More and more companies are asking for cover letters from job seekers. So, we decided to bring out a blog on how to write a cover letter.
To write a cover letter, you got to devote time and do a bit of research. This blog tell you how.
Why Should You Write a Cover Letter
While some companies mandate writing a cover letter, some make it optional. However, we suggest that you make it a habit to write a cover letter. If nothing else, it shows that you care about the application process.
Cover Letter Format
There is no fixed format. But you need to include some or all of these sections. Mandatory sections are marked as (M) and optional sections are marked (O). Don’t have to title each paragraph.
Salutation (M). Start with “Dear Mr. <insert complete name here.>,” or “Dear Ms.” This is formal addressing.
Introduction (M). Introduce yourself. Remember. Your introduction makes the first paragraph (1 to 3 sentences) of the cover letter. Keep this concise and professional (not boastful). The intent here is to establish that you qualify the minimum hiring requirements and launch the reader to smoothly into reading the rest of the email.
Thanking. (O). If you have already spoken to an HR professional or the email recipient, thank him or her first for the time on the call.
Reason for Application (M). Talk about the job you are applying for and why you make a great fit. Before, you start writing the cover letter go through the employer’s website and show, through your writing, that you understand the employer’s needs. If you can write with poise, you can create a great first impression.
Something More (O). Everyone likes a bit extra! Every employer feels good to hire a candidate with a specialist qualification or with unique work experience. If you have special education or experience that is directly relevant to the job, bring it to the employer’s notice. Or, if you are in the process of obtaining a certification that will be useful for the employer, do indicate.
Special Needs (O). A job requirement may need you to relocate or travel. Sometimes recruitment aims to recruit certain sections of people. If you must fulfill those needs, mention that you do.
Conclusion (M). Conclude your letter saying that you look forward to their response.
Thanking. (M). Thank the organization for the opportunity to apply.
Sign off (M). Sign off with “Best regards,” or “Regards,”.
Also, include your contact information as part of the signature.
Guidelines
If you are applying for multiple jobs, don’t use the same cover letter. Instea, modify the letter based on what the job description is asking for.
Spellcheck and verify that you have spelled the name of the person you are writing to.
Keep your language simple, straightforward, and business-like.
If you are not sure about the tone of the letter, write in the most polite way possible. You will not hurt anyone when you are polite.
Click Send and you are done.
We hope that this blog benefits both fledgling and experienced job seekers alike.
Google helps us at two levels to search the local language content.
Google can search content published in Indian regional languages.
Using Google’s Input Tools, you can use transliteration and avoid the laborious typing in a local language.
What is Transliteration-based Search?
Transliteration allows you to type a phonetically similar word in English and turns it into the corresponding word in the local language.
How is Transliteration-based Search Helpful
Transliteration lets you skip typing in a regional language. The Indian regional languages are phonetic in general and the typing needs a high accuracy to get the right content. Therefore, transliteration saves the typing effort.
Also, you can minimize typos.
The Need for Searching the Regional Language Content
Regional language search is of great help:
Many local events are elaborately reported in regional languages. However, only some of them make it to the headlines in the press in English. Therefore, anyone interested in a regional happening can find many sources in regional language.
Also, some state governments post content such as laws and policies in the local language. They also release news bulletins in local languages. To find this content, you need local language search.
How about searching for a YouTube video?
As of this writing in June 2019, the Google Input Tools help you search the regional language content on the Internet, YouTube, Gmail, and Google Drive.
Also, Google Input Tools enable transliterated input in Search, Chrome, and Chrome OS in 20 languages.
To know more, find the relevant help topic by searching for “transliteration Google Input Tools”.
Prerequisites for Regional Content Search
Install Google Input Tools. To know how to install and enable Google Input Tools, read the help article from Google.
An Example of Regional Language Content Search
This video demonstrates how to search for “Namasthe Telangana” using transliteration:
Notes
It is possible that there are other ways to search the local language content. If you know any of them, please write to us at sales [at] lotustech [dot] online. We will publish your inputs with credits.
According to Prof. Vemuri of University of California, Davis, about 75 million people speak Telugu the world over. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages that are about 21 in number. Telugu has heavily borrowed from Sanskrit. Other languages that contributed to its development are English, Urdu and Persian. Telugu is extensively used in government, media, law, and other walks of life. It is also the medium of instruction in many government schools and colleges. Aspirants to government jobs can appear for the qualifying examinations in Telugu.
English is a universal language spoken across the globe. Translation of content from English to regional languages seems to be a natural requirement for many customers. Therefore, we came up with this article to support translators and customers who seek English to Telugu translation. This article discusses some of the challenges in translation, some solutions and resources.
The Structure of English Vs. The Structure of Telugu
English’s
mechanics are different from those of Telugu. English lets you play around with
the placement of subject or object at the beginning of the sentence. However,
if we imitate the same in Telugu, it reads avoidable.
Here is a
simplified example.
‘Ram
beat Somu.’ (Subject + Verb + Object)
‘Somu
was beaten by Ram.’ (Object + Auxiliary
Verb + Verb + Preposition + Subject)
In Telugu,
writing the second alternative, even if we want to emphasize the subject, reads very colloquial at best and
meaningless at its worst. Telugu has many alternatives.
‘Somu Ram chetha
kottabaddadu’ (Object + Subject + Verb). This is the literal translation that follows
the flow of the English sentence in II. Here, not only do we increase the
number of words used, but comprehension beats a quick retreat. This is even more true of complex sentences.
Note 1:
I am not showing the case or other inflections
for the sake of brevity.
Note 2:
Probably the above examples, and the argument above goes for the other
Dravidian Language (Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam) translation.
Things can
get complex quickly when translating content from English to Telugu. Here is a
sentence I picked up from a white paper:
“Growth of the
Industrial and Services sector is critical (a) to achieve the 12-13% overall
economic growth (b) to create employment and (c) to increase per capita income.
(d)”
The translation
reads best in Telugu when we bring (b), (c), and (d) to the beginning of the
sentence. Here, I am presenting both literal (1) and ideal versions (2):
To
rearrange each sentence as in 2, the translator should make a considerable cognitive effort. The more complex
the sentence, the more the effort. When
the writing is ambiguous, the cognitive load is further enhanced.
Idioms and Sayings
Idioms in
English (for that matter those from any language) sparingly lend themselves to translations.
A translator should find something close enough in his language or write in
such a way that the writing comes close to the original. The same argument goes
for sayings in English as well.
Vocabulary
Lack of terms
can be a huge hindrance. English is enriched every day with words from the
world of technology, economics, science, politics, and so on. However, the regional dictionaries have no way
to cope up with the pace. The regional versions of these new words are either unavailable or, are a far cry from the
original. Even when the regional versions are available, they don’t have the
‘vibe’ of the original.
For example, the word ‘transformation’ can be used as a very positive word in English. However, in Telugu, the closest is ‘roopantharam’ (రూపాంతరం) or ‘roopantharamu’ (రూపాంతరము). In Telugu, it is mostly used in science to indicate ‘metamorphosis’. Another alternative ‘Parinamamu’ (పరిణామము) also indicates evolution. And both words are a far cry from the positive vibes of ‘transformation’. In such cases, translation pales despite the best efforts of the translator.
Complex Original Text
When a
single sentence in the original runs into 2 to 3 lines, or contains 15+, or
sometimes, 18+ words, you are staring at complexity in terms what is being said, and your understanding of the same.
(The writer must be a master of his trade to write long sentences and
communicate precisely.) That is two levels of complexity. Such overly loaded
sentences can attract mistakes in proximity leading to incorrect comprehension.
Regional Names and Words
The mistakes
in regional names or words have two sources.
When a
non-native speaker writes about a regional happening in English, it is likely that the writer is unaware of the
meaning of the regional word and makes a mistake.
For
example, the word ‘Veena’ is pronounced with a distinct nasal sound by a
Telugu-speaking person, whereas, in
English, it is written as ‘Veena.’ Merriam-Webster’s phonetic description for
the word is vīṇā.
According to the International Phonetic Alphabet,
this is [ɳ], the voiced retroflex nasal.
However,
it should be noted that content rarely includes pronunciation. Such text, when
translated into Telugu, will lose the sound and translate into vīnā, where ‘n’
is pronounced as the voiced alveolar nasal (as in
‘none’) rather than the voiced
retroflex nasal.
Another
source of mistakes occurs when the English version is written by a writer who
doesn’t speak the regional language, (here, Telugu). When he must include the
regional names, he is likely to make mistakes.
Spellcheckers
With the Telugu
language pack installed, I noticed that MS Word could
point out a mistake, only when the word doesn’t exist in the language.
However, if you write two unrelated words that are meaningless together but are meaningful separately, MS Word doesn’t recognize that the pair is awkward or wrong. So, the onus of finding such mistakes is on the translator.
How to Minimize the
Challenges in Translation from English to Telugu
Three steps
that you should take for content that reads just right:
Selection of a professional translation company is of the highest importance. Professional agencies come with a wealth of knowledge, training, and troubleshooting capabilities that don’t let the project slip on its KPIs.
The translator should be fluent in English (the transcribed language) and the target language (Telugu).
Ask the agency for a typed script rather than a manuscript. If you handover the typing job to a typist or a desktop publishing company, the scope for mistakes skyrockets. This is so because the person who is typing may have minimal training in language.
Disclaimer
It is possible that I haven’t seen all the tools available for translation into Indian languages. If you know of any, please send a mail to sales@lotustech.online. I will be happy to update this blog post with credits to your inputs.
Resources
I am adding this section on 30 March, 2019.
When I contacted Dr. Vemuri to thank him for his class notes, he graciously provided more resources to help English to Telugu translation:
Another useful resource is Andhra Bharati. The dictionary section is a store house of translation terms. It shows entries from various renowned English to Telugu dictionaries.
Dr. Vemuri, thanks a ton for your support.
Articles on Translation Around the Web
I came across some amazing articles on translation around the web. Here is the first among them:
Price negotiation is part of life. We need to accept this. Once we do, we can chalk a clear path about how to deal with it. Let us understand what kind of negotiators one can come across when providing content development or content marketing services:
Customers
who never negotiate. Such customers recognize your firm’s value instantly and
pay.
Customers
who negotiate to get a lower price. Some of them are cautious buyers who don’t want
to pay extra for a service if they can get it at a lower price. If nothing
else, negotiation will help them understand how good your firm is.
Customers
who want a deal (All negotiations are not equal. There is a difference between
negotiating for price reduction and negotiating for a deal. By deal, I mean a
part of the cost for rendering the service is on you and your firm makes incremental
losses with each passing billing cycle.)
Now, how can
an agency deal with the various kinds of
negotiations?
When
negotiation is meaningless or does not
acknowledge your firm’s expertise, you can choose to walk away.
When
the negotiation is for some reduction in price, offer the customer such service
that lets you still make a profit. I suggest not to offer more service at your
price point. That way, you MAY incur a loss rather than a profit based on what
that “more” consists of. So, this is highly subjective.
When the
negotiation is for a reduction in price,
the first question you should ask is why is customer
negotiating?
To
save money.
Has
budget constraints.
Can’t
see the value in your offering.
Cases 1 and
2 can be addressed by offering a limited
service. In both cases, you probably have
an active opportunity to upsell.
Case 3
needs more thought. If the customer adds weight to your firm’s profile, you may
choose to give him a deal for a limited period. If this is not the case, chalk
your own responses.
Also,
establish base prices below which you cannot work. Make them based on resource and
infrastructure cost, profitability, value addition, etc. That way, you know you
are still earning a profit, negotiation or no negotiation.
A sale is
about the customer while pricing is about your product/service quality/value
addition. Bridge them to the best of your ability. You will soon be good at sales
negotiations.
