Hi! I’m Joy Phillips, a freelance Dutch-English translator, copywriter, author’s editor and content synthesizer with 24 years of experience and a healthy dose of enthusiasm.

My focus is on creative translation and copywriting. I frequently work with key stakeholders and content owners to synthesize content from various sources into a coherent whole. If you have a creative and intriguing topic, I love combining diverse aspects of my expertise and researching specific details to ensure absolute accuracy. If you have a creatively written Dutch text, regardless of the topic, I enjoy unleashing the full scope of my imagination and copywriting experience to make the English translation just as good as the original – or even better. Similarly, I provide excellent copyediting services, polishing creative texts written in English by non-native speakers.

I also provide sworn translations in my specialty fields, and have been a certified translator registered with the court of Amsterdam for over 15 years.

Expertise

For the past decade, I have been specializing in climate & environment, IT, energy & transport, healthcare, technology & innovation, and creative design. Moreover, I have spent nearly 20 years working with various clients on editing and translation of patient-facing medical documents and training programmes for informal caregivers, primarily for NGOs and public health services.

My career has included various training opportunities and services related to clinical trials. Although such projects are subject to strict NDAs, in very general terms, these activities involved team translation and grammar/spelling revision of physician-facing documents, informed consent forms and regulatory correspondence for clinical trials, as well as marketing and documentation for some startups affiliated with academic medical centers, and academic research papers related to the background of those startups.

Portfolio

I have extensive experience in the private sector, supporting a wide range of companies, organisations, universities and NGOs operating in the Benelux and abroad. I have also been a preferred language partner for several major multinational companies working in IT and consultancy, providing co-creation and copywriting services on retainer.

In addition, I have translated government policy on infrastructure, public health, mobility and the environment for nearly 20 years for the Dutch government and for the EU, working through select language service providers. Much of my work is subject to NDAs, but my portfolio offers an overview of non-confidential projects.

Conference speaker

As a proud member of the NGTV and IAPTI, I am also a regular speaker at international conferences. Topics include quality assurance as a freelance translator, work-life balance in the event of illness, leveraging pre-CAT translations, and the process of transitioning from an isolated freelancer to a networked entrepreneur. Conference presentations in recent years have included bp15 (Zagreb), the ProZ 2015 international conference (Rotterdam), bp16 (Prague), bp17 (Budapest), and bp18 (Vienna), as well as the 2018 IAPTI conference in Valencia in September 2018. More details are available on the Conferences page on this site.

Tess Whitty interviewed me for Marketing for Translators in 2017. The podcast is available online here, if you’d like to hear my thoughts on iterative improvement and creative connections.

Let’s talk!

If you’re interested in collaborating to tailor your text to an international audience, check my current schedule, or send an email to discuss details.