Technical and Scientific Translation English_Portuguese

Code:

MTSL036

Acronym:

TTCIP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Language Sciences - Translation

Instance: 2011/2012 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	http://web.letras.up.pt/egalvao
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Master of Arts in Translation and Language Services

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MTSL	20	Specialized Translation	1	-	3	30	81
		Translation and Language Services	1	-	3	30	81

Teaching language

English

Objectives

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this class will:

• be able to analyse scientific and technical texts of various types (academic, industrial, promotional) paying special attention to terminology, phraseology, information structure, register and style;
• be able to carefully select and make effective use of the multiple resources used by professional translators: information provided by experts in different fields, the Internet, databases, CAT tools, electronic corpora, Machine Translation;
• be able to specialize in different areas, i.e., be autonomous learners of specialized languages, with emphasis on personal preferences and interests in a specific scientific and/or technical field;
• be fully familiar with all the different phases of a professional translation project;
• be able to adapt their translations to the specific needs and objectives of the target audience,
• be able to select the appropriate translation strategy at macro level and the most adequate translation solution at micro level and to justify these choices using the correct metalanguage;
• be able to work in a translation team and to network with other language service professionals with a view to achieving better translation solutions.
• be aware of the need to implement a quality assurance plan adapted to each translation project.

Program

Given that the expression “scientific and technical translation" covers an extremely vast range of text types and areas of knowledge, the focus of this class will be on helping students acquire and develop the skills that will enable them to specialize in one or more areas of their own choice. In-class work will be based on different text types (e.g., academic articles, abstracts, reports) relating to the same topic, such as, for instance, renewable energy. The guided discovery on how to deal with these translation projects, from the pre-translation and research phase to the production and post-translation phase, will then serve as a model for students' own projects in other fields.

Students’ individual projects may comprise an extended translation assignment on a specialized topic of their own choice as well as the making of specialized comparable corpora and a glossary with the help of the Corpógrafo.

Mandatory literature

Scarpa, Federica; La Traduzione Specializzata. Lingue Speciali e Mediazione Linguistica., Milano: Hoepli, 2001. ISBN: 88-203-2709-0
Cabré, Teresa; Terminology. Theory, Methods and Applications, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1999
Sager, Juan.; A Practical Course in Terminology Processing, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1990
Byrne, Judy; Technical Translation, The Netherlands: Springer, 2006
NORD, Christiane; Translating as a Purposeful Activity,, Manchester: St.Jerome, 1997

Teaching methods and learning activities

Depending on class size, students will be divided into groups of 3 or 4 and will form their own Translation Companies. Each company will be responsible for:
• creating their own image (through a webpage and Power Point presentations);
• deciding on each partner’s specific responsibilities (project management, translation, revision, overall quality control, etc.);
• managing each translation job in a professional manner (from answering requests for quotation and planning the project to delivering the final product and invoicing the client);

Feedback will be provided on each job, which will have to be revised following the comments and suggestions received.

Software

TRADOS Translator's Workbench
MS Word, SDLX; Corpógrafo, and other applications

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	28,00
Final Test	Exame	2,00		2012-06-15
Translation work	Trabalho escrito	51,00		2012-06-15
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

ATTENDANCE POLICY
Students are expected to attend 75% of classes.

Calculation formula of final grade

Assessment structure and weighting will be announced at the beginning of the semester.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

To be agreed upon with the teacher at the beginning of the semester.

Classification improvement

Students wishing to improve their grade will have repeat one or more of the assessment components.