Lingua Translations

Global marketing has brought with it a new demand for translation services. There are many languages involved in the market place and each has its own differences in grammar, spelling, and construction. Translation requires a careful selection of translator and reviewer services. Since you probably do not have the expertise to evaluate the quality of a translated document you can help ensure quality by making sure the source document you provide for the translation is of the highest quality possible and that the provider of your service meets your requirements.

Before giving your document(s) to the translator to be converted into your selected targeted language, make sure they are grammatically correct. Make sure all words are spelled correctly. The documents should be double and even triple checked by different people to ensure you have error free documents to submit for translation. Make sentences as brief as possible. Do not use abbreviations, do not use don’t, use do not. This will make for fewer errors in the translated documents. Before you give the documents to the service provider, make sure you keep a copy for yourself.

When you select the service provider, remember that low cost is not necessarily the best. In order to keep costs down some will automatically select the lowest cost service they can find. Selecting a service provider on this basis might end up costing you more in the long run.

Find a mirror and be your own audience. The best way to make sure you are physically and verbally presenting yourself the way you wish to be seen and heard is to actually see and hear yourself.

It is ideal, of course, to video yourself practicing your presentation. But we do not always have access to that equipment when we need to practice.

Find a mirror, and give your presentation. You are your audience.

Your stance and gestures should enhance your message. You want the audience to see that you are confident, friendly and comfortable.

* Are your shoulders relaxed?
* Arms at your sides or slightly in front of you?
* Gestures natural?
* Facial expressions natural?

Eye contact engages people. When you make eye contact with an audience member for a moment while you are speaking, you are including that person in your presentation.

* Are you looking at your audience?

You want your audience to hear every word and feel your enthusiasm.

* Are you speaking at a moderate pace?
* Are you saying your words clearly?
* Are you using natural inflections in the pitch of your voice?

You want your audience to understand what they are hearing.

* Are you using jargon-free language?
* Are you avoiding acronyms and initials?

People get distracted by “um”, “uh”, incorrect grammar, slang expressions, overused phrases. You want your audience to focus on your message, not your mannerisms.

* Is your speech free from distractions?

The question of how to educate a child is one of the most important a parent can ask. A basic choice that many parents struggle with is that of public vs. private school. Parents do not want to take on unnecessary expenses if they will not ultimately benefit their child. After all, many public schools do an excellent job of educating students. But while it is true that public schools do not have tuition costs (and a private school can run, on average from 12,000 to 30,000 dollars a year), the benefits of a private education can still far outweigh the costs depending on the local options parents may face.

Students who attend private schools can be more academically challenged, exposed to clearer value systems, given greater access to teachers, and may simply feel safer than local public school options. If you do decide to pursue private schooling for your child, start the research process early. Admission to private schools can be competitive, and finding a school that is a perfect fit for your child where he or she will be also be accepted, may take some time.

A Higher Bar:

A major advantage to private education is that your child will likely be challenged to a higher academic standard. Private schools can be more academically rigorous than public schools, and private school students may have to meet more criteria to keep up their grade point averages. According to The Condition of Education 2001, from the National Center for Education Statistics, Private high schools typically have more demanding graduation requirements than do public high schools.

Think about writer’s block for a moment. It’s frozen creativity. A river that has been stopped up. Writer’s block is that uncomfortable tightness around your throat. Like a low-grade headache, it’s an uncomfortable pressure that never seems to go away. It feels like we have no control over it, but we do.

The key to understanding writer’s block is this: like a strait jacket, the more you struggle against it, the worse it gets. If you sit at your desk and think, “Okay. I’m going to get creative here. I’ve got to break through this”, your mind seizes up, goes blank, wanders off to the mall, refuses to answer your phone calls.

So here’s the secret. Get into the creative flow in some other area of your life. Do something else that inspires you. Your writing will soon begin to flow too.

What are some creative flow activities? Here are my latest:

Knitting. With a repetitive, meditative handiwork, my mind wanders into a glorious daydream. Very often when I knit, I feel like a kid again, imagining things. I have no objectives, no plan, no strategy. I simply let go, and my mind steps into the field of deep imagination. It’s amazing.

Exercise. Moving my body is the quickest and easiest way to release stress and open myself to new possiblity. I run in a gym, I walk outside, I stretch at night while watching television. But however I choose to exercise, I feel that when I get my body moving in a new way, my mind opens in a new way.

In truth, thatâ??s a lie. Every author has the option of self-publishing. However, there are advantages to writing a book proposal instead of a whole book.

One advantage is that it usually takes less time than writing a whole book. Two, it creates the possibility of getting paid to write your book, perhaps just a few thousand dollars, perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands. Three, it forces you to get clear about what youâ??re doing with your book, on a number of levels.

Even if you want to self-publish, a book proposal serves as a sort of business plan for your book. The time and energy spent on research, evaluation and comparison of your ideas at the outset pays off down the line many times over. After all, wouldnâ??t you rather find out now that someone else has said similar things more eloquently and have a chance to amend your manuscript, than publish the darn thing only to read terribleâ??or worseâ??no reviews?

The process of polishing your book proposal is also an exercise in discipline and focus. It brings the purpose of your book, its scope, depth and message into sharp relief. It will get your thinking muscles into the best shape ever to produce the most marketable book of which you are capable. However, you must dedicate the necessary time and energy to educate yourself, move through multiple drafts and polish this behemoth of a document to perfection, or else hire someone who knows how to do just that.

Time and time again we’ve seen articles that give tips to helping self-published authors gain exposure after their book is completed. But by this time it’s way too late. Traditionally published authors have a leg up. They receive help from publishers and in-house publicists to promote their books. Self-published authors do not have this luxury. Waiting too late to promote a self-published book could lead the author to defeat before the book is even available for purchase.

Being a traditionally published author, I still do most of my own promotion. This has helped me learn a lot. Self-published authors look to me for advice and I go out of my way not to offer the generic tips for promotion. The old fashioned tips of yesterday barely work for traditional authors and they do nothing for self-published authors. Self-published authors have to put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into promotion. Not only did they write the book, but also they published it. They should begin to think of themselves as true publishers and no longer as authors. It doesn’t matter if a book is good, if no one knows it’s out there, it will not sell.

I’d like to share some tips that should give self-published authors more understanding about how crucial the right amount of promotion is for a self-published book.

It’s Never Too Early