It is all about press releases, at work these few days. My task was to translate a solid English press release into Bahasa Malaysia! and yes, up till 6:30 pm yesterday I made it through till the last full stop. Of course la my boss who was an ex writer in NST had to like seat with me and check the damn thing.
He came to realize that I like the word "Untuk" and laughed each time we came across that word in the press release.
See, the press release is about our company's latest HR Policy on CSR. In our yearly appraisal, 10 percent of the points earned would come from our involvements in any CSR activities. Finally a reason to do good to get better points for appraisal and to mark up yearly bonuses. I think its brilliant!
With help from my colleague, they gave me a useful translator site in google and it helped me alot. It wasnt completely correct but the words that you needed are there and all you gotta do is to make sense..
You can see that the translation is some what rather weird but from there you can actually fix it with your own Bahasa undersatanding. Not really sure if it is helpful for anyone else but hell it helped me completed my task.
Today when a friend asked a translation word in twitter, guess who replied la? :) hehhe wasnt sure if its right or not but, gained pahala at least do something nice :) the help from my dear friend Ju An who took time referring to Dewan Bahasa Pustaka also helped alot! haih .. we PR & Marcom ppl gotta stick togetha!
A few points my boss reminded me when writing to "be mindful what you write","first para is the most crucial part of a press release", "each para should be short and straight forward", "a para should not have more than 3 lines", "no capital aside the first word in a title".and oh! yea a quote he gave me by Joseph S. "Make it tight just like a fish's ass".
Now, translation of any press release from English to BM will be handed to me. Shit. Macam gempak sangat...lah my Bahasa."Nina, did you checkout Berita Harian's paper today?" Did you look at the styles and word they use?" my boss reminded me this first thing in the morning. oh crap. soon you'll be seeing me reading Harian Metro.
Up till I sent out the press releases to the press, he taught me. The fact that he was a writer, made me more eager to know how the editors would like a press release to be. From drafting a note to the editor appropriately, to BCC and follow ups. I knew the flow after 4 years Doing PR, and i use to work in a newspaper but never have I encountered interest in really learning the core of an Editors ways and all until today. but hey! no harm learning a more precise way ey?
I even asked him did he get irritated when PR agencies calls him on the phone to check if the Press Release is in his inbox? he said, "it depends how you say it, how clearly and how fast" - another tip.
I hate writing still. And if you read my blog u could see that some part of my grammar is bad. I just didn't care because I write while my heart says the word. oh yes, writing when you are angry is a productive release :)
Whenninaspeaks :
"In loop, In mind, in the most Striving time"
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