Documentation Quality
"Although it may seem obvious, many organizations seem to miss the link between their source language documentation and their foreign language documentation: The quality and consistency of your source language documentation directly affects the quality and consistency of your translated documentation." — Iverson, Steven P., and Heidi E. Kuehn. 1998. "Assessing 'Translation Readiness': A Maturity Model." Proceedings of the 45th Annual STC Conference.
"The importance of well-structured, readable source documentation cannot be [overstated]. Wordy, hard-to-read documentation costs more to write, to revise, to translate and to publish. It also generates more costs for support as users phone and email to ask for clarification." Dillinger, Mike, and Arle Lommel. 2004. LISA Best Practice Guide: Implementing Machine Translation. Geneva: Localization Industry Standards Association (www.lisa.org). p. 33.
"Industry does not need Shakespeare or Chaucer, industry needs clear, concise, communicative writing." — Goyvaerts, Patrick. 1996. “Controlled English: Curse or Blessing? A User’s Perspective.” Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Controlled Language Applications.
Globalization
“Globalization is an irreversible process, not an option.”
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (October 1999, http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/54/plenary/a54-358.htm)
"Globalization is a good word. You've got to figure out how to harness it because you're not going to stop it." — Nick Donofrio, IBM Executive Vice President for Innovation and Technology
Language Change
"Just because the English language continues to change, [that] doesn't mean we have to help it along." — David Ziegler, in a post to the stctesig-l mailing list on Feb. 20, 2007.
"A shadowy line often separates what is currently coming into sound usage from what is still regarded as barbarous." — H.L. Mencken
Controlled-authoring Software
“When used to ready certain types of document input for translation automation systems, there seems to be little doubt about the effectiveness of using controlled language editors. Typical advantages are consistent terminology rendering, faster turnaround times and reduced overall costs. — Joscelyne, Andrew. 1998. “A controlling interest? Simplified languages to meet the global communication challenge." Le Journal.
Terminology Management
"[I]nconsistent use of terms in software user interfaces, online and printed documentation, marketing collateral, and web content often comes to light only during translation, when it is too late to correct the problem efficiently. The costs associated with improper terminology management at the source can be staggering, especially for companies with vast amounts of source material to be localized in multiple languages." — Warburton, Kara. 2003. “The Terms of Business: Saving Money through Terminology Management.” Globalization Insider, Nov. 4, 2003.
"Recent research at Microsoft has shown that it is difficult for the native speaker (especially novice) computer user to keep track of even the most basic computer terminology. How much more difficult is it then for the non-native speaker of English who is using the English product or Web site to understand Microsoft terminology? And how complex is the task of translating that terminology into target languages around the world?" – Lombard, Robin. Keynote speech, “Terminology at Microsoft: Making Sense to a Global Audience.” The Eleventh Annual UTA Student Conference in Linguistics, Nov. 6-7, 2003.
Content Reduction
"Almost anybody can add information. The difficult question is how to reduce it." — Eli Noam
"La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever." (Perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.) — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Punctuation
"A parenthesis is a convenient device, but a writer indulges his own convenience at the expense of his readers’ if his parenthesis is so long that a reader, when he comes to the end of it, has little chance of remembering where he was when it began." — H.W. Fowler
"The difference between re-sign and resign is a hyphen." — source unknown
Miscellaneous
"Don't worry about boring your readers - they're already bored!" — Leah Guren
"The strong craving for a simple formula has been the undoing of linguists." — Edward Sapir
"The good writer masters grammar in order to control his words, and meaning is his target." — Ken Macrorie.
"A different language is a different vision of life." — Federico Fellini