SENSE Conferences and PDDs

SENSE used to organize conferences every two years and professional development days in alternate years. Since the pandemic, we have not organized a full in-person conference but expect to do so again in our jubilee year, 2025.

  • The 2015 conference was held in Utrecht on 14 November 2015. It consisted of two plenary sessions, two elective sessions (with ten topics to choose from), a panel discussion, and lots of networking opportunities.
  • The 2018 conference was held in ’s Hertogenbosch on 9-10 June 2018. It featured two plenary sessions and five elective sessions (with 25 topics to choose from).
  • The 2020 conference was originally planned for Maastricht, but due to lockdown and the coronavirus it was moved online and took place on 3-5 June 2020. Attendees were treated to 15 separate workshops, as well as ample networking opportunities. An additional 7 workshops were offered as an autumn jubilee during the same year.

The professional development days (PDDs) are mini-conferences aimed primarily at SENSE members themselves.

  • The 2019 PDD was a one-day event in Amersfoort on 21 September 2019. It consisted of two plenary sessions and four elective sessions (with eight topics to choose from).
  • The 2021 PDD was a two-day event online, on 18 and 25 September 2021. It featured two plenary sessions, three panel discussions, six elective sessions available on both days and 9 additional sessions to choose from, not to mention networking opportunities during specific times on Zoom and all day long on Wonder.
  • The 2023 PDD will be held in Utrecht on 30 September 2023.

2019 PDD

When: Saturday 21 September 2019,

Registration opens at 9:00, the borrel will finish at 18:30

WhereDe Eenhoorn, Amersfoort (opposite NS station)

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Come join us for our Professional Development Day, the biennial event in which SENSE members learn from (and with) other members. This year's programme will include two great plenary talks, our first-ever translation slam and presentations by some of the society's best translators, copywriters and editors. There will also be plenty of time to socialise and network during the yummy buffet lunch and the end-of-the-day borrel. Don't miss it!

Sign up

Sign up (click the Register button on the event page) before the end of the day on 31 August to take advantage of a €25 early-bird discount!

SENSE members (through 31 August): €60
SENSE members (from 1 September): €85

Non-members (through 31 August): €120
Non-members (from 1 September): €145

Attendance at the SENSE PDD will entitle you to 6 PE points

Click here to register. Members, remember to log in!

The programme:

TimeWhat we are doing
9:009:30 Registration
Time for tea or coffee and networking
9:309:40 Welcome and introduction
9:4010:30

From Lada to Lamborghini: tips for gaining and retaining valuable repeat clients
(Jenny Zonneveld)

10:3011:00 Coffee break & networking
11:0011:50 An introduction to Cornwall and its languages
(Anita van Adelsbergen)
Translating in architecture
(Dianna Beaufort)
11:5512:45

Translating for fun and profit
(Peter Smethurst)

Copywriting: what is it and could you do it?
(Cathy Scott)
12:4513:45 Lunch break & networking
13:4514:35 What not to forget in your quotation
(John Linnegar & Jenny Zonneveld)
Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation
(Francis Cox)
14:4515:35

Translation slam
(Peter SmethurstCathy Scott)

The diverse skills and roles for language professionals in academia & science
(Jackie Senior & Kate McIntyre)
15:3016:00 Tea break & networking
16:0017:15 High-level writing, rhythm and flow
(Mike Hannay)
17:1517:30 Closing session
17:3018:30
Drinks, hapjes and (more) networking

 

 

 

SENSE 2020 Conference
(3-5 June)

IMG 8365 X 1200x628

SENSE Jubilee Conference goes online; conference workshops now in series

Click here to register for the online conference

Many of you will be pleased to learn that the Jubilee Conference team – with the sterling support of a group of die-hard and innovative presenters and workshop facilitators – have converted the in-person conference into a meeting of true minds. The opportunity to learn, to network and to share online couldn’t be better timed during these times of general gloom and social distancing. And the good news is that the SENSE Online Jubilee Conference continues to feature something for everyone – and at seriously keen prices too!

The online conference will be presented on the afternoons of 3, 4 and 5 June 2020; the workshops are no longer parallel but in series so you can attend as many as you like. The series kicks off on 16 May and will run through to 26 June – with one workshop to attend nearly each week during this period: there’s no doubt that you’ll be spoilt for choice, given the wide range of topics on offer. Head over to the programme page for all the details. 

We are pleased to announce that Paul Beverley’s Macros workshop on 16 May has been added to the conference workshop line-up. Consequently, its price has been reduced in line with the others in the series – check it out on the conference workshops page!

Registering, refunds and cancellations policy

If you have previously registered and paid for the conference and/or a workshop, and wish to attend one or more of the online events, when you register, select ‘Bank transfer’ as the payment method. We will then deduct your online workshops and conference from what you previously and refund you as appropriate. 

If you do not wish to attend any of the re-programmed online workshops and conference sessions and would like a full refund, less the € 50 non-refundable deposit, please contact Theresa Truax-Gischler at media@sense-online.nl.

Fees for online conference and workshops

In line with the reduced scale of the conference programme and because both the conference and the workshops are being presented online (thanks to Zoom), the pricing for both has been simplified and considerably reduced: to attend all three half-days of the conference will now cost only € 60 for members of SENSE and € 75 for non-members. The fee for attending an online workshop is now € 30 for members and € 60 for non-members. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to book separate tickets for just one or two conference days.

What's in store for you?

This being an online event, you will be able to register for either the whole conference (not the individual afternoons) and the workshops up to 16:00 on the day before the event.   

In these virus-disrupted days, practitioners are more keenly aware than ever of the risks and opportunities inherent in freelancing, and some innovative solutions, so topics related to this theme will feature strongly in the online programme. For instance:

  • the panel discussion, featuring a group of emerging freelance translators, on how to acquire and retain clients, which will be of particular relevance to the would-be’s and newbies out there;
  • the EC’s Emma Hartkamp sharing the EU’s take on ‘Future competence profiles of EU translators’;
  • from Finland, Tiina Kinunnen will be broaching a touchy side of freelancing familiar to us all in her presentation titled ‘From whining to shining: time to change the freelancer’s image’;
  • SENSE members Wendy Baldwin (‘Honing skills through near-peer exchange’) and Marieke Krijnen (‘Editing in the era of digital nomadism’) will share their solutions to the loneliness of the long-distance editor;
  • as will Sally Hill and Daphne Visser-Lees, who are out to share with us the positive outcomes ‘When editors share notes’;
  • and when time is money for most of us, Brian Mossop’s answers to the question ‘How much time does quality require?’ should have us all sitting on the edge of our seats in expectation!

So, what’s standing in your way of attending SENSE Online Jubilee Conference 2020 from the comfort of your own home?

See you there, on 3, 4 and 5 June – or in the front row at a workshop!

The SENSE Online Jubilee Conference planning team 
Ashley, Jenny, John, Ken, Liz, Lloyd, Marieke, Matthew and Theresa

Sponsored by PerfectIt

2018 Conference

Englishes now!

trends affecting language professionals

SENSE is grateful to our 2018 Conference sponsors

PerfectIt

Sunday, 10 June

12:15–13:15, PLENARY TALK

Sarah Griffin-Mason, Trends in translating and interpreting to 2050

Translation/General

Editing, translating and interpreting are professions on the move as the dual challenges of globalization and mechanization extend ever deeper into the language service sector.

I will present messages on key issues likely to affect practitioners in their professional lives in the coming generation on the basis of information gleaned from the International Federation of Translation* (FIT-IFT) conference held in Brisbane, Australia in early August 2017.

The aim is to encourage debate on key current issues such as artificial intelligence, the visibility and value of language service providers, the shortcomings of the gig economy, and the absence of right to title. An understanding of these issues and how they might develop over the coming years will empower practitioners to prepare for the forthcoming disruption, to adapt appropriately to the challenges, and to resist the more pernicious potential impacts of changing professional practices.

* FIT is an international grouping of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists with more than 100 affiliated professional associations and training institutes, representing more than 80,000 translators in 55 countries. The international triennial conference therefore provides a broad and in-depth overview of the language service sector worldwide.

 


About the presenter

Sarah Griffin Mason

Sarah Griffin-Mason is the current chair of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting and senior lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Portsmouth, where she mostly teaches Spanish-to-English specialised translation and professional aspects of translation. She trained as a translator and editor in the InterPress Service in Montevideo, Uruguay in the 1990s and also runs a business as a freelance translator and editor for clients. These include NGOs and international entities such as UNICEF-TACRO, Plan International and the European Training Foundation.


Sunday, 10 June

11:20–12:00, PRESENTATION SESSIONS 5

11:20–12:00

Jackie Senior, Joy Burrough, Carol Norris, Nigel Harwood, Panel discussion: Putting the Dutch practice on editing texts for doctoral theses/dissertations into an international context

Editing

For the four panellists involved in the editing (or proofreading) of student writing in one way or another – two from the Netherlands, one from Finland and another from the UK – SENSE Conference 2018 presents a unique opportunity to share and compare their approaches to the correction of student work in their respective countries and contexts. What promises to be a lively and wide-ranging exchange of experiences, approaches and views should give conference delegates a good idea of how academic editing in the Netherlands stands internationally, and perhaps some food for thought for their own professional practice. Questions and shared experiences from the floor will be welcome too!

 


About the panel

JackieSeniorJackie Senior works as an editor and webmaster for an ambitious international research department (Dept of Genetics, University of Groningen/UMCG). Nowadays she works mostly on biomedical texts but she started as a geologist at Shell, later working as an editor for Shell Research and an international investment bank. She has been editing and translating for more than 40 years but, with the Dutch retirement age becoming a moveable feast, is exploring options for later. She was a founder member of SENSE in 1990, has served twice on its executive committee, and was appointed an honorary member in 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Joy BurroughBased in the Netherlands but having edited and researched in various countries, Joy Burrough-Boenisch edits and translates for Dutch academics and scientists, teaches scientific and academic English, and gives workshops for translators and editors. She is a founder and honorary member of SENSE. She has two degrees in geography and a doctorate (on Dutch-scientific English). Her academic and professional publications include Righting English that’s gone Dutch (Kemper Conseil, 2013) and contributions to the book Supporting Research Writing: Roles and challenges in multilingual settings, (Chandos, 2013), edited by Valerie Matarese.





 

 

Carol NorisAfter completing a Bachelor's degree in pre-medicine at Duke University but lacking funding for medical school, Carol Norris conducted research at Duke and Oak Ridge National Laboratory before undertaking an MA in rhetoric and then teaching university writing courses for seven years. Her PhD thesis at the University of Maryland concerned the physician in literature. Carol also holds an Applied Linguistics MA from Birmingham University, UK.

In 1985 she began the University of Helsinki’s first English-language writing course for scientists and became a university medical author-editor. In addition, she writes for the European Science Editors’ European Science Editing and presents at conferences. She is a member of Nordic Editors and Translators (NEaT).

 

 





 

Nigel HarwoodNigel Harwood is a reader in Applied Linguistics at the University of Sheffield. He has previously published three co-authored journal articles reporting findings of an interview-based study of the profiles, practices and beliefs of proofreaders who work on student writing in the United Kingdom. He has also published research on English for academic purposes and teachers’ use of EFL and EAP textbooks; his most recent monograph focuses on students' experiences of dissertation supervision. He is co-editor of the journal English for Specific Purposes (Elsevier).

Sunday, 10 June

11:20–12:00, PRESENTATION SESSIONS 5

11:20–12:00

Maria Sherwood-Smith, Outreach and research communication in English: Opportunities for language professionals

English/Writing/Editing

Certain trends in the research climate in the Netherlands – especially the growing emphasis on the societal relevance of research and the tendency towards large, multidisciplinary projects – open up opportunities for those language professionals who support researchers. Researchers increasingly need to communicate about their research with non-specialists, whether the general public or their project partners from other disciplines. The majority of this communication occurs through English. For English-language professionals, these trends are reflected in a wider range of research-related text types for translation or editing. The texts serve different communicative purposes and span a variety of registers, ranging from informal written texts such as blogs or tweets and texts for oral production (TED-talks, presentations) to more formal texts such as funding applications. In addition, language professionals are needed to teach researchers the skills they need for research communication in English.

In my presentation, I will discuss how the developments outlined above affect the language support and courses I provide at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences in Leiden. We will look at examples of the different types of texts I translate and edit for researchers. On the teaching side, I will discuss the Research Master’s course on ‘Presenting Your Research’ that I teach together with lecturers in Psychology, and how we have adapted this course to focus more on presenting to a broader audience. The central objective is to draw attention to the trends identified and to explore some of the opportunities they open up.

My presentation should be of interest to all language professionals who provide language support to researchers, whether as editors, translators, or teachers of academic or scientific English.

 


About the presenter

Maria SherwoodMaria Sherwood-Smith is a lecturer in Academic English in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences in Leiden. She holds a BA in French and German from Trinity College Dublin, and a DPhil. in Medieval Languages from the University of Oxford. Her research focused on vernacular authors’ use of a Latin source text. After temporary lectureships at the universities of Manchester and Oxford, she moved to the Netherlands in 1999. Since 2003, Maria has been employed as a translator for the Dutch police. She also works as a freelance translator and language editor, mainly for academic publications.


Sunday, 10 June

11:20–12:00, PRESENTATION SESSIONS 5

11:20–12:00

John Linnegar, Garnering those usage and style gremlins: Revealing the contemporary even-handedness of GMEU

English/Writing

Language practitioners nowadays have to grapple with many English grammar, usage and style issues when improving texts, and cannot do so authoritatively with at least one vademecum to hand. But which authorities to consult? Most of the available references are either outdated and a bit stuffy (eg Fowler’s MEU, Partridge, Treble & Vallins) or biased in favour of either AmE or BrE (New Hart’s Rules, Chicago Manual of Style). Yet others are avowedly either prescriptivist or descriptivist. So if one needs information on either or both Englishes, accessing it can be a problem.

In this respect, Bryan Garner’s magnum opus – Garner’s Modern English Usage (GMEU, Oxford University Press, 2016) – is an answer to many practitioners’ prayers, for four main reasons: first, the text and content are based on an analysis of a massive corpus that determines many of Garner’s observations and recommendations on contemporary usage; second, while he tends to favour a descriptivist approach to usage, he does not shy away from sound prescriptivist conventions when necessary, even if only to present a balanced view on the status quo (which sometimes goes about the difference between AmE’s conservatism versus BrE’s more ‘liberal’ approach); third, he presents what is currently the most balanced account of both AmE and BrE usage. (Remember GB Shaw’s witty ‘England and America are two countries separated by the same language’? Garner shows us how in some respects it is the case, in others it ain’t.) Finally, and perhaps most importantly for us 21st-century mortals, the text is written in the plainest, most accessible English (unlike many of the guides of the last century).

Being a recent addition to the literature (June 2016), GMEU is relatively unknown among, let alone used by, practitioners who have to grapple with contemporary English usage – whether AmE or BrE – and make decisions about which is appropriate. This session attempts to reveal (almost) all.

 


About the presenter

John Linnegar 2Until 2010, like many other editors, John Linnegar had little idea of how to distinguish between the nuanced three levels of editing (and that after 30 years in the game!). Then he began researching the subject, only to find that less than a handful of authors had written about it! It’s their ideas — plus his own guide on how possibly to quantify the levels in specific editing tasks — that he will be sharing and workshopping, using a set of real texts.

John has been a text editor, proofreader and indexer of school and academic textbooks, reports and journal articles since the 1970s. For almost 20 years he has trained generations of editors, proofreaders and indexers. During this time he has published several books on aspects of language usage and editing, including Engleish, our Engleish: Common errors in South African English and how to resolve them (NB Publishers, 2009) and Text Editing: A handbook for students and practitioners (UPA, Brussels, 2012). Now based in Antwerp, Belgium, he is a member of a number of professional associations, including SENSE, MET and Australian and South African societies and a regular presenter at conferences. His postgraduate research is on the mentoring of language practitioners online.


Sunday, 10 June

09:30–10:30, PRESENTATION SESSIONS 4

10:00–10:30

Joy Burrough, Editing English-language doctoral theses in the Netherlands: Are the SENSE Guidelines useful?

Editing

Now that most Master’s and PhD candidates in the Netherlands write their thesis or dissertation in English, there is much demand for these texts to be corrected. The many suppliers responding to this demand range from ‘convenience editors’, through online agencies, to experienced professional editors. What they amend and how they do so vary. Can SENSE’s Guidelines for Proofreading Student Texts clarify what thesis editing entails and reduce the variation in the nature and manner of language professionals’ interventions in such texts? I will address this question, considering doctoral (i.e. PhD-equivalent) theses only.

First, I will explain why variation in editorial interventions is unavoidable, pointing out that it depends partly on the parameters of the assignment and partly on the language professional’s personal skills, knowledge, background, circumstances, and attitude towards the ethics of editing theses. Expanding on the issue of ethics, I will argue that although concern about the ethics of editing student work drove the creation of SENSE’s Guidelines for Proofreading Student Texts, in the Netherlands this concern is not as important as it is in countries such as the UK and Australia. I will suggest reasons for this. I will then explain why the Guidelines specifically exclude the Dutch-style article-based doctoral theses that predominate in the sciences.

After discussing the editorial and ethical challenges these compilation theses raise, I will suggest how articles destined for journal publication and thesis inclusion should be edited and how ethical predicaments might be resolved. Aspects of the SENSE Guidelines turn out to be useful for this, after all.

Although the presentation focuses on doctoral theses – specifically, compilation theses – the issues addressed are relevant to all aspiring and practising editors working for clients in academia and science, and to language professionals interested in the ethics of editing.

 


About the presenter

Joy BurroughBased in the Netherlands but having edited and researched in various countries, Joy Burrough-Boenisch edits and translates for Dutch academics and scientists, teaches scientific and academic English, and gives workshops for translators and editors. She is a founder and honorary member of SENSE. She has two degrees in geography and a doctorate (on Dutch-scientific English). Her academic and professional publications include Righting English that’s gone Dutch (Kemper Conseil, 2013) and contributions to the book Supporting Research Writing: Roles and challenges in multilingual settings, (Chandos, 2013), edited by Valerie Matarese.


Sunday, 10 June

09:30–10:30, PRESENTATION SESSIONS 4

09:30–10:00

Jackie Senior, International science needs English editors

Editing

At the 2017 SENSE Professional Development Day, someone stated that science papers are still written in the passive voice. Time for an update! Science is now big business, performed by international collaborations communicating in English, and it forms a major ‘export’ product of the Dutch knowledge-based economy. At the same time, publications have become the measure of a scientist’s career, which puts many excellent non-native-English-speaking researchers at a disadvantage. The result is a real need for English editorial services.

In addition to research papers, science editors may also work on grant applications, press releases, and presentations to lay people (eg patient groups, journalists, or investors).

International researchers may not have had training in how to write in English nor in the formal style required by academic journals. The choice of active versus passive voice is just one example of how editors can guide authors towards a more readable text. Whereas the passive was once considered to convey an authoritative style, the active voice is now encouraged by most journals because it identifies the actor and lends itself to shorter, more direct sentences. It is one element to foster writing that can convey complex messages in straightforward English to a readership with a wide range of language proficiency. I will discuss how scientific publishing has changed and how editors can help scientists write clearly for an international readership.

I will give examples of what editors can do, including helping writers clarify their language and ideas, recognising when more information is needed, and considering the target audience and their background.

While academic publishers point struggling authors to commercial editing services, my experience of working with a top research group shows that an editor with good subject knowledge and direct access to authors offers an added value that an unknown third party cannot easily match. If you have a scientific/technical background, or an interest in certain fields, you too can become a language professional with a specialty, and you can certainly build up a worthwhile freelance career.

 


About the presenter

JackieSeniorJackie Senior works as an editor and webmaster for an ambitious international research department (Dept of Genetics, University of Groningen/UMCG). Nowadays she works mostly on biomedical texts but she started as a geologist at Shell, later working as an editor for Shell Research and an international investment bank. She has been editing and translating for more than 40 years but, with the Dutch retirement age becoming a moveable feast, is exploring options for later. She was a founder member of SENSE in 1990, has served twice on its executive committee, and was appointed an honorary member in 2010.

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