29 September 201515 April 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

What a difference an MA makes: the MAATS at Leeds

I graduated from Leeds’ Centre for Translation Studies in 2012, having taken the MAATS (MA in Applied Translation Studies) Masters.

I was somewhat atypical in my cohort as I had already completed a year working as an intern translator in a small (or pocket-sized) agency in Castres, Southern France. As such I was already well accustomed to translating huge amounts of text, translating to deadlines, and working on my own as well as with editors and proofreaders. I continued to work freelance as a translator for my former employer throughout my Masters, which did help me to keep some perspective on my studies.

Since graduating with my MA in hand, I have gone on to work at Google, more freelancing, and am currently an Account Manager at Wordbank, a London-based marketing translation agency. I think the fact of having a Masters helped me win these roles (and keep them!) for sure. But has what I learned at Leeds made any difference? Here are some great things about the MAATS course at Leeds (they also offer interpreting, audiovisual translation, and PGDips which I am not able to comment on, really).

25 September 201522 May 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

My ideal purchase order: pipe dream or reality?

May 2021 update: The purchase order has been updated. Please see this post for 4 new versions of it (for translation, revision, editing and localisation), which you can also download here.

For a while now I’ve been working on the type of purchase order I’d like to give to both my agency and direct clients (especially new ones) so that we all know where we stand and are clear about the price and what it does and does not include. Today I’ve been inspired by reading Two to Tango: Tips for Project Managers from a Freelance Translator (parts 1 and 2) by Igor Vesler on Lingua Greca’s blog to finally finish my first draft. I’m posting it here so I can get your feedback and comments, because I’m a little concerned that it might be overly long and put some clients off.

21 September 201511 May 2020 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

My Tailored Sitting/Standing Desk Set-up

Today’s guest post has been written by Allison Klein who I first connected with on Facebook and later had the pleasure of meeting IRL last October at the MET 2014 conference. Enjoy!

First of all, I would like to say how thrilled and honored I was to have been asked by Nikki to write a guest post for her blog. This idea came about after I had posted something on social media about my quest to find the ‘perfect’ sitting-standing desk and chair earlier this year, and Nikki suggested I blog about it, and here we are.

The Why

This type of set-up is something I have actually been thinking about for a couple years now, between all the attention in the media about how a sedentary lifestyle, such as the one translators and many other professionals lead these days, can cause a range of health problems down the line.

12 September 201511 February 2021 Nikki Graham - Tranix Translation & Proof-Editing Services

Bite-sized Tips No. 20: Watch out for the Dragon

If you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) or another dictation software, you’ll probably have realised by now that it sometimes has a life of its own. That’s why you need to pay attention to spelling and that you are being faithful to whichever style manual you are following (either your own personal decision or dictated by the client), especially as the spellchecker in Word might not highlight spellings as wrong that are not consistent with your style guide. Regular readers will know that I base my work on the New Oxford Style Manual. From now on in this series I’ll be highlighting terms that DNS can get wrong.

Please read my post Why All the Fuss about Spellings and Style Guides? for an explanation of why I think it’s important to be consistent in our work and be aware of the types of details I focus on in the Bite-sized Tips series.