STAR TS Translation Services Blog

• Try to VS Try and

Some experts say that you shouldn’t be using try and when you mean try to. It has clearly been established as a informal idiom, therefore it is okay to use it in casual language. However, we advise you not to use it in formal writing.

• Viable VS Practical

The sentence “this idea is not viable” is not correct; according to experts, the true meaning of this word is “capable of living or surviving”. However, some dictionaries list “viable” and “practical” as synonyms.

• Past VS Last

When should we use past instead of last ?

Tip: use it when last may confuse the readers (ex: “The last decade” – you could mean the latest decade, as well as the last decade of a century. In this case, using past is clearer.)

• Farther VS Further

Farther is usually used to denote physical distance (ex: Lucy lives farther away from me than her sister), whereas further means mental distance (ex: Nothing could be further from the truth).

It’s not always easy to write a document when you have length restrictions to fit in a text block or clarify a paragraph. Here are some tips to help you clarify and shorten your sentences without affecting their meaning.

• Don’t combine a verb and a noun where a noun could work better.

(e.g.: Develop a full understanding of = understand fully).

• Cut your sentences into two or three smaller ones, where possible.
• Use short words rather than long ones.
• Write in the active voice.
• Avoid redundancy: be careful with the excessive use of adjectives (e.g.: “a quick glance“, “a deep sinkhole“).

Following our article Writing to buyers – An analysis of Gobbledygook, here is a small follow-up taken from the same book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, by David Meerman Scott, about the overuse of words in news releases and company-authored articles.

Dave Schmidt, VP for Public Relations Services at Smith-Winchester, Inc., has conducted a survey about the overused words and phrases he’s seen, and wanted to find out if editors agreed that these phrases were actually overused. Here are the three main results he found:

• “Leading” (used as an adjective): 94% of editors think this adjective is overused. “Since everybody wants to be the leading something, there are no longer any true leaders.”
• “We’re excited about/pleased/thrilled”: 76% think this phrase is overused, and not very appropriate for a company’s spokesman quote. “You need to quote your spokespeople with words that you would like to see in print”.
• “Solutions”:  68%. It is now probably best avoided.

Every time you write, you have the opportunity to communicate and to convince people. At each stage of the sales process, well-written material combined with effective marketing programs will lead your buyers to understand how your company can help them.

This article has been inspired by David Meerman Scott’s excellent book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, which we recently had the pleasure of reading, and strongly recommend.

Do the phrases scalable, world class, robust, easy to use, flexible, next generation sound familiar to you? Have you ever gotten bored of these redundant and extremely standardized phrases? If so, it’s hardly surprising, as these adjectives are likely to be found in most marketing websites nowadays. David Meerman, with the help of Factivia (from Dow Jones), conducted an analysis on approximately 388,000 news releases in a nine month period, and found out that  over a fifth of them contained at least one of these words (the winner being “next generation”, which had been used 9,895 times).

Meerman invented a name for these boring adjectives:  gobbledygook.

How did we get to such poor writing?

To Meerman, it can be summed up in a few words:

“Marketers don’t understand buyers, the problems buyers face, or how their product helps solve these problems. That’s where the gobbledygook happens.”

By not using a closer approach to the buyer, these companies deprive themselves of the opportunity to convince people that their product is the right thing to buy. Also, it doesn’t make any of them stand out from the crowd.

The phrases above denote the vocabulary used by a certain kind of business. But the lesson is for all types of companies:

“Avoid the insular jargon of your company and your industry. Instead, write for your buyers.”

Anys…

As document authors, these little text particles often give us a hard time, whether it is for writing reports, original documents or translating into another language.  Let’s have a look at the most common “any” errors:

• “Anytime” VS “Any time”

The word “anytime” is often compressed into a single word by analogy with “anything” and similar words.

Writing tip: Think of “anytime” as a contraction of “at any time”. It will become easier to know when to use one, or the other.

• “Anyway” VS “Any way”

Anyway is an adverb meaning regardless. Any way is just the word way modified by the word any, meaning “any manner”.

Writing tip: Try to replace it by in any case. If it fits, use anyway. If not, use the two words.

• “Anymore” VS “Any more”

“Anymore” should be used when you mean “does no longer”. Ex: I don’t live here anymore.

“Any more” should be used when the words “any” and “more” can be used separately in a sentence. Ex:  I can’t eat any more cheesecake.