1. 会社名変更 but サービスに変更なし
2. ついにこの秋、登場：The 10 Biggest Mistakes of Japanese Presenters
3. レーザーポインター乱用回避
4. “figure-centric”センテンスの使用制限
5. HGC Kansai ダウンロード
6. Eyeful Presentation Blog

1. 新しいプレゼン/テクニカルライティング「50分セミナー」
2. ヒューマンアカデミー㈱のサービス
3. プレゼンのエンディング
4. テクニカルライティングのエンディング
5. グラマーガール：文法についての質問サイト
6. In Our Times: 耳と心のためのpodcast

For several years we’ve helped our corporate clients with internal “speech contests,” and recently we provided the same type of service for a major university client. This is an excellent way to encourage your employees or students to prepare their English skills for a very practical, real-world purpose: giving a speech.

We are able to provide experienced contest judges if you already have a system set up. Otherwise, we can help you set one up from scratch: activities, scheduling, judgment criteria, evaluation forms, and judge training. Even in these tough economic times, a speech contest can be a reasonably priced, team-building, and fun activity. Don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss details!

2. http://wwcampus.com: Powerful Self-study via Web

With personnel training budgets being drastically cut and even eliminated in tough economic times, employees are often “on their own” in finding and paying for language training. At the same time, companies are trying to find effective but cost-effective ways of “super-charging” the English skills of employees who may need to carry out international business. One possible solution is “webucation,” or individual learning over the Internet.

Our own webucation subsidiary, whalesweb.com, now has its main portal at:
http://wwcampus.com

Here, you can find lists of popular courses--like technical/business writing, presentation, global communication basics--and sample exercises. These courses provide up-to-date training materials, samples in text and video, and extensive feedback on exercises and homework. For more information, please contact Mr. Itaru Takamizawa at:
takamizawa@kurdyla.com


3. MS Word’s Grammar Checker: Use with Care!

I’ve always strongly advised my clients to use MS Word’s spell checker to better prepare their papers for rewriters and to learn about words in a quick and fun way. The grammar checker, on the other hand, is a bit trickier to recommend--because it’s often wrong.

One reason Word mistakenly identifies passages as “incorrect” is that we always edit your documents with the “Track Changes” function turned on; it seems that the program doesn’t differentiate between inserted and deleted text. So it might say that “We also provide” should be “We also provides”!

Therefore, you should NOT trust this software function as the final authority on grammar. On the bright side, over many years I’ve noticed that it does get better with each new version.


4. “Warm-up” for Presentations, Meeetings

Before you engage in vigorous sports or a workout at the gym, you should always do some “warm-up” to prepare your body. In the same way, whenever you “exercise” your English in a major professional task, like joining a meeting or giving a presentation, you should warm up by talking to yourself (or better, another person) in English, actually speaking aloud somewhere private before getting down to business.

Just as you would never run a marathon right after stepping out of bed, your first English speaking of the day should NOT be the moment that you face your overseas colleagues in business!


5. Collaboration in Writing

When preparing an important document--like a technical paper--it’s very useful to get the advice, feedback, and writing (especially English) help from your colleagues--in other words, “collaborating”! A document can always benefit from different ideas, perspectives, and experience. The colleague could be your coworker, professor, lab partner, or anyone else in your organization willing and able to help.

I’ve noticed that papers with a “team effort” behind them progress much more smoothly through the rewriting process. In addition to getting help before submitting your document to us for rewriting, another key stage is answering the rewriter’s “comments” for areas that seemed unclear to him or her. Sometimes a little help from someone near will really make your document shine.


6. Twitter’s Explosion

In a Newsline last year I briefly mentioned the rising popularity of social networking, and how it has even become a part of the business world. Now I’d like to focus on one system that has exploded in popularity, especially in the US: Twitter.com.

This networking system is very simple: you post a message (called a “tweet”) of up to 140 characters and it immediately appears on your Twitter site for anyone who “follows” you to read, in a web page or one of many free “reader” applications. I’m already following NEC, Hitachi and Toyota in the US and Panasonic in Germany, but I haven’t yet found any of my clients in Japan!

Find out about Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/ (you can switch to Japanese in upper-right corner)

Kurdyla Kansai Twitter page:
http://twitter.com/KurdylaKansai

My own Twitter page:
http://twitter.com/ronread

Hope to see some of your on Twitter!

As usual at this time of year, our office will be "officially" closed over the holidays: Last open day is Friday, December 26, and we will reopen for 2009 on Monday, January 5.

However, we can certainly handle your jobs during the holidays. If you need to send rewriting or translation work in this period, with a deadline before or shortly after Jan. 5, please be sure to contact our office by 17:00 Dec. 26. In addition, we'd appreciate it if you could write your e-mail message during this period in English--sorry for the inconvenience!

2. We Can Edit Apple "Keynote" Files

Editing slides for computer-assisted presentations has become one of our major services in recent years. This work is mostly done on Microsoft's PowerPoint program. Now, we can also offer rewriting of presentation slides made by Apple's Keynote program, which some of our clients prefer.

If you would like us to work directly on Keynote files, please don't hesitate to contact us. However, this work may need a slightly longer-than-usual deadline to be arranged.


3. Native-English Speakers as Teachers

Clients have often asked us whether a native-English speaking instructor is most appropriate for lower-level trainees, especially in writing courses. I always reply, "Yes!"

There are many fine Japanese instructors of English business/technical writing, but I think that trainees need to see for themselves how their writing is understood by native-speaking readers. In particular, How clear and easy-to-follow is your technical writing? How cooperative-sounding and friendly is your business writing? These are matters that are best discussed in an informal class as opposed to learning rules from a textbook.

In my view, there is a strong link between using English for classroom discussion and trying to put thoughts to the written word. Moreover, since most of our trainees will eventually deal with overseas colleagues, they benefit from having to deal with a foreign writing instructor, even a strict one like me.


4. "Certificate of Rewriting" for Journal Submissions

Our clients submit papers and letters to a wide variety of world-leading journals and magazines, and it seems like the competition for publication is only getting tougher. Some editors, concerned about the English quality of papers from non-English-speaking countries like Japan and Korea, insist on a certificate that verifies the paper has been checked by a native-English speaker.

We can provide you with such a certificate, at no extra cost! To view a sample of our certificate form, go to

http://kurdylakansai.com/downloads/ka-certificate.pdf


5. IEICE Journal: on Tech Writing

Several of our clients are regular readers of and even contributors to IEICE publications (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers). For a couple years now, I've been writing a column on basic English usage--with an emphasis on technical writing--for the Information and Systems Society Journal (IEICE Group D). This brief article covers an English fundamental (like using "the"), an "authorship" issue (e.g., "respectively"), and a mini quiz.

Through special permission of the IEICE, you can now download PDF copies of past columns at

http://kurdylakansai.com/downloads/ieice-read.pdf


6. Exploding "Grammar Myths"

One of my favorite blogs is written by a married couple, Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman, each of whom is a highly experienced editor and author. This blog is at

http://www.grammarphobia.com/

A great feature of this site is a page that refutes long-held grammar "rules" that aren't in fact really rules. As in many areas of life, some of the "truths" about grammar that are passed down through time are not true at all. See the grammar "myths" at

http://www.grammarphobia.com/grammar.html

We take very seriously our commitment to providing clients with effective, results-oriented, and reasonably priced preparation for their technical or business presentations. Accordingly, we offer "full service" covering every need for presentation preparation.

The core of our service is rewriting PowerPoint (or Keynote) slides followed by actual practice, analysis, and coaching of the presentation. The slides' text will be revised, usually by cutting many words, and the design will be adjusted for greater impact and clarity in delivering "the Message." Presentation coaching can be tough, but nothing great is ever done without practice and experience.

Although I always strongly recommend that our clients do not use a script in giving a presentation, we can rewrite an oral script as a "security blanket" and to give the client examples of natural expressions for oral presentation. After we have revised a script, we can then make a recording of it as an mp3 file, which can be sent by e-mail and played on a computer or iPod.

2. "Institutional Knowledge": Why this matters to your document

The concept of "institutional knowledge" has become recognized as a high-value business asset. This is the cumulative knowledge, experience, and intuition gained by the members of an organization over a long period. It is a critical factor in professionalism that is difficult to quantify but clearly a decisive advantage in any industry.

Members of our rewriting team have spent years editing technical documents of all types in a wide variety of fields. They revise replies to editors'/referees' comments as well as rewrite such comments themselves. They know the difference between "format" and "formant," between "absorb" and "adsorb," between "reflection" and "refraction." They understand that each author deserves special treatment of his or her paper.

Besides staying with us, on average, rather longer than employees of general language services and schools, our rewriters have gone much more deeply into the special world of technical documentation than even highly educated native-English speakers are likely to go. Although you might be able to save a bit of money by using any available foreigner for a casual "native check," such economizing could lead to serious damage to your final document.


3. Web Sites Updated

After more than a dozen years, I have finally cleaned up and updated the web site of our Kansai Branch. Several clients have gently suggested that the original site, built in 1995, looked amateurish, had unreadable Japanese text ('mojibake'), and showed links to nowhere. The revamped site can be found at

http://www.kakansai.com

In the future, I hope to add several resources to the site that will be useful to our clients.

The web site of another Kurdyla Group company, our web services subsidiary WhalesWeb.com, has also been recently updated. For leading-edge e-Learning, e-Surveys, Localization and more, please go to

http://www.whalesweb.com

Of course our main corporate web site is at

http://www.kurdyla.com


4. Web Sources for TOEIC Self-Study

The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) has become, despite the various controversies over its merits, a de facto measure of English capability throughout the world. For several of our major clients, this test is even incorporated in their promotion systems, with managers at certain levels required to attain a certain TOEIC score.

Over the years, people have asked me for suggestions on studying for the TOEIC. Let me be honest: I'm far from an expert on standardized language testing. However, at a student's request, I recently put together a list of web sites with free "self-study" exercises for TOEIC. Feel free to download this list here:

http://www.kurdylakansai.com/info/toeic.html


5. Book recommendation: The Blue Book of Grammar

Finding a basic textbook on English grammar can be a confusing task. Such books should be simple to use for both thorough review and quick checking of issues such as the differences between "good" and "well." One book that I've enthusiastically recommended to many people, from professional rewriters to high school students, is Jane Straus's "The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation." It offers short and simple explanations, clear examples, and brief, enjoyable "self-check" tests. You can get the book at

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Blue-Book-Grammar-Punctuation-Easy/dp/0470222689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=english-books&qid=1219989054&sr=8-1

I also recommend Jane's web site, where you can sign up for a free weekly grammar newsletter:

http://www.grammarbook.com/


6. "Social Networking": Wave of the future?

In recent years, web sites offering "Social Networking" have grown explosively in such countries as Japan, Korea and the United States. People use these informal, non-hierarchical networks in many ways: finding people with common interests, researching possible business partners, reconnecting with old friends, and expanding one's "personal network." There have been many commentaries on both the positive and negative aspects of social networking.

Recently, I've tried out a few basic sites just to see what all the noise is about. So far, I've reconnected with a former employee and high school classmates. If you enjoy using social networks and want to connect with me, you can find me at the following places:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com
search: Ron A. Read

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com
search: Ron Read

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ronread

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com
search: Ron Read

Don't hesitate to send me a "friend request."

We recently ran a program at a major Kansai university that focused on technical writing for academic papers. Based on the department head's plan, we started with a general lecture session for about 70 graduate students.

Over about six weeks, the students then submitted writing homework to us, in most cases only abstracts but in some cases full papers. These were corrected and billed as normal rewrite jobs, although the rewriter added extra explanatory comments about his corrections.

Next, smaller "clinic" sessions were organized for each of the department's three major lab groups, where I explained several important problems from the students' actual homework. In this way, the clinic's discussions were focused on the content area of each lab's work, so students didn't have to waste time trying to understand unfamiliar technology. These clinic sessions were followed by brief one-on-one sessions to answer individual questions.

2. Team collaboration in "mendan" sessions

At the end of last year, I had a very interesting and fruitful "mendan" session with members of an important quasi-governmental/academic laboratory. This group was charged with the English-language publication of the lab's general information, such as president's remarks, organizational structure, and major services and research areas.

I was asked to help refine this publication. Although this would normally be done in a one-to-one consultation, the lab's director called in a group of about 10 staff members from different specialities. In the conference room, the pamphlet's layout and text were projected onto a large screen, which everyone could easily see.

While going over the document for about four or five hours, the lab's director solicited the input of employees involved in research procedures and results, layout and printing of the document, budget issues, management, etc. In this way, as the English was being reorganized and fine-tuned, a broad range of viewpoints could be incorporated in the final version, resulting in a much better document.


3. Start short!

Always start with a short sentence. This is a key strategy for both speaking and writing. In speaking, give extra attention to brevity in the beginning of a presentation, the opening of a meeting, introducing a guest, and starting a new topic in a presentation or discussion; in writing, short sentences are critical in the first sentence of an abstract or a paper's major sections like Introduction, Results, etc., the opening and closing of a letter/e-mail, corporate/organizational public relations, figure/photo captions, and, of course, whenever you write an important idea.

Some people have told me that it's "sophisticated" or "scholarly" to write long sentences. This is not the case in English. Sophisticated writing delivers your message clearly and directly to your reader, so smoothly that he or she doesn't even notice your writing. If the reader is spending too much mental energy trying to figure out your sentence structure, little concentration remains to think about your content!

Consider two examples, as the beginning of an abstract:

a) "This paper presents, for possible application to automated tracking of steganographically concealed data in images, a technique, based on colorimetry, to be used in high-speed message verification in the optical security systems of the next generation."

b) "This paper presents a colorimetric technique for high-speed verification of messages embedded in images. Our technique will allow the next-generation optical security systems to automatically track data that are steganographically hidden."

Which version do you think is easier for the reader?


4. IEICE Conference Presentation

In March, I had the great honor and pleasure of giving a presentation at the IEICE (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) General Conference in Kitakyushu. This was a two-hour presentation on the fundamentals of technical writing and presentation. Normally, I give this presentation to large and small groups of our clients' employees, so this time it was very interesting for me to speak to a group of researchers and tech managers from a wide variety of organizations.

If you work on the organizing committee of an academic or technical conference, perhaps I can help with a talk on communications skills that are critical for every research professional. Don't hesitate to contact us to discuss details.


5. Book recommendation: Presentation Zen

My friend and fellow native of Oregon state, Garr Reynolds, has recently published a highly readable and visually stunning book on presentation called Presentation Zen. This book focuses on effective design of PowerPoint slides to make your message easy to understand and easy to remember.

Too many of my clients have treated PowerPoint files as "documents" to be read in the traditional sense. This results in a bored audience, a bad impression of the presenter and the content, and a high probability that most of the presentation will be soon forgotten.

Read more about Garr's great book at:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/PresentationZen-Simple-Presentation-Design-Delivery/dp/0321525655/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=english-books&qid=1207624648&sr=8-1

6. Useful website: American Speeches

A good way to learn about making effective speeches is to watch or listen to great speeches. A website that is dedicated to great American speeches is "American Rhetoric." This site features a database of video, audio and transcripts, as well as interesting information on the art of public speaking.

Look it over at:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

Maybe a good way to spend a rainy Saturday.

The "official" holiday hours of Kurdyla and Associates will be December 29 through January 6. Of course, we will be very happy to do your work during that period, if you give us advance notice. If you need to send work, or receive work, during this period, please call Ms. Atsuko Watanabe (06-6338-1855) by 16:00 December 28 and inform her of when you will send your work, about how many pages it will be, your deadline, and a phone number where you can be reached. If you send us e-mail (kansai@kurdyla.com) during this time, I'll handle your work, but please write your message, with the above job details, in English.

2. Writing Referee/Reviewer Comments

A while ago, I wrote about how to respond to referee or reviewer comments (http://www.tensaku.org/newsline/0612.html). This is a very important job as an author. Of course, another important job is writing such reviewer/referee comments on others' submissions, which some of our clients need to do sometimes.

From my experience reviewing the writing quality of submissions to an IEICE journal, I realize the difficulty of this task: You need to clearly explain how the paper can be improved without sounding too harshly critical. I've seen some amazing research works packaged, unfortunately, in a terrible document structure; such authors need to be encouraged, not discouraged.

Of course, as with replies to reviewer comments, we can rewrite your own reviewer comments.


3. Presentation Basics: Your Face

When you start to give a presentation, what does the audience look at? Your first title slide? No—they look at your face. A presenter's face that is directed at the audience shows a sincere desire to explain his/her work. I also advise trainees to smile at least once during each slide. Constantly work on your ability to present in an audience-directed way, with your glances to the screen or notes minimized. At the very least, always look at the audience while speaking at the beginning and at the end of each slide, as well as when stressing key ideas.


4. How to Use the "Comments" of Rewriters

It's very common for our rewriters to add "Comments" to documents submitted for rewriting. These are additions to Microsoft Word files in the "Comments" section/boxes (depending on your view) to indicate phrases that the rewriter finds unclear or incomplete. The rewriter may write a simple question like "Do you mean 'increase' or 'decrease' by 'change' here?" or a point like "I think you need to clarify WHY this approach is unworkable."

How should you handle these comments? If you can clear up these areas yourself with no problem, you don't need to respond, or just tell us "thanks, I understand the comments." If you need to revise, say, five or six sentences, just send us those sentences and our checking of them again will be done as "serbisu." Of course, if the original paper is "rough" and there are so many changes and comments that the entire paper needs to be revised a second time, we can do this for you at a reduced rate.

For plain text files, such as those to be prepared in a format like LaTex, our "Comments" will be added in the MS-Word "Comparison" file sent back with the revised text file (corrections to figures are normally described in the return e-mail from our office).


5. Autonomy: Making It On Your Own

In communications skills training, I think the word "autonomy" is important because it implies self-reliance in performing professional-level communications jobs. To put it simply, your company probably cannot afford to send an interpreter with you to an overseas conference or meeting.

We also require a certain level of autonomy from our trainees, for example we don't provide Japanese interpreters or 'facilitators' in our classes to make them easier; eventually, you will need to function on your own. This belief extends to our courses that may require you to do some preparation work outside of class; in particular, most of the valuable learning in presentation and writing courses is achieved through doing, not studying.


6. Visual Thesaurus: See the Connections

I've started using a very handy and fun on-line application: The Visual Thesaurus. Like a conventional thesaurus in book form, this program gives you synonyms, that is, words with similar meaning. However, rather than just listing words, it shows a visual map of paths and nodes for a universe comprising "big, large, huge, enormous, etc." It's difficult to describe, so please check it out for free at
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
If you like it, you can buy an online subscription or a desktop application. Fun and educational!

技術論文では細心の注意を払って、明確・簡潔な短いセンテンスで書く必要がある箇所があります。それらはAbstract/Summaryの最初と最後のセンテンス、Introductionの最初のセンテンス、Conclusionsの最初と最後のセンテンスです。これらに加えて本文中、例えばMethodsやResultsの最初と最後のセンテンスに注意を払うことも大切です。

これらの核となる箇所は、読者を引き込み、あなたのkey ideaを明確にさせるのに重要なところなので、"The Internet has grown rapidly in recent years"のように、特別に何も主張しないようなセンテンスを書いてはいけませんし、また、"you still have the second, third...sentences for that"　のように全ての詳細をここで言う必要はありません。

「少ない言葉の方が印象的」というのが一般的なルールです。

2. 添削者への返信は：英語でお願いします。

弊社から納品する英文添削出来上がりファイル上で、担当添削者が文面からだけでは判断できない箇所への質問や、添削者の方で考えられる選択肢をWordファイルのコメント欄に記入している場合があります。通常は、筆者の方が見ていただければコメントの内容を理解していただき、筆者の方の判断でそれらをファイル内へ反映していただけると思います。もしそのコメントをさらに明確にする為に詳細を送付していただく場合には、ご質問事項は英語で書いていただくようお願い致します。

私どものリーゾナブルな添削価格は、翻訳作業を含まないということで設定しており、また私の事務所のスタッフは翻訳者として雇ったのではありませんからご依頼者と添削者間の翻訳業務は行えないことをご理解いただければと存じます。最終的には筆者ご自身の英語で訂正される方が英語の内容もより言いたいことに近づくと存じます。


3. 英語レベルの違う受講者で構成されたクラスについて

前号でクラスの大きさなどについていろいろお話しましたが、今回は英語レベルの違う受講者で1クラスを運営する場合の問題について触れたいと思います。理想的には各ビジネススキルコースは同じ英語レベルの受講者で実施される方がいいのですが、理想的とは何でしょうか？
現実的には、特に東京以外のエリアでは、1クラスの適切な受講制限数もありますが、多くの場合は、ご予算や日程などの関係で、TOEICスコアの350点から700点の受講者で１つのクラスが編成されるということになります。弊社のインスタラクターはこの状況をよく理解していますので、クラス内で英語レベルの低い方が理解できるように、また英語レベルの高い方も退屈しないように授業を上手く進めるように努めています。


4. メディカルジャーナルペーパーを書くための便利なリンク

先日優れた医師、研究者、医学部教授のグループを対象にしたライティングセミナーを行いましたが、私にとっても非常に刺激になる有意義なセミナーでした。このプログラムのために"Instructions to Authors" と"Style Guides" にリンクするWebsiteと6つの主要な医学ジャーナルのサンプルを準備しました。

もし医学分野の方で英語で論文を書かれる予定の方は、ぜひ下記のサイトを参考されることをお勧めします。

http://www.tensaku.org/newsline/medpubs.html


5. K&Aのリライターで実験してください

前号でmp3へのスピーチ録音のご紹介いたしました。その他、弊社が提供できる仕事の種類で、メインの業務ではありませんが、主に自然処理言語分野に関してのものということで、弊社を実験台として使っていただくこともできます。弊社の日本人でないメンバーは全てプロのエディターですので、例えば、合成言語の自然さ、文書の認識、資料集成などの課題について評価することができ、的確な有効な評価、意見を提供することが可能です。もしこのようなことに関して弊社をご利用していただける機会がございましたらぜひご連絡ください。ご予算、スケジュールなどご相談させていただきます。


6. ワードの戦い：Google Fight

Google Fightを見ることは楽しく、使いようによっては便利なサイトです。

http://www.googlefight.com/

このサイトでは２つの項目、例えば "Bill Gates 対 Steve Jobs" 、"PC 対 Mac" など、好きな項目、言葉を入れてインターネット上での発生数の比較ができます。もっと有効な使い方は"co-occurrence vs. cooccurrence" や"web site vs. website" のような同類項をの使い方を比較することです。

でも、これらの人気投票の結果に全て頼ったり、信頼しないように…あなたのエディターは、人気のない方の言葉を好むかもしれません！

There are certain locations in a technical paper that demand EXTRA care in writing clear, simple, and short sentences. These are the first and last sentences of the Abstract/Summary, the first sentence of the Introduction, and the first/last sentences of the Conclusions. In addition to these, take care with the first/last sentences of major sections like Methods and Results.

These 'sweet spots' are critical for guiding the reader and clarifying your key ideas. The sentences here should not be "say-nothing" sentences (e.g. "The Internet has grown rapidly in recent years") but they also should not include every important detail of your work (you still have the second, third...sentences for that).

A fairly dependable general rule: The fewer words, the greater impact.

2. Your replies to rewriter comments: English please!

In some cases, to handle particularly unclear sentences, our rewriters add questions or alternate expressions in the "comments" section of Microsoft Word. Most of these can be understood by the author without further discussion, but sometimes the author needs to give further clarifications so that the rewriter can finish the document. In these cases, please submit your clarifications in ENGLISH.

Although we do offer translation service, our very reasonably priced rewriting service is based on the assumption that no translation at all is needed. Also, my office staff are not hired as translators, so they cannot be used to translate between authors and rewriters. Finally, making the effort to clarify your ideas in English yourself will produce a document that most closely represents your meaning.


3. Different English levels in one Class: Making it work

In the last Newsline issue, I discussed the various issues involved in setting an appropriate class size. Here, I'd like to touch on the problem of handling a single course with trainees of different English levels. Perhaps in an idea world, each business skills course we give would have trainees at very similar English levels. Though I wonder, is that really ideal?

The reality, especially outside of Tokyo, is that our clients often need us to handle a single course with trainees ranging from, say 350 TOEIC points to 700 points. This is normally due to budget and scheduling constraints, as well as to availability of trainees. Our instructors are quite use to this reality, and make great efforts to ensure that the classwork is not impossible for lower-level trainees but still not boring for the higher-level trainees.

So why wouldn't uniform-level courses be ideal? In the real business world, we must always deal with a variety of people having widely different strengths and weaknesses. As many of you know, I consider the classroom "Rehearsal for Life," so such mixed courses actually make the trainees deal with a very real work requirement: adjusting their communications to deal with associates who have higher, or lower, English abilities.


4. Writing medical journal papers: Useful links

Recently, I gave a writing seminar to a group of distinguished doctors, researchers and medical professors. It was quite stimulating for me. In preparation of this seminar, I prepared a course website that links to the "Instructions to Authors," "Style Guides," and sample papers of six leading medical journals.

If you work in the medical field and plan to write a paper in English, I highly recommend checking out the sites available from this web page:

http://www.tensaku.org/newsline/medpubs.html


5. Using K&A rewriters as laboratory guinea pigs

Last time, I explained how we can record your speech, as an audio sample, onto mp3 computer files. Another type of "non-mainstream" work we do is to provide "human guinea pigs," or more properly "subjects," for experiments, mainly in such fields as natural language processing.

Since our non-Japanese Associates are all professional editors, they are used to handling documents critically and can provide effective feedback in experiments on such problems as the naturalness of synthesized language, text recognition, and corpus gathering. If you need such help, give us a call and we'll work out an arrangement to meet your budget and timeframe.


6. War of the Words: Google Fight

A fun and sometimes useful web site is "Google Fight" at

http://www.googlefight.com/

The easy to use "death battle" interface lets you compare the Internet occurrences of two word or terms, like "Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs" (70 million to 118 million) or "PC vs. Mac" (863 million to 319 million)--you choose the terms you want. More useful is to compare the uses of similar terms: "co-occurrence vs. cooccurrence" (1 million to 160,000) or "web site vs. website" (2.7 billion to 854 million).

Now, this kind of "popularity contest" should not be viewed as totally dependable or authoritative; maybe your editor will prefer the "unpopular" choice!

1.　本当の “Customized Courses” とは
2.　“ASAP” はいつでしょう？
3.　守秘義務の範囲
4.　Writingアドバイス：Keep Your Sentences Short!
5.　“Ambitious Japan”?
1. 本当の “Customized Courses” とは 創立以来約34年間、お客様のニーズと目的にあった「カスタムメイドコース」の英語研修を作成してまいりました。カスタムメイドというのは、研修のご担当者と、コースの時間数・回数・内容・宿題の有無などについて詳細を話し合ってコースを作り上げるということです。このようなアプローチでコースを作るというが、研修効果をあげるという一方で、現実にはまだまだ制限があります。例えば、中級レベルの方が20時間の研修を受講したからといって、すぐに世界一流のネゴシエーターになれるということは不可能です。

お客様の中には私が時々お客様の最初のご意見に賛成せずに、私の今までの日本での研修プログラム作りの経験で信じていることを基盤にした他の選択肢をご提示することがあった場合に、その私からのご提案の方が実際のニーズや、受講者のレベル、ご予算や他の条件に適していたということにお気づきになられたかもしれません。このようにお客様とディスカッションして、いろいろな意見を出し合っていくことで、最終的には現実的に実行可能な研修プランを実施できるという結果になります。「お客様はいつも正しい」ということにただ単に習慣的に従うことは、後でご満足いただけない結果を招くことになりかねません。それよりも私は「お客様はいつも正直でプロフェッショナルな効果を得ることを要望されている」というポリシーに従うっていきたいと存じます。
2. “ASAP” はいつでしょう？ 時々、“できるだけ早く”、”ASAP”というご希望納期で添削原稿が送られてきます。
ご希望納期はいつでしょうか？
ご確認しますと..「今日の午後にお願いします！」から「ええっと、来週中に返していただければ有難いんですが…」と、実際にはこの言葉はいろいろな納期を表現するために使われていますので、忙しい添削者のスケジュールをより複雑にしてしまいます。

ASAPの日付を再確認することを省くために、ご依頼の際には正確なご希望納期（日付と時刻）を申込用紙に必ずご記入願います。もし「超特急」のご依頼があるというご予定があります場合には詳細を打ち合わせていただきますので事前に06-6338-1855の渡辺までご連絡くださいますようお願い致します。
Yoroshiku！
3. 守秘義務の範囲 添削と翻訳をご依頼されているお客様には既に知っていただいておりますように、お客様から私共にご依頼いただくドキュメントの守秘義務につきましては厳守しております。これらは弊社のスタッフが守秘義務を厳守しているとともにお預りしました書類に関しましても一定期間の保存の後、吹田市の業者により溶解処理が行われております。

また弊社の守秘義務は書類ばかりではなく、研修、セミナー、ミーティング及びプライベートレッスン内で話される内容までに及んでいます。と、いいますのはプレゼンテーションやネゴシエーションセミナーでは会社の重要な情報も話し合われる場合があるからです。もちろんこれらの内容に関しましても守秘義務が履行されておりますのでご安心ください。もし機密保持契約(NDA)が必要な場合は、英語版でしたら私の方でサインさせていただきます。
4. Writingアドバイス：Keep Your Sentences Short! 長過ぎる「文」は弊社の添削者がご依頼論文の意味を間違って理解してしまうもっとも多い原因になっているかもしれません。このような場合は、添削者はセンテンスの全てを添削する代わりに、質問のコメントをつけてお返しするという結果になります。
これを避けるにはどうしたらよいでしょうか？
短いセンテンスで書いてください！
ジョウゼフ・コンラッド(Joseph Conrad)は母国語がポーランド語であるのにもかかわらず、イギリスの著名な小説家の一人で、彼の上品で非常に長いセンテンスは有名でした。しかしながら、他の大多数である我々はコンラッドのような技術を決して身につけることはできません。長いセンテンスは問題を招くだけ、つまり、考えの因果関係(cause/result, negation, exception/limitation, addition, etc.)を複雑にしてしまうだけなのです。一部の執筆者の中には長いセンテンスを書くことが洗練さを表している、と信じておられますが英語ではそれは事実ではありません。
下記は問題課題のサンプルです。

Too Long: Many new technologies have been introduced in recent year to resolve the long-standing problem of robots killing their owners, a problem which occurs when robot owners use abusive language with models that are overly sensitive due to faulty programming by designers who unsuccessfully implement highly advanced emotion sensors, which now require advanced knowledge of interpersonal psychology. Chopped up into bite-size sentences: Many new technologies have been introduced in recent year to resolve the long-standing problem of robots killing their owners in reaction to abusive language. Such models are overly sensitive due to faulty programming by designers who unsuccessfully implement highly advanced emotion sensors. Currently, these sensors require advanced knowledge of interpersonal psychology.
見ておわかりのように、２つ目の短い例の方が読みやすく、理解しやすいのです。あなたがセンテンスを簡潔にして書けば、読み手はあなたに感謝します。

5. “Ambitious Japan”? ここ数ヶ月、若くてハンサムな5人のビジネススーツの若者達がのぞみ新幹線の横を走っているJRの “Ambitious Japan” という広告が目に付きました。私はこれを見た瞬間何か変だな…どうして若いビジネスウーマンじゃないんだろう？と思い、インターネットでチェックした結果、JRの広告とコンサートスケジュールをタイアップしている歌手グループ、TOKIOだということがわかりました。なぞは解けました！

でもどちらにしても私以外の多くの新幹線利用者にこのような男性歌手グループを追いかけるほど興味があるとは思いませんし、（ところで、個人的にはSMAPは舞台を辞めて台所にいる方がいいと思います。）JRは、男性だけが野望に燃えていると考えている、と思われそうです。男性と女性の両方のモデルを使う方がいいアイデアだと思うのですが…新入社員研修や大学生を教える経験上、受講者をみていると、女性の方がやる気があり、機転がきくということが見受けられます。ひとつ確かなことは、日本は女性の才能とパワーと労働力を利用しないとアンビシャス、つまり意欲的な景気回復はのぞめないということです。

1. Real Meaning of “Customized Courses”
2. When is “ASAP”?
3. Wide Coverage of “Confidentiality”
4. Writing Advice: Keep Your Sentences Short!
5. “Ambitious Japan”?
1.　Real Meaning of “Customized Courses” For most of our company’s 34 years, we have featured courses that are “customized” to the needs and goals of our clients. Simply speaking, this involves arranging course hours, frequency, contents, homework load, etc. based on extensive consultation with the client’s training liaison. While such an approach can increase the effectiveness of training, it is still constrained by the limitations of reality. For example, there is no way that intermediate-level trainees are going to become world-class negotiators after a 20-hour program. Some of our clients have noted how I sometimes disagree with their initial proposals and suggest alternatives that I believe, based on several years of organizing training programs for Japanese employees, would better suit the actual needs, available time, trainee level, and budget limits, among other factors. Eventually, through discussion and pooling of imaginations, we come up with more realistic plans. Following the simplistic formula of “the customer’s always right” often leads to disaster down the road. Instead, I prefer to follow the policy of “the customer always deserves honest and professional feedback.”
2.　When is “ASAP”? Once in a while we get rewriting requests with a deadline reading “as soon as possible!” When is this? Upon checking with authors, we find that the deadline actually varies between “this afternoon!” to “oh, sometime next week”. As you can imagine, this makes it more complicated to schedule our busy rewriters. I’d like to request that you write a precise deadline (day and hour) on your order form so that we can eliminate the extra step of confirming what, actually, ASAP means. If you know that you will have a “very rushed” job in the near future, I’d also appreciate your calling Ms. Atsuko Watanabe 06-6338-1855) in advance to discuss the details. Yoroshiku!
3. Wide Coverage of “Confidentiality” As our rewriting and translation clients know, we maintain the strictest confidentiality of the documents that our clients entrust to us. This involves an arrangement with a Suita City disposal company that guarantees in writing that old documents have been destroyed as well as a lifetime confidentiality contract with all of our employees. However, what you might not realize is that our confidentiality assurance extends beyond documents to what is spoken in classes, seminars, simulated meetings, and private lessons. In several kinds of course, such as presentation and negotiation, sensitive company information is sometimes discussed. You can rest assured that this information is also kept in the strictest confidentiality. Also, I’m willing to sign your own non-disclosure agreement (NDA) upon review of an English version.
4.　Writing Advice: Keep Your Sentences Short! Having sentences that are too long is perhaps the number 1 cause of our rewriters misunderstanding submitted documents. This sometimes results in the rewriter only being able to attach questions about the meaning rather than fully correct the sentence. The easy solution? Write shorter sentences! Joseph Conrad, one of the greatest figures in English literature despite his native language being Polish, was famous for his graceful and extremely long sentences. However, the vast majority of us will never have Conrad’s skills, and thus writing very long sentences is asking for trouble. The main problem is that the connections between ideas (cause/result, negation, exception/limitation, addition, etc.) become confused. Some authors believe that long sentences show sophistication, but this is NOT true in English. Here’s an example to illustrate the problem: Too Long: Many new technologies have been introduced in recent year to resolve the long-standing problem of robots killing their owners, a problem which occurs when robot owners use abusive language with models that are overly sensitive due to faulty programming by designers who unsuccessfully implement highly advanced emotion sensors, which now require advanced knowledge of interpersonal psychology. Chopped up into bite-size sentences: Many new technologies have been introduced in recent year to resolve the long-standing problem of robots killing their owners in reaction to abusive language. Such models are overly sensitive due to faulty programming by designers who unsuccessfully implement highly advanced emotion sensors. Currently, these sensors require advanced knowledge of interpersonal psychology. As you can easily see, the second version with shorter sentences is much easier to read and understand. If you keep you sentences short, your readers will thank you!
5.　”Ambitious Japan”? Over the last couple of months, I’ve noticed JR’s “Ambitious Japan” advertising campaign, which features five handsome young men in business suits running next to a Nozomi Shinkansen. Immediately this struck me as somehow wrong: where were the young businesswomen? Upon checking the Internet, I found out that the models were members of Tokio, a boys’ band that is scheduling concerts in conjunction with JR’s ad campaign. Well, the mystery is solved. Still, I think a lot of other Shinkansen users besides me don’t actively follow boys’ bands (personally, I think SMAP should stay in the kitchen and off the stage), and people are likely to get the idea that JR considers ambitious people to be only men. Using men and women models would seem a better idea to me; after teaching groups of company new employees and university students, I’ve observed that the women are often the most motivated, focused and quick-thinking among the trainees. One thing is certain: Japan will not be able to make any kind of “ambitious” economic recovery without fully utilizing the talents, energy and brains of its female workforce.

1. 1. Text-editor ファイルの添削ご依頼について

1. 2. アサインメントパッケージ

1. 3. 学位論文

1. 4. 担当添削者からの質問

1. １） 担当添削者のコメントを貴社の英語をよくご存知のスタッフと検討していただき、２回目の添削チェックとして弊社へご依頼いただく。弊社へ２回添削をご依頼される価格は、他の安い価格で（たぶん確かでない）翻訳業者へ依頼されるよりもはるかに低価格だと存じます。

1. ２） 担当添削者と直接「面談」により複雑な箇所を明らかにしていただく。面談の場合は時間請求となります。貴社へのミニマム派遣時間は2時間ですが、弊社（地下鉄御堂筋線、江坂駅下車３分）へ来社していただく場合は１時間から設定していただくことが可能でございます。

1. 5. 海外旅行：チップ

敬具

鈴木美津子"

４．シングルスペースは使用しないでください

FAXでの添削をお申し込みの場合、行間は「少なくとも」ダブルスペース以上の余白をとってください。これは添削者が狭い空間に複雑な矢印を使って添削箇所を示すことを避けるために大変重要な要素です。FAXでの書類のやりとりは鮮明度を落とすということもお忘れなく。狭い行間で添削を行ったご依頼者の２度目のご依頼時には、ほとんどといっていい程、オリジナルの添削箇所を見間違ってタイプされている事が多いようです。

弊社の添削料金は行数と字数より計算しますのでスペースは影響しません。またこの点は将来全ての添削をe-mailベースでお受けするということも考えさせられる課題のひとつです。

５．www.tensaku.info

私の、ある意味ではレクリエーションの趣味として、個人的にホームページを立ち上げました。

今はライティング、特に技術ライティング関係のリンクだけですが、いずれは日本人がよく間違うライティングの項目のデータベースを作っていきたいと思っています。将来的には私共のお客様のために価値あるサイトを作ることが私のゴールです。

６．ホエールズウェブ・ドット・コム

以前のニュースレターでもお知らせしましたように、パートナー会社であります㈱ホエールズウェブ・ドット・コムではインターネット上でのビジネス英語コースを行っておりますが、科学的に分析、作成されましたお客様のニーズを追求する「顧客満足度調査」もご提供しております。ご興味のある方はe-mail: ykuwa@whalesweb.comの桑原裕までお問い合わせくださいませ。

７．年末年始の英文添削ご依頼について

いつものように私共の添削者は年末年始も添削を行いますのでご遠慮なくご依頼ください。しかしながら、事務所の営業は１２月２８日から1月５日までお休みとなりますので１２月２７日（金）午前中までに、いつ頃、何枚ぐらいの原稿を送付されるご予定かということをご希望納期と一緒にご連絡いただければ有り難く存じます。私共はご依頼に最善を尽くしてお受けさせていただきます！

1. 弊社メールアドレス変更について
2. インターネット英語プログラムのお知らせ
3. 短期間プログラム　－　NEW!
4. 秋のスペシャルサービス：無料添削！