3.2 The Five Steps of the Translation Process

In the on-site translation course last year, we presented seven steps to the translation process. Now, as we focus on the specific types of translation you’ll be doing, we’ve streamlined this into a five-step process. While it may be tempting to make translation a two-step process in which you read the source text and then directly create a final draft, following these steps will help you to create more accurate and readable translations. We will take a look at each of these five steps and apply them to a section of one of the letters you were asked to translate on that same exam.

a) Step One : Read the source text closely

Before beginning any translation, you should read the ST at least twice. The first time you read it could be a quick scan in order to understand the nature of the message, while the second time you might read each sentence more carefully and identify any words or expressions you don’t understand or are unsure how to translate.

Example 3.2a - Source Text

b) Step Two: Ensure you understand the message completely

Use both a bilingual and monolingual dictionary as well as online translation sites and dictionaries to help you identify the intended message of each part of the source text. Take notes on words or phrases that might have several possible translations into the TL. Sometimes this step might include research into a part of the ST that isn’t clear or requires further explanation.

Example 3.2b - Confirming Meaning

Here I’ve underlined the words or phrases I thought might cause me some trouble translating.

After I identify the words or phrases I’m not sure about, I use several resources to determine how I will translate them. Following are my thoughts for each:

• “La que subscribe” - I’m not sure what “subcribir” means, so I look it up in the dictionary and find that it means to put a signature at the end of a writing. I ask myself if there is an equivalent in English that would communicate this. After considering such possibilities as “the undersigned” and “the signer” I decide that this don’t sound right in English and to just begin the translation with “I, María García Gómez”.
   
• “custodia” - I think about whether I should translate this “mother and custodial parent” or “mother and custodian” and decide to go with the second choice.
   
• I know I can look up the official names of forms in English if I don’t remember. I confirm that “el aviso de responsabilidad financiera” is “the notice and finding of financial responsibility”.
   
• I confirm that “fallo” is the word used for “order”.
   
• I look up “divulgar” in the dictionary to make sure it means what I think it means, “to reveal”. I think in this case it would make sense to translate it as “to disclose”.

c) Step Three: Create a first draft of the translation

Remember that your goal is to: transfer the message of the source text into the target language. Break the text down into smaller units, usually sentences, to translate at once (though sometimes you might choose to split one sentence into two or more or to combine several sentences into one). Don’t let yourself get stuck on a difficult part; if a section is causing you problems, make a note to come back to it and keep moving through the text. After you’ve finished the rest of your first draft, go back to any spots you’d found particularly challenging.

Example 3.2c - First Draft

d) Step Four: Re-read and edit

If you have time, take a break and then come back to your translation. Read your translation without looking at the original text and evaluate how it sounds in the target language. After re-reading your translation and reflecting on the areas that need to be expressed more naturally, work on editing your text, changing it as needed to most accurately and naturally reflect the message of the ST in the TL.

Example 3.2d - Editing

After re-reading my first draft I decide there are several parts that don’t sound very natural in English. Here I’ve underlined the words or phrases I want to improve from my first draft, and italicized the spelling errors I found.

• “with the address of” sounds awkward, I decide it would be more natural to say “residing at”.
   
• “and mother”, I think in this list of things which define the author (her address, her role as mother), it seems out of place to add “and”. I decide to delete it.
   
• “am communicating through these means”. I recognize that by writing this I’ve prioritized form, since this is a word-for-word translation of what the author writes in Spanish and isn’t how someone would express the same idea in English. I decide it would be better to say “am writing” than “am communicating”. Then I consider, “am writing to let you know”, but that sounds a bit too casual. I settle on “am writing to inform you”.
   
• “I agree with”. Here I’ve repeated the pronoun “I” which doesn’t sound right. I replace it with, “I have read, understood, and am in agreement with”.
   
• “and also with the proposed order”. Putting this at the end doesn’t read well. I decide to change it to “am in agreement with both the notice . . . and the proposed order”.
   
• I reconsider how I phrased the sentence regarding the author’s request that her personal information not be disclosed and come to think that perhaps I should maintain the part of the message in which the author asks that the children’s information be protected.
   
• Thinking about it, I decide “safety” is a better word here than “security”.
   
• I fix my spelling errors “infomation” and “discolsed”.

• In my final check I decide to put the names of the documents in quotation marks to make it clear the author is referring to two documents.
• I read carefully, evaluating my decisions and looking for more spelling or grammar errors. I decide this translation is satisfactory.