Swet Columns

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

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

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

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

Thinking Forward: SWET Starts Its Fourth Decade

by Lynne E. Riggs

Only a few blocks away from the apartment building in Aoyama where, in November 1980, 100 writers, editors, translators, and others of their kind had gathered and founded SWET, 33 SWETers—young, not-so-young, and 30 years older—gathered at the Wesley Center on November 3, 2010 to celebrate the beginning of SWET’s fourth decade. Remarks by James Baxter, Janine... more

Steering Committee Report

Although many SWET operating decisions are discussed and made entirely online, the Steering Committee does meet from time to review policy and to firm up implementation.

The SWET Steering Committee (SC) met on February 9, 2003. Hugh Ashton, Becky Davis, Phil Ono, Bob Poulson, Lynne Riggs, Doreen Simmons, Fred Uleman, and Cynthia Yenches attended. A number of... more