Translaton Standards

Updated 28 Sep 2018General Notes•

Stick to American English•

We call it the Non Project or Non. Not the Non project. Note the upper-case P•

Remember to spell check and proofread your work•

All communications go through WeChat groups. Not messages to individuals•

Date format: 28 September 2018. If the year is obvious from context, leave it out.•

Bear in mind the tone of what you’re translating, and your target audience.–

For example, a press release is formal, concise, factual, and has a third-person perspective.–

A blog post can be a lot more informal, explanatory, opinionated, and has a first-person perspective.Punctuaton•

Use the Oxford comma (i.e. in a list of three things, we have “apple, pear, and orange”. Not “apple, pear and orange”)•

Be sure to use English punctuation (like . , ; :), not Chinese punctuation (like。，；：). They are slightly different, but difficult to spot until it’s too late

Names•

For Chinese names, use “family name + given name” structure. i.e. Li Xiaolong, not Xiaolong Li (unless the person you are writing about specifically asks to be called by “given name + family name” structure)•

If using titles with English names, we say Mr Alex Griffiths or Mr Griffiths. We don’t call him Mr Alex•

Avoid talking about “Mr Jiang Zeming”, “Mr JJiangu Zeming”, “Mr Jiang Zeming” all the time. After the first time, just shorten it to “Jiang” (unless there is more than one person called Jiang)

Bullet Points•

With short bullet points, don’t put a period at the end•

For long bullet points, add a period at the end

Formatting•

Maintain consistent formatting with the source document where possible•

If you need to add styles for headings, etc, use the proper styles feature of your word processor. Don’t format each heading individually, otherwise it’s a lot of work for us to adjust it later.•This standards list will expand over time as we fine-tune our processes