Written by Dorothee Racette, President of the American Translators Association. With an increasing number of companies pursuing a presence for their products in other countries, your management team’s global strategy may involve the need to translate technical and support materials into other languages. This article describes ten effective steps technical writers, publishers, or communications managers can take to ensure that technical translation projects go smoothly and to everyone’s satisfaction. Steps to Take Before the Actual Translation 1. Plan Ahead for Technical Translation Investing a few hours of your time in the preparation of the technical translation project will pay off …
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By João Roque Dias, CTTechnical TranslatorLisbon – Portugal www.jrdias.com Edited by Peter InghamLisbon – Portugalpeter.ingham@netcabo.pt So, what are technical manuals? They are not some literary work with a few technical buzzwords. They’re simply a roadmap for the user of the system they refer to. Their purpose is to convey information. Remember: you don’t read technical manuals for pleasure; you USE technical manuals because you NEED TO KNOW what they tell you. The translators of technical manuals must keep this in perspective. Otherwise, they become useless pieces of cheap literature. Who writes technical manuals? Professional technical writers with in-depth knowledge of …
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We are passing on this message from Susanne van Eyl, Chair of the Mentoring Committee, on the new ATA mentoring program. Hi everyone: I wanted to take a moment to invite all interested members to consider the new mentoring program of ATA. We’ve used Courtney Searls-Ridge’s long-standing program and made changes and updates to find new ways to learn from and support each other. The biggest change is that all mentor/mentee pairs are slated to start and end their work at the same time each year: in mid-April. This is designed to build a strong community for mentees, many of …
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ATA Science and Technology Division had many interesting and valuable presentations during the 52nd annual conference and we hope for the same this year. Share your expertise while increasing your recognition in your field. Submit your proposal by March 12th.
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Division member Bruce Popp is giving a webinar for patent translators on March 22 through ATA. For more information and to register, please follow this link: ATA Webinar 107 Patents. Here is the abstract: To be patentable, an invention must be new. A frequent consequence of this is that the terminology used in a patent application that needs to be translated may also be new and poorly covered in secondary terminology resources such as online terminology databases, glossaries and dictionaries. Faced with this situation, a patent translator may need to identify and use primary sources and do their own research …
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We know from Karen Tkaczyk’s blog posts that one of her goals for 2011 was to improve her writing and editing skills[1] — but little did we know that she intended to improve ours as well! Karen is a French-into-English technical translator specializing in chemistry (industrial applications and IP) and related life sciences. Through her company, McMillan Translation[2], she also offers services in scientific and technical writing, copyediting, and localization from US to UK English. Plus, she is an engaging presenter. She held sway over the packed room, clearly comfortable with her material, and emphasized her points with humor and …
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As people renewed their ATA memberships at the end of 2010 our division reached 1000 members. By the end of the year it was about 1500. The beginning of the year was marked by finding Distinguished Speakers and encouraging people to present for the S&TD track at the Boston annual conference. Another winter event was S&TD being selected as one of the model divisions who would implement the new Leadership Council system. After asking for volunteers, we formed a Leadership Council with ten members in February 2011. Administrator Karen Tkaczyk reported on the process and how it had been received …
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By Susanna Weerth Catherine Christaki, Tess Whitty, and Steven Marzuola (left to right) outlined the paths they each took to get into translation, and then sparked a discussion about important issues in technical translation during a Q&A session. Steven Marzuola provided insights about how he got involved in translating for the oil and gas industry. At age 9, when he and his family lived in Venezuela, his father began taking him to visit oil rigs. Steven later worked in oil industry for about 10 years, before moving back to the US in the 1991. He began working for agencies that …
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Here is another review of Kevin Costellos very popular presentation at the annual ATA conference. We thought it would be interesting to get two peoples point of view of the same presentation. This review is written by Danielle Maxson. Some people believe that technical writing is dry, verbose, self-aggrandizing, and just plain boring. These poor people have never met Kevin Costello. At the recent ATA conference in Boston, I attended a session by this translation instructor from James Madison University. His presentation, “Mind All the Gaps in Spanish-English Technical Translation” showed attendees that technical translation does not have to be …
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At the end of a packed Friday at the annual conference in Boston, Kevin Costello gave us the benefit of his considerable experience in technical translation. He is Instructor of Spanish-English Translation in the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures at James Madison University in Virginia. His session included examples taken from work while at a prior position at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain. The title of this entertaining session contained a cultural reference close to my heart. In the London Underground (rail subway system) the loudspeakers always tell us to mind the gap before we board. …