Pandemic Skills: Coping Mechanism or Career Necessity? Aaah, the pandemic. There’s nothing new to say about it, is there? We’ve all been affected so differently depending on where we live, our personal circumstances, and our specializations. Some of us have been drowning in work, while others have been high and dry for too long. Some,…
Proofreading, editing, revising: What’s up with the confusion? Translators like to think about words. Using them precisely is important. But do we always practice what we preach? When it comes to the terms proofreading, revising, and editing, it feels like everyone has their own definitions. Just take a look into any place where translators gather…
Maria Scheibengraf, The SEO Translation Bible: Master the Art of SEO and Diversify as a Freelance Translator With the rise of machine translation, all eyes have turned to work that only humans can do, work where we are still superior to machine intelligence. SEO writing and SEO translation are two of those fields where human…
Masematte, Münster’s secret language I am a very happy resident of Münster, a medium-sized town in Germany known mainly for the ridiculous amount of cyclists and how often it rains. But Münster has more to offer: I recently wrote a guest blog (in German) about a secret language that used be spoken here. I’m talking…
An exercise in transcreation: It starts with a German holiday billboard I like studying billboards at bus stops and trying to come up with good versions in English. This time, the Christmas billboards for ALDI caught my eye. The tagline is “Oh, du Günstige”. It’s a twist on the German Christmas Carol “Oh, du fröhliche,…
Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean What is the book about? Are you wondering how Josh Bernoff feels about modern business writing? The title of his book says it all—front-loading at its best! If you’ve had enough of verbal ducking and weaving in business writing, this book is for you.…
Run out of things to read? There’s a new book in town: “The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings that Make Surprising Sense” by Daniel Menaker. A seasoned author and editor himself, Menaker has spent many years collecting spelling errors that—while remaining errors—follow their own fascinating logic. The people who make these types of errors are usually those…
Even if you think you have read enough style manuals to last you a lifetime, you should give this one a try. Good writing is worth reading about. Steven Pinker is no unknown and definitely does not need me to recommend his book. He’s a household name in linguistics and cognitive science—in part because he is…
Hi, I'm Else—a translator, transcreator, and copywriter specializing in helping German lifestyle and service brands connect to English-speaking clients.
Join me here for book recommendations, quick writing and translation insights, and the occasional story about what you can learn from me doing something wrong.
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