Aims: This unit is designed to complement the core translation units by introducing students wishing to focus on translating to a number of more specialised subject areas. It is also suitable for students taking other languages who wish to work additionally with this combination and have the necessary knowledge of French. The aim is to maximise each student's potential so that as many as possible of the group achieve the standard necessary for professional work.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing the unit, students should have assimilated all the principles and techniques of this area of professional work. They will therefore be able to tackle a variety of more specialised translation assignments with confidence and success. In this respect, they should have developed an expertise that enables them to work independently to produce entirely accurate and consistent versions in the target language. Students will also have gained further experience of researching unfamiliar subject areas and terminology using a range of documentary and online resources, as well as the translation memory software installed on the University's computing system.
Skills:
The main intellectual skill developed in this unit is the ability to make the kind of linguistic judgements that will produce a satisfactory end product for the client. By applying this in practice, students are able to build up the skills required for professional work. Translation is an exercise in communication that involves transferable key skills such as written expression, self-direction and an awareness of one's own performance, as well as IT and information retrieval abilities. In addition, this unit places particular emphasis on research skills and acquiring the ability to deal with new and unfamiliar subject areas, including specific tasks such as glossary compilation. These skills are developed progressively through classwork, marked assignments and constructive feedback.
Content:
This unit continues to build a practical approach to translation, using materials that are more diverse and/or specialised in nature than those used in the core translation units. The subject areas covered will be selected with the specific needs of the translation market in mind, and are likely to include: legal documents such as agreements and contracts; banking and financial topics; a range of scientific and semi-technical materials; in-house documentation that requires the use of particular conventions and terminology. The texts chosen will be tailored to the practical demand for this particular language combination.
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