“WWW: A Web-Writing Workshop for Web-Worthy Words”

This workshop is for any translator or interpreter who has ever wondered:

• What exactly is web-writing?
• What makes web-writing different from other types of writing?
• What exactly is SEO?
• How can web-copy help my search-engine ranking?
• Website translation/localisation – what’s the difference?
• How does web-copy relate to design in creating an effective website?
• Accessibility, usability, readability, navigation, alt text, meta-data, infinite scrolling, pandafication… what do these terms mean?
• How is web-writing relevant to me as a translator?

The speaker will answer these and other questions by cutting through the jargon and explaining the basic principles involved in writing – and translating – good web copy. With the workshop including plenty of screenshots and practical exercises, attendees will learn how to apply these principles to their translations for clients’ websites. And, most important, to their own sites, whether already published or at the crucial planning stage.

By examining examples of good and bad practice, attendees will gain an understanding of how to make their websites stand out from the crowd and attract and retain users’ (clients’!) interest. The presentation will also touch on the design elements – from colour choice to page layout to the choice of images – that affect users’ web-experience.

Creating and maintaining a website can be time- and money-consuming. But there are lots of do-it-yourself – and mainly free – techniques you can apply to improve your site’s performance. It just takes a little bit of effort – and the tips and know-how you’ll acquire from this presentation will help you apply that effort to best effect.

After this workshop, the language(s) of the web (and conversations with webmasters and developers) should be a bit less daunting!

A French- and Italian-to-English translator, Marian Dougan began translating in the 1980s. She then worked for 15 years at the British Embassy in Rome, leaving in 2000 to translate full time. Her specialist subjects are economy and finance; energy, competition and social policy; and international affairs. A firm believer in educational outreach, she teaches a Master Class in Translating for the Web at Glasgow University and gives talks on language learning in local schools. Marian has trained extensively in web-writing and is deputy webmaster for the Institute of Translation and Interpreting’s Scottish network. Her blog is “Words to Good Effect”.