I translate a wide variety of written content such as online or print content: websites, blog articles, certificates, guidebooks, diplomas, social media content, leaflets, sales brochure, product copy, essays and scripts.

Copywriting is the art and science of writing copy that sells your product or service and convinces prospective customers to take action.

While copywriting relates to creative commercial writing and pure content creation, transcreation or creative translation refers to the process of adapting a message from one language to another while maintaining its intent, style, tone and context.

I usually write copy (simplified: text as in words used on web pages, ads, promotional material, etc.) for branding & marketing, advertising and direct marketing, retailing and products, company magazines, newsletter and international communications, catalogues and the digital environment.

Localisation is similar to translation yet it goes beyond the process of changing a source language version of text into a different (target) language, as it entails a more specialised process of adapting web content and applications for regional or local consumption. It differs from mere translation as it requires deep knowledge of the cultural environment of the target audience and market.

For example, localisation aims to offer country-specific websites of the same company or different editions of a book depending on where it is published.

Localisation is a necessary process when entering a local market by merging into its needs and desires.

A perfect example is provided by the video games and software industry.

By localising creative marketing content means to facilitate globalisation, addressing linguistic, cultural and technical barriers.

The localisation process may address significant, non-textual components of products or services as it may also include adapting graphics; adopting local currencies; using proper format for date and time, addresses and phone numbers applicable to the location; the choices of colours; and many other details, including rethinking the physical structure of a product.

Fresh eyes for spotting spelling, grammatical and typographical errors ensure that a text is clear, consistent, grammatically correct, accessible and well written.

As well as checking grammar and punctuation, proofreading also refers to checking numbers, local currencies, proper format for date and time and layout.

As a proofreader, I offer quality assurance and assessment by performing a quality audit of publications as well as online content.

Copy-editing (text-editing) is similar to proofreading although it implies rewriting sentences and paragraphs while checking that style, phrasing and words are consistent throughout the whole text.

Sub-editing and proofreading are necessary when content is written by a number of authors to ensure consistent house style besides maintaining awareness of new words or phrases coming into popular usage with a view to ensuring they are appropriate for the readership.

Copy-editing may also imply ensuring that illustrations are correctly captioned and referred to in the text.