The Art Of Writing For Translation – 10 Useful Tips To Improve
Many people question the usefulness of the education we receive in school. It is true that some of the information we learn at school will not be useful to most of us in our practical lives, but that doesn’t mean that it was useless. People who pay attention to every lesson in school will not have trouble getting through adulthood. If you learned the basics of computers in school, you will be able to apply that knowledge in your practical life and do your job in a better way. In the same way, if you learned writing in school, you will be able to use that to your advantage as an adult.
The Translation Industry and Writing:
A lot of people think that translation is just about changing the language of a text, but in reality, it is much more than that. Linguistic experts not only have to change the language of the text given to them but also make sure that their translation is culturally accurate. They also have to focus on their writing so that it is easily understandable to the target audience. For instance, if they have to translate a medical document for the general public, they must simplify it. And if the target audience is of healthcare professionals, then the translation can be full of complicated medical terms. But in both cases, the text should flow naturally so it can be read easily. This is why writing skills are so important for translators.
The Art of Writing for Translation: 10 Useful Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills:
Every translator knows the importance of writing skills. But they also need to understand that they can develop and improve these skills with time. They don’t have to worry about not being perfect right from the beginning. They can keep on practicing to get better.
Here are ten useful tips that can help translators in improving their writing skills:
- Know the Context:
Before you can start translating a document, you need to understand its message. The only way you can convey the message to your readers in the best way is if you are familiar with it yourself. If you need to ask your client for more information, you should do that. You can write with the best words if you know what you need to say to your audience.
- Use Tools and Apps:
There are a lot of grammar apps and editing tools available these days for linguistic experts. They may not be 100% accurate, but they can still be quite helpful. They will save a lot of your time. You will also be able to access dictionaries through these tools and look up words easily.
- Write for Your Readers:
Don’t write for yourself or what you think is right. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Try to understand what they would want to read. You have to make sure that your content speaks to your readers. But you can only do that if you write for your readers.
- Keep it Simple:
When you are translating a document, you don’t have to show off your vocabulary. You need to keep it simple so your audience can understand the message that you are trying to convey to them. Also, keep your sentences brief and avoid adding unnecessary details. You don’t want to burden your audience with irrelevant information.
- Don’t Use Humor:
Humor doesn’t work well in translated documents. If you want to keep your writing interesting for your readers, you should not confuse them with idioms and jokes that won’t make sense to them. If adding humor is a must, then you should find the right alternatives that will make sense to the audience.
- Write Dates Clearly:
Dates are written differently in various parts of the world. In order to avoid confusion, write the name of the months instead of their number. You can, however, use the abbreviation of a month’s name if space is an issue.
- Avoid Synonyms:
When you use different words with the same meaning, you end up confusing your audience. It is important to remember that the writing rules in the translation are a bit different. There is nothing wrong with repeating the same word again and again. In fact, it is the only way to maintain consistency, which is very important in translation.
- Reread Your Work:
Even if you work for an agency that has proofreaders on its team, you should reread your work. It will help you figure out what kind of content you wrote and whether or not it needs changes. It will also be useful in figuring out which words work out perfectly and which ones don’t.
- Read Your Translation Out loud:
Reading your work alone is not enough. In order to figure out whether the content flows naturally or not, you should read it out loud. When you hear it being read, you will be able to notice the mistakes easily. You will also be able to figure out how to make the text flow naturally.
- Practice:
It is not easy to achieve perfection, but one thing that can help immensely is practicing. The more time you spend on practicing, the better you will become at writing. You can start writing in a journal to improve your writing skills or keep a blog to practice every day. Even when you are practicing your translation skills, you will also be improving your writing.
