|
| ||
|
| ||
June 2002 | ||
The Translation E-Buzz |
||
| Subscribe Unsubscribe | ||
|
| ||
Employee of the Month - Susan Andrus
Susan Andrus has been a member of the RMTC Production Department for three years, and is the youngest member of the RMTC family, a title that many of us eye wistfully. Susan was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, moved to Missouri shortly thereafter, and has proudly lived in Texas since age 11. During high school in Anson, Texas, she basically did everything! The long list includes: basketball, cross country, track, cheerleading, drama, journalism, PAL (Peer Assistance & Leadership), Yearbook, Class Officer, Student Council, and National Honor Society. She was named "most spirited" her senior year, and judging from her roster of activities, she may have also claimed the prize for "most energetic!" After high school Susan attended Southwest Texas State University for a year before taking a hiatus. Before becoming a member of RMTC, Susan bartended, was a life-guard and taught swimming lessons, cared for two-year-olds at a day camp, and managed apartment complexes and a bar. During Susan's first year and a half at RMTC she simultaneously worked part time at a photo lab. She absolutely likes to stay busy. Recently returning to college, Susan appreciates the scheduling flexibility RMTC offers while attending school. Susan will receive her undergraduate degree in Chemistry with a minor in Criminal Justice from Southwest Texas. From there, she plans on pursuing a graduate degree in Forensics.
AMERICAN FLAG DAY IS JUNE 14On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned appropriate ceremonies for the children of his school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York. On June 14, 1891, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration, and on June 14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution celebrated Flag Day. Following the suggestion of Colonel J Granville Leach (at the time historian of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution), the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America on April 25, 1893 adopted a resolution requesting the mayor of Philadelphia and all others in authority and all private citizens to display the Flag on June 14. Leach went on to recommend that thereafter the day be known as 'Flag Day', and on that day, school children be assembled for appropriate exercises, with each child being given a small Flag. Two weeks later on May 8, the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution unanimously endorsed the action of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames. As a result of the resolution, Dr. Edward Brooks, then Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia, directed that Flag Day exercises be held on June 14, 1893 in Independence Square. School children were assembled, each carrying a small Flag, and patriotic songs were sung and addresses delivered. In 1894, the governor of New York directed that on June 14 the Flag be displayed on all public buildings. With BJ Cigrand and Leroy Van Horn as the moving spirits, the Illinois organization known as the American Flag Day Association was organized for the purpose of promoting the holding of Flag Day exercises. On June 14, 1894, under the auspices of this association, the first general public school children's celebration of Flag Day in Chicago was held in Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks, with more than 300,000 children participating. Adults, too, participated in patriotic programs. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that morning: "I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself." Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day - the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 - was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was not until August 3, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14 of each year as National Flag Day.
|
Jennifer O Neill As a result of acquisitions and mergers, companies can find themselves working together worldwide and sharing documentation to distribute in different markets. The original source documentation will probably need to be adapted by some of the companies in the distribution channel to accommodate different languages, branding and content in order to meet the requirements of these different markets. This sharing and reuse of documentation between companies worldwide is easier when all the companies in the distribution channel share a common style guide. GOING GLOBAL As companies expand internationally, they face the realities of needing to produce documentation in more than one language. Products may also need to be modified for different market requirements worldwide. Furthermore, companies may sell their products through different channels so that where previously a product was sold under one name for one market, for example, different companies in different markets may now sell it. This means that any associated documentation now needs to be easy to customise to accommodate changing content and "ownership" and easy to translate into several languages. ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL…SORT OF With the increase in acquisitions and mergers between companies as well as the increase in using distributors to sell products, more and more companies are now working together and so sharing and reusing information. Sharing documentation between companies brings challenges. The company producing the original documentation may not sell directly overseas and so has not needed to consider the impact internationalisation or localisation issues have on their documentation. Customisation of documentation may be a bigger issue for some companies in the distribution channel than for others. When companies start working together, each will probably have its own style of writing and document design as well as company branding. Problems can arise when there are significant differences in writing and design styles between the companies. The company reusing the original documentation done by another company may need to spend much time and/or money adapting the content and layout to suit its market needs and branding look. This could delay the release of the product and increase costs. But if the document is released without being adapted for local markets or not translated, it could break local regulations as well as lose customers. Examples of the problems that can be encountered when companies share each other's documentation:
DEVELOPING DOCUMENTATION GUIDELINES THAT CROSS COMPANIES: A GLOBAL STYLE GUIDE The solution to the problem is to develop documentation standards that apply to all the companies in your distribution group that need to share documentation. A global style guide will considerably help your group produce documentation that is easier to internationalise and localise. By clearly stating the rules that everyone must follow on how to design, write and update documentation that will be shared with other companies worldwide, you will be able to reduce the time and cost of producing documentation from many sources for a multilingual market. As a result of acquisitions and mergers in the last few years, Interlogix Inc. is now one of the world leaders in the manufacture of electronic security systems, such as CCTV, intrusion and fire protection systems and electronic access control systems. It has sales and technical support in 27 countries worldwide, and manufacturing and logistics operations in the US, Europe, South Africa and Asia. Prior to the merger, several of the Interlogix US and Australian sister companies had only produced documentation for their national markets and did not customise for different distribution channels. Although some of their distributors are located in Europe, these distributors are responsible for their own localisation, which is usually for just one language. Europe and Africa division of the company now does the localisation for several of the US and Australian sister companies, as well as for its own products, for product distribution in Europe. We modify the products and related documentation where necessary to meet the requirements of the European market and they carry the European company's branding. We may also further customise the documentation for our larger European customers. We receive documentation from around the world in three versions of English (American, International and Australian) and localise it in up to 20 European languages. The average number of languages is 12. However, as the volume of documentation for localisation has significantly increased over a short period of time, it quickly became apparent that much of the documentation received had never been written or designed with reuse by other companies worldwide or with localisation in mind. This meant that the documentation has needed much rework before translation, delaying its release on the market and increasing production costs. Interlogix set up a team of technical writers based in the US and Europe to work together to develop shared documentation standards. The aim is to make it easier to reuse documentation between the companies and to facilitate its localisation. We started by identifying the problems we faced and have put into place three steps to develop the documentation standards:
The documentation used by each company continues to carry that company's name and branding for its market. However, it is now becoming easier to reuse information between companies and to localise manuals into many languages from several different sources. The purpose of this presentation will be to show how Interlogix Inc. is consolidating its documentation standards worldwide to better meet its internationalisation and localisation needs. Jennifer O Neill Jennifer O Neill is a senior member of STC and a past president of the France Chapter. She is their Technical Publications Competition Manager. She has been a technical writer for over eight years. Prior to that she worked for several years as an ergonomist researching how people use buildings. |
|
June Special |
|
The simple-to-use, fully automatic, HP PhotoSmart 315 digital camera offers good quality in a small package. Operating at resolutions of up to 2.1 MegaPixel for excellent photo-quality results, the camera features a variable digital zoom maximum up to 2.5x, and an intuitive software interface to manipulate, print and transfer your photos onto your PC hard drive. Just point-and-shoot to take photos, and using the 1.8 inch color LCD monitor you can immediately look at what you've shot. If you don't like what you see, delete it to free up memory. The camera comes with a removable, reusable CompactFlash™ card that, depending upon the resolution at which you're shooting, can hold up to 80 shots. Click here to win, and you may be clicking the PhotoSmart 315 soon! This month's winner will be selected and notified on Monday, June 24. Good luck! Results will also be posted to the web site. A random number generator will be used to select the winner from an ordered list of entries. |
Senior Proofer Clay Brown spends Tuesday through Friday evenings each week volunteering at the Austin Children's Shelter. He shares his stories of the shelter with many of us at RMTC in the form of short stories that he journals. This one was particularly moving, and we hope you will be touched by its magic.......
Once upon a time there were three Cinderellas, and each had the chance to dress up like a Princess, ride in a carriage to the ball, dance with a Prince, and be whisked off to a rosy future when the slipper fit her foot like a glove. And despite the fact that six-year-old Samantha, seven-year-old Jody, and eight-year-old Melanie had to share the beautiful gown, and their carriage was a well-worn, but sturdy baby stroller, and the ball held on the back porch of the Austin Children’s Shelter, it was still a special moment for each of the three girls.
It was about five minutes until seven, and just about the end of my shift, but Samantha and Jody had been huddled together with Elaine (their staff) for the last hour, supposedly practicing, although more giggling than practicing from what I could see, and they were finally ready to lift the curtain on their rendition of Cinderella; so I had to stay for the performance.
The audience, including kids, staff and volunteers, assembled on the back porch of the Shelter. Elaine introduced the girls with a short reading from the book, but Samantha and Jody, like most six- or seven-year-olds giving their first performance, were more than a little unsure of their lines and blocking, and ended up giggling in each other's arms as they walked out the side door onto the "stage." At that point it became clear to me that the girls could use a little help, so once Elaine got Jody (playing the mean older sister) to start scolding Samantha (playing Cinderella) to wash the dishes and scrub the floor while she was off at the ball, I jumped in saying, "Madam, your carriage to the ball awaits," and grabbed a nearby baby stroller I was pretty sure could handle her weight. Jody flashed me a grateful smile as she flopped into her carriage in a huff, and I pushed her to the far end of the porch, announcing, "We have arrived at the ball, Madam."
After Jody debarked, I reversed course back towards Samantha, who was thanking her Fairy Godmother (Elaine) for the beautiful gown, and look, the pumpkin had become a handsome carriage pulled by four white steeds. I gestured towards the baby stroller, and Samantha slipped in gracefully. I pushed her down to the other end of the porch to join Jody, who was waltzing with Linda (another staff who stepped in to play a nobleman at the ball). I parked the stroller off to the side and returned to the dance floor to take a few spins with Samantha until Elaine started tolling the midnight bells. Snagging the baby stroller again, I hustled Samantha aboard and we were off willy-nilly, tossing a slipper behind us as we sped away.
Mark (a new volunteer who stepped up to the plate to play the Prince come-a-knocking at Cinderella’s door) tried the slipper on Jody first, who played the role to the hilt, jamming the slipper on her foot and insisting loudly it fit. A moment later everyone applauded enthusiastically when the slipper slid perfectly onto Samantha's foot.
The girls huddled with Elaine for a moment after the show, who then announced there was going to be a second performance starring Jody as Cinderella. So, after a deep breath, we ran through all three scenes again, everyone a little more polished this time, with Jody playing a much less demure, verging on saucy Cinderella.
The audience and cast scattered to their various responsibilities after the second performance, and I carried a few remaining dinner dishes from the porch into the kitchen. I was just going to take two minutes to wash up these few things and be on my way, but as I was drying off my hands, Elaine, Samantha and Jody came running into the kitchen, accompanied by Melanie this time, to announce that there was going to be one more performance and could I please stay.
I laughed and nodded in agreement as the girls scattered to reassemble the audience. So we performed our ACS version of Cinderella for a third time, the audience and cast still more polished and enthusiastic, and Melanie gave a beaming performance as a bilingual Cinderella.
All in all, it was one of the most rewarding evenings I have spent as a volunteer at ACS. Not only did I get to play the Prince for three young ladies who really needed a Prince in their lives right then, I had the chance to relive my own childhood for a few minutes, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Reach RMTC at
910 West Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
800 531 9977
512 472
6753
512 472 4591 fax
sales@mcelroytranslation.com
