3 reasons to write

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Before moving to the UK and starting the MA, I had never written on any publications, journals or websites, neither in English nor in Italian, mainly because the jobs that I was in were not very intellectually stimulating and because Italian universities are, let’s say, not very dynamic or young.

For these reasons, I had really no self-esteem in terms of my writing skills (my skills in general) and I didn’t know where to start. Therefore, it was actually my partner who pushed me to open a blog and to take any opportunity to write and put my name out there.

These chances came when, as I said before, I started university again and therefore started writing reports about the Professionalisation Talks I was attending. After that, I did some volunteer project coordinating work for Translator Without Borders and I started a position as Project Manager in Leeds. Even though I was always busy, I tried to keep this writing exercise active, not only because I wanted to keep up with my writing skills in another language (reason #1), but I also wanted to share my point of view on translation subjects and, why not, helping a cause I believe in. Thus, I wrote a few times on the company’s blog, on some friends’ blog, as well as, on the first ITI Student Bulletin.

On this note, writing short articles and reports, helped me get transferable skills (reason #2) that I could use when writing complicated emails, which in my job happens almost every day. You just want to get your point across without fussing around too much.

On top of this, this practice helped me networking and meeting new very interesting and highly intelligent people that enriched my knowledge and life experience (reason #3); and what's even better is that you can share what you have been working on social media to make other people know what you are doing and possibly inspire them.

To provide some examples of easy ways to start, I added here below some of the blog posts and short articles I wrote.

Available here : https://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/news/article/4350/third_cts_professionalisation_talk-translation_transadaption_and_subtitling

Available here: https://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/news/article/4581/cts_students_volunteer_with_translators_ without_borders

available at: http://apertisverbis.wixsite.com/mels/single-post/2017/02/14/Working-as-a-Translation-Project-Manager

Available here: https://www.iti.org.uk/attachments/article/1139/Final%20%20ITI%20Student%20Bulletin%20-%20Ignition.pdf

available at: https://www.andiamo.co.uk/blog/death-office-working-freelance-future

Hence, considering all I have mentioned above, I suggest everyone to write more to keep your brain busy and your mind active!

What do you think? Will you start a blog about your opinions too? It doesn't need to be about translation, it can be about anything you like :)