At the heart of my approach to my work is the firm belief that clear thinking is the key to clear writing.
As George Orwell observed in his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language”:
“A scrupulous writer in every sentence that he writes will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?”
My skill as a translator and editor lies not only in my facility with language, but first and foremost in my ability to quickly comprehend what it is that you’re trying to say to your audience, and to help you get your message across as clearly and precisely as possible. As a former mathematician, I fully understand the importance of a solid, logical structure when trying to make a case, whatever the topic. If necessary, I’ll invest time in understanding from you what the crux of the message is, and in making sure it comes across in the text.
Whether translating, editing or writing, my work encompasses a range of different tasks, including:
Academic Texts and Articles
Much of my work in recent years has been with academics, helping them make themselves better understood by a wider audience (and sometimes by each other), in subjects as diverse as philosophy, sociology, public policy, education, psychology and natural sciences. There are few academic fields I haven’t yet encountered in my reading and writing.
Funding Reports and Proposals
Over the course of several years as a senior manager in non-profit organizations, I have accrued great experience of tailoring a complex story into a compelling narrative for funders, boards of directors, and the public at large. Texts such as these can range from long and complex funding proposals or reports, using rigid templates, to short blurbs for websites or press releases.
Organizational Documents
With over a decade of experience of senior management in large and well-run organizations, I am very much familiar with the wide range of organizational documents that are often in need of urgent translation or editing. I can help you produce outstanding documents for your English-speaking audience, whether proposals and reports, strategic plans and logic models, minutes of meetings, company policies and notices, or contracts and legal documents.
Marketing and Communications Materials
As director of communications for the Mandel Foundation Israel, I worked closely with some of Israel’s best-known media consultants on a range of marcom projects. Whether it’s translation or editing that you need, I’ll help you make sure that your English language marcom texts – brochures, website texts, press releases, and promotional materials – make the right impression on your intended audience.
Presentations
One of the hardest tasks any of us faces is presenting our hard-won knowledge to an audience in a limited amount of time, getting them interested, and persuading them of our viewpoint along the way. The task often demands that we are brutal in deciding what is relevant, and leaving out what is not, in order to leave a kernel of information that tells an engaging story to our listeners. I can help save you from PowerPoint hara-kiri (endless slides packed with bullet points and tables), and create a presentation that gets your message across with minimum fuss and maximum impact.
Style
Despite an upbringing in the north of England, I am fluent in both British and American English. I am happy to submit to any formal style guide you prefer me to use, and even to help you create your own.
The style guides that I find useful include the Chicago Manual of Style, the Guardian Style Guide, and of course Strunk and White's 1959 classic The Elements of Style.