Swet Columns
May 4, 2020
Word Wise: Number Puzzles
By Richard Medhurst
This column often looks at cases where the same concept is expressed differently in Japanese and English. This is a particular issue when it comes to terms related to numbers. For starters, the numerical system in Japan of counting by ten thousands (万, 億, 兆) can trip up the unwary. One pitfall is not noticing a... more
March 7, 2018
SWET 2018 Member Survey Report
Report by Winifred A. Bird
This February, as SWET approaches its 38th anniversary, we conducted an online member survey to get a better sense of your interests, your relationship with the organization, and your hopes for its future. Seventy-nine of you filled it out, a response rate of about 50 percent. A summary of the results follows. To view the full... more
March 9, 2016
SWET Toolbox
This column reviews tools that writers, translators, and editors can use to improve the quality of their work, as well as their time spent working—from indispensable reference books and handy apps to life-changing office furniture. Please contact Winnie at winifredabird[at]yahoo.co.jp to suggest items for review, comment on the reviews published here, or volunteer to be a guest reviewer. We launch... more
May 8, 2012
Our Story in Print: The SWET Newsletter 1 to 130
by Lynne E. Riggs
To mark the publication of the 130th issue of the SWET Newsletter, the last printed issue in its current format, and the transition to new means of information sharing in SWET, members of the Editorial Team contributed to a Q&A about how the Newsletter was made. This exchange adds to the record of an era... more
January 16, 2012
The Wordsmith’s Craft
by Lynne E. Riggs
Some may have seen the New Year’s TV program showing the tsuikidoki craftsman who takes a flat sheet of copper and over three days to a week beats it into a gracefully shaped teapot, complete with spout, using only a hammer, a high-piled rack of toriguchi forming tools, and the accumulated experience of two or three decades... more
January 5, 2012
From the Steerage • The Future of the SWET Newsletter
by Lynne E. Riggs
The SWET Newsletter is going to change. As announced in No. 128, the present Newsletter will continue through No. 130, to come probably in February or March. After that, the new incarnation of the Newsletter will appear sometime in 2012, as part of our redesigned website (details on which see below).
Preparations for these changes... more