Section A Answer 1

One of the first decisions at the outset of a translation or editing job into English is whether to adopt the British or American idiom.

This is not just a matter of the spelling of words such as color/colour and center/centre. It often determines which terms are used (the verb reckon, for example, in the sense of “conclude after calculation”, is acceptable in written usage in Britain, but not in the U.S.) – and even niceties such as whether to place quotation marks always outside the punctuation or not, or whether to place a space before and after an m-dash.

There are various standards in these matters; for British conventions I use the Style Guide of the Modern Humanities Research Association ; for the American, I abide by The Chicago Manual of Style .

The decision is made based on the intended publication (in the case of articles or papers) or readership (in the case of stories and books). As someone who has lived for years in both the U.S. and in the UK (and now in Canada, too), I am familiar with the language and nuances of both sides of the pond. So whether it’s an academic tome on biblical research, a paper on social work interventions in Britain, a biography of a former Israeli prime minister for a general readership, the musings of an English bachelorette, or the diary of a 13-year-old American boy, I can adapt the text to your needs.

I ask only that you state your choice at the outset, when placing your order. Thank you.
– JO-S