Swet Columns

May 5, 2023

Event Report: SWET Talk Shop via Zoom—Chatting about ChatGPT, April 23, 2023

In addition to this summary report of the Talk Shop about ChatGPT, the edited video recording is also available on SWET’s YouTube channel, here.

Note: This event report was produced with the help of two tools from OpenAI, a prominent player in the field of artificial intelligence. Its Whisper program was used to transcribe the Zoom session, and GPT-4... more

April 7, 2023

ChatGTP Chatter: A Literary Translator Meets the Terminator

By Charles De Wolf

Human beings have opinions and principles; they have preferences and tastes. Depending on their personalities, they may choose to make bold assertions or to err on the side of caution. Such is seen in all our endeavors, including, of course, those linguistic and literary. When a new translation of a renowned work appears, some critics will heap... more

January 9, 2023

A Quick Read for Self-Editing Tips and Tricks

Reviewed by Jennifer O’Donnell

The 10% Solution: Self-editing for the Modern Writer. By Ken Rand. 108 pages. ISBN. 978-1933846743

I can’t remember how I learned about The 10% Solution: Self-editing for the Modern Writer by Ken Rand, but since discovering it six years ago, it’s been my number one recommended book for translators. At 90 pages this is a tiny book with its cheap... more

October 9, 2022

A “Cook’s Tour” of Some Translation-Related Conferences in 2022

By Judy Wakabayashi

Here are some notes on several workshops and conferences I’ve attended over the past months (mostly online, and just those sessions I attended). The choice is inevitably biased toward my personal research interests and constrained by time zone differences. I hope some aspects might be of interest to other SWET members even if they are not involved in... more

September 7, 2022

Word Wise: 暗殺について

朝倉和子著

安倍元総理が銃撃で亡くなり、ひと月がたった。この驚愕のニュースについて、日本のメディアが「暗殺」と言わないことに若干の雑音があったが、議論にはならなかった。自分だったら「殺害」または「銃撃」と呼び、やはり「暗殺」はなじまな... more