Episode 37: Smart Habits for Improving Your Online Research with Elizabeth Adams
In today’s episode, we’ll talk about one of the most important tasks in our workflow. Whether you’re a translator, an interpreter, a copywriter, or if you offer any other language-related services, you have to do your fair share of research. In fact, when we don’t do our research, it shows in the final product.
So, today we’ve invited a colleague to join us. She really impressed us at the last two ATA conferences with her knowledge and smart tips on improving your online research.
Elizabeth Adams graduated with a degree in Russian in 1998 and moved to Moscow. It was an interesting time and place to be looking for work as a translator, and she ended up translating and editing for a wide range of companies, reading constantly, and learning on the job. Twenty-two years and three children later, her translation business focuses on plain English translations of Russian legal texts, from laws and court rulings to contracts and discovery documents.
Here’s a summary of our conversation with Elizabeth:
How and when Elizabeth started her freelance translation career, how it has evolved over time
What her typical workday looks like and what changes she had to make due to the COVID-19 pandemic
What smart habits help Elizabeth draw boundaries between work and personal life
What other smart habits have been helpful in her career
How to ask clients the right questions when it comes to the research you need to do for a translation
What steps translators should take when it comes to analyzing our translation projects to guide our research strategy better
How to decide what tools and resources to use for our research
What to do if you lack the time to conduct proper research for your translation projects
Elizabeth’s tips, tricks, and favorite tools for better online research
If you liked this episode, we’d love it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Not sure how to do that? Check out our video tutorial.