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 Resources we mentioned in this episode: • Elizabeth’s website • Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn, Twitter, and ProZ • How to set up a Google alert • PerfectIt: editing and proofreading tool • WordRake: editing for clarity • Copernic: desktop search solution • Join our email list to receive a free guide from Elizabeth Adams: “Search Tips for Translators” For a full list of resources, visit the show notes page for this episode: https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/37

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If you’re a translator who enjoys learning about habits to improve your business and lifestyle, then this is the podcast for you.