piece aside for a few days before proofing due to deadlines, have someone else proof it.

Use simple language is also a great tip. Tone down pompous writing and opt for a more conversational tone (toning down the poetic excesses of French business writing when translating into English is a real challenge but has to be done well if you hope to produce a translation that "works" in English). Prefer evidence over hype. Instead of writing "cutting-edge technology," provide concrete evidence. As a translator, this is a great way to add value. Ask your client for the information you need to really give their text a boost in English.

Translating Contracts - Part III - A Few Words about Style

Part 3: A Few Words about Style

English prefers SVO (subject-verb-object) constructions, which sometimes means reworking the order of the original French sentences significantly in order to achieve a natural-sounding flow in English. This is something that all language professionals know, of course, but it is all too easy to forget when you are bogged down with long, complex “legalese” sentences.

One aspect of translating contracts that can be problematic is repetition. In French source contracts, repetition is often avoided by using pronouns (il, celui-ci, and celui-là, for instance) or relative clauses. However, English contracts do not use terms like “it,” “the former,” and “the latter,” which are the standard, non-legal translations for these terms. According to Tom, these constructions are best avoided in English contracts, in favor of repeating the proper noun again and again. One example he provided that illustrates this point was the translation of “Le bailleur donne bail à loyer au preneur, qui accepte, les locaux ci-après désignés…” as “The Lessor leases to the Lessee, and the Lessee hereby leases from the Lessor, the premises identified below…”.

Key take-aways:

• While repetition of proper nouns can feel clunky, it is standard in contract language and will remove the ambiguities that a direct, pronoun- and relative-clause-filled translation will create.
• Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style is worth revisiting for a refresher on how to craft clear, solid English sentences.
• Tom West also recommends Initiation au thème anglais (The Mirrored Image) by Françoise Grellet.
  

Upcoming Event:

For those who translate contracts into French, there is an upcoming training session sponsored by the SFT entitled “Comment traduire les contrats sans trahir le droit?” on October 7, 2006 in Lyon. http://www.sft.fr/formations/2006/RA_1007_TraductionContrats.html

Legal Writing Blog:

For those who translate contracts into English: http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/wschiess/legalwriting/