Association names: Associations that do not have an official English, French, or Spanish name should have their names translated into English. English, French, and Spanish association names will appear untranslated in articles.

Acronyms: Write out the first instance of each acronym in full, followed by the acronym in parentheses, then use the acronym in the rest of the article. Acronyms should not be spelled out in headlines. Well-known acronyms do not need to be written in full. E.g., A member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) recently attended a meeting at the UN headquarters in Geneva.

Authors: Include a by-line with every article to credit the author. Include the author’s professional affiliation (the FIT member association the author belongs to). 

Concision: Translatio readers are often non-native English, French, and Spanish speakers. Use clear, concise language whenever possible. Avoid using long lists of names, official titles, acronyms, speech names, countries, etc. Long lists and extensive details make articles difficult to read.

Editing: Articles should be proofread by someone other than the author with a good command of English whenever possible. The Translatio editorial team reserves the right to edit submissions for content and length if necessary or to ask authors to rewrite articles in order to align with the goals of the publication. The editorial team also reserves the right to reject articles that are not in line with Translatio’s principles.

Headlines: Headlines are a distillation of the article into a few words. They should be short (no more than 10 words) and engaging to entice readers to read on. A subheading or lead-in may also be useful to condense and introduce the topic of the article. Many readers will not get past the headline, subheading, and the first paragraph. Therefore, it is recommended that all essential information be included at the beginning of the article.

Length: Articles should be no more than 500 words. There is no minimum length.

Photos: Photos are a welcome addition to any article. Photos should be captioned and credited to the photographer whenever possible. Subjects appearing in the photos should be identified whenever possible, with their association affiliation appearing after their name.

Spelling and style: The official languages of FIT are British English, French, and Spanish. All English articles should follow British spelling and style conventions. Refer to and follow the University of Oxford Style Guide here. The purpose of Translatio is to report on the news and achievements of its member organisations. For tips on how to write a compelling news story, click here.