A Practical Guide to Scientific and Technical Translation

Are you a non-native English speaker? Are you often confronted with manuscript rejections because of poor language impeding comprehension of your paper? A Practical Guide to Scientific and Technical Translation is your solution. In this one-stop guide, two authors with extensive experience as reviewers and translators in a vast medley of scientific fields assist you to produce professional quality documents, whether through direct authoring in a language foreign to you or translation from an existing text. The book is not intended as a text on English grammar but as a troubleshooting guide to linguistic and style errors. We will help you overcome at least the most common problems here. Technical terminology searching and choice will also be covered with examples from a number of scientific (physics, chemistry) and engineering disciplines (aviation, transport, nuclear, environment, etc.), with advice on how to choose the right term for the right job. While the emphasis is on producing documents in English (the lingua franca of modern scientific literature), general translation concepts are also discussed. Hence, this book will also be useful to translators, and scientists who need to present their work in languages other than English. Sample Chapter(s) Chapter 2: Reviewing Contents: Authors' Note About the Authors Scientific Translation for Authors: Introduction Direct Authoring Final Word Feedback (rex) from non-French-speaking Colleagues Reviewing: Introduction Misunderstandings Technical Translation for Translators: Introduction Tools of the Trade Computer Aided Translation (CAT) Tools Machine Translation Internet Searching Specific Technical Fields: Abbreviations/Acronyms Physics Chemistry Aeronautics Automotive Engineering Railways and Trams Mechanical Engineering Construction Nuclear Engineering Renewable Energy Hydroelectric Power and Hydraulic Engineering Insurance Patents Contracts and Legal/Financial Translation Translation as a Profession: General Issues Facing the Translator: Problems Encountered Where to Find Work? Final Words Additional Reading Answers to Exercises Appendix I Appendix II Readership: The book will be highly useful to scientists who are non-native speakers of English and who need to publish in English journals and apply for patents. Topics covered will appeal mostly to engineers, industrial scientists and researchers in the pure sciences. The book would also interest independent technical translators and students of translation.