littleworkpage

Here’s a rotting tooth, extracted from the mouth of an otherwise healthy translation. The cause of the decay is unnecessary use of double quotes, which is one of the leading causes of bad breath in Polish>English translations. The rule is simple: For reported speech, i.e. quoting things people have said, we use “double quotes”. For all other purposes, we use ‘single quotes’. These typically include names and titles and anything else that needs to be set apart from regular text, or otherwise highlighted as being different somehow. Note too that this is a matter of style, and use of single wquotes or italics or capitals or a combination of all three, will vary according to who your client is. For all those times when it’s left unsaid or not made clear in your ST, this is the good rule of thumb: (Click the pictures for a larger view)   A dodgy molar – Original view                     ...

Look, up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a ‘plane? No, it’s... The Bad Article! Welcome back everybody, the time has come for us to take to the polished floor of the linguistic dancehall in our waxed grammar skating shoes once again. First of all I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has ‘Liked’ us on Facebook or otherwise said hello over the last few weeks. Interest in the Article seems to have actually gone up whilst I’ve been away, something I wouldn’t have imagined possible. At any rate, it might have given most of you a chance to catch up on some previous posts and prepare yourselves for the onslaught of dangerous, dodgy, dotty articles ahead of us. So speaking of which, and without much further ado about nothing, let’s get started. I present to you today, ladies and gentlemen, a strange case to consider . Let’s consult Mr. POD : consider   (v) 1. Contemplate mentally, esp. in order to reach a conclusion. 2. Examine the merits of. 3. Formed after careful tho...

I've been wondering whether there's much coherence between the articles on this site, whether there are discernable general features. I think my usual approach is psychology-oriented, with sympathies towards I. A. Richards, Veronica Forrest-Thomson, reader-response theories, and experimental confirmation. I don't mean to suggest that the purpose of all texts is for the author to communicate intentions to the reader, but when authors want the text to be read in this way, they'd better understand the psychology of reading and knowledge acquisition. Much of what I write about is do to with the lack of transparency of a work (even a mimetic one) - how the representation has features that the represented thing lacks, and how operations can be performed on a representation that can't be performed on what's being represented. Obscurity and difficulty often feature. Here are some assumptions I commonly make When someone reads a text they will try to make sense of it us...

For an election that is not going to make a great deal of difference in our political power structure, the Presidential Election has surprisingly placed me in a fix. Who should I vote for? I had decided from Day 1 that I am not going to vote for the PAP endorsed candidate. When Tony Tan announced publicly that he was contesting, I had no illusions that he is the PAP endorsed candidate. Sure enough, the endorsements came regularly from different quarters. I am definitely not voting for Tony Tan. That leaves me with three candidates, all of whom are to varying degrees capable of acting independently when elected. Dr Tan Cheng Bock on a personal level gives me the vibes of a moderate person who would neither be a 'yes' man nor an unnecessarily confrontational individual. Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian appear to be equally minded to address policy issues with the Cabinet and possibly through that reshape the Presidency. I have narrowed myself down to Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Tan ...

You can accuse us of political apathy. But, you can never accuse Singaporeans of stupidity. I am amazed at the Peoples' Association's response to the Workers' Party assertions about WP MPs being deprived of an opportunity to be invited guests at the 7 month festivites. It has turned out that Chen Show Mao had been invited as a guest at a couple of 'Hungry Ghost' festival dinners. But, the organisers had to withdraw the invitation because the Peoples' Association informed that they would not grant future permission if the WP MP was invited. This first surfaced via a facebook update by Mr Chen Show Mao and subsequently a press release by Ms Sylvia Lim indicating that HDB had granted leases at several places in the Alunied GRC to the Peoples' Association and taken away management of those parts of the estate from the Town Council. This had been done after the General Elections this year. This is in iself shocking as it suggests partisan politics at play ...

School open Friday at usual time 8.50am. Please wear full school uniform.

School will be open this Thursday 18 August, 10.00 am start. Please wear gum boots and warm winter mufti and bring slippers and a spare pair of socks. Many of our children do have slippers at school but if you are unsure send some anyway.

School will remain closed today (Wednesday) as roads and footpaths are still heavily laden with snow and ice making them treacherous. Remember you can also check out our facebook page for updates.

School will remain closed today (Tuesday) due to the weather conditions. There will be no 'Learning Conversations' today. Keep warm.

Whatever I am going to say here is purely unscientific and is based on a gut feeling resulting from observing current debates about the Presidential elections. From conversations with my friends and observing online chatter it is clear that all the usual anti-PAP crowd is anti-Tony Tan. I believe that there is no doubt that based on the GE 2011, the same 40% that voted for the opposition would not be voting for Tony Tan. But, the big question is whether they would all instinctively gravitate towards a single candidate. Tan Cheng Bock, Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian all have their merits and attractions for the anti-PAP voter. What I find pretty clear as well is that a sizeable part of the 60% of PAP voters would not be voting for Tony Tan who is popularly perceived to be the PAP endorsed candidate. I know of friends and relatives that voted for the PAP in the GE for several reasons that would play no part in the presidential elections: a) constituency level issues b) fear of losing...

School is closed today because of snow. We will update you as soon as we know what is happening. Keep safe and warm. We also have updates on facebook. Just click here to join us on facebook .

You see that horrible, blurry picture above? That's my horrible, blurry notebook, the one I keep the details of all the translating catastrophes in. It's the big, fat, polluted fish in the yummy fish and chips of this blog, and now the net is full again. A lot of it is brand-new too - I've been a busy boy since last we spoke, and now is the time to haul it all up on deck and turn it out for inspection! Stay tuned, friends, the Article is on it's way back to port!