Articles
June 5, 2017
Workshop: Cultural Translation and the Information Gap
by Richard Medhurst
Japanese and English readers come from different cultural backgrounds. References that are familiar to the former, whether from tradition or popular culture, may baffle the latter. The SWET workshop I led on May 17, 2017 tackled cultural translation for the general reader, considering how to handle the “information gap” between the two kinds of readers with the aim... more
March 8, 2017
SWET Toolbox: Review of JMOOC Online Classes
By Winifred A. Bird
MOOCs or “massive open online courses” are a new form of distance learning intended to bring university-level education to the far-flung masses by capitalizing on widespread Internet access. Typically, courses are free or low-cost and involve a combination of video lectures, reading material, online discussion forums, tests, and other assignments. Since the concept emerged in 2008, Stanford,... more
November 1, 2016
SWET Toolbox: Writing Strategies and Inspiration
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006, 295 pages. ISBN: 9780316014984
Reviewed by Richard Medhurst
Appropriately named for the SWET Toolbox column, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer is a series of short pieces on becoming a better wordsmith from pepping up sentences to forming habits that will... more
July 4, 2016
SWET Toolbox: Resources for Writing in Your Non-Native Language
By Winifred A. Bird
As writers, translators, and editors, most of us feel confident both writing in our native language and repairing other people’s clunky prose; the click of words falling into their proper places becomes, over time, as unmistakable as it is satisfying. Venture into a foreign language, however, and the process is not so pleasant—at least for me. Although... more
May 10, 2016
SWET Toolbox: Two Apps to Help You Transcribe Audio Files
Reviewed by Winifred A. Bird
As a journalist, I love having transcribed versions of important interviews on file. I find scanning a Word document for key information much easier than delving back into an old audio file, and I like being able to mark up the text and return to it months or even years later. I’m much less enthusiastic about... more
April 1, 2016
SWET Toolbox: Academic Writing Book Review
They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Burkenstein. New York: W. W. Norton, February 2014, 352 pages. ISBN: 978-0-393-90534-2. (e-book here)
Reviewed by Winifred A. Bird
Several years ago, I happened to pick up this book from a free-box near a college campus in California. The compact volume, which provides... more
