Official translations are generally documents that serve as legally valid instruments. They include anything from certificates of birth, death or marriage through to academic transcripts or legal contracts. This field of translation is now as important as it is fraught with difficulties, for it is only in a few areas that the cultural differences are so acute and the consequences of failure so palpable. In a globalizing world, our official institutions increasingly depend on translations of official documents, but little has been done to elaborate the skills and dilemmas involved. Roberto Mayoral deals with the very practical problems of official translating. He points out the failings of traditional theories in this field and the need for revised concepts such as the virtual document, pragmatic constraints, and risk analysis. He details aspects of the social contexts, ethical norms, translation strategies, different formats, fees, legal formulas, and ways of solving the most frequent problems. Care is taken to address as wide a range of cultural contexts as possible and to stress the active role of the translator. This book is intended as a teaching text for the classroom, for self-learning, or for professionals who want to reflect on their practice. Activities and exercises are suggested for each chapter, and information is included on professional associations and societies across the globe.

This introduction to technical translation and usability draws on a broad range of research and makes the topic both accessible and applicable to those involved in the practice and study of translation. Readers learn how to improve and assess the quality of technical translations using cognitive psychology, usability engineering and technical communication. A practical usability study illustrates the theories, methods and benefits of usability engineering.

Corinne McKay's blog Thoughts on Translation is one of the web's liveliest gathering places for freelance translators...now available in book format Wondering whether to charge by the word or by the hour? How to receive payments from clients in foreign countries? How to write a translation-targeted resume? It's all in here, in chunks that take just a few minutes to read. Corinne McKay is also the author of "How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator," the original career how-to guide for freelance translators, with over 5,000 copies in print. Her practical, down-to-earth tips are based on her own experience launching and running a successful freelance translation business after a first career as a high school teacher.

This is an examination of legal translation in its many facets from an interdisciplinary perspective, covering both theoretical and practical grounds and linguistic as well as legal issues. The text analyses the basic skills and competence of the legal translator and various types of legal texts.

The profession of legal translators and interpreters has been unjustly neglected despite its relevant role in international and multilingual legal settings. In order to bridge this gap, this volume brings together contributions from some of the leading experts in the field, including not only scholars, but also internationally acclaimed professional legal translators and interpreters. Coming from different EU Member States, the contributors address the status quo of the profession of legal translators and interpreters within their respective states, while proposing ways to raise the standards of the profession. In particular, effort is made to make the profession more uniform Union-wide in terms of training and accreditation of legal translators and interpreters and quality of their services. Topics covered include ISO standards for interpreting services in judicial settings, EULITA, Directive 2010/64/EU on the right to translation and interpretation in criminal proceedings, legal translation, translation of multilingual EU legislation, document translation, whispered interpreting, and the need to introduce uniform programmes for the education and training of legal translators and interpreters. Offering a mix of theory and practice, the book will appeal to scholars, practitioners and students with a special interest in legal translation and interpretation in the EU.

Arabic-English-Arabic Legal Translation provides a groundbreaking investigation of the issues found in legal translation between Arabic and English. Drawing on a contrastive-comparative approach, it analyses parallel authentic legal documents in both Arabic and English to examine the features of legal discourse in both languages and uncover the different translation techniques used. In so doing, it addresses the following questions: What are the features of English and Arabic legal texts? What are the similarities and differences of English and Arabic legal texts? What are the difficult areas of legal translation between English and Arabic legal texts? What are the techniques for translating these difficult areas on the lexical and syntactic levels? Features include: A thorough description of the features of legal translation in both English and Arabic, drawing on empirical new research, corpus data analysis and strategic two-way comparisons between source texts and target texts Coverage of a broad range of topics including an outline of the chosen framework for data analysis, a historical survey of legal discourse developments in both Arabic and English and detailed analyses of legal literature at both the lexical and syntactic levels Attention to common areas of difficulty such as Shariah Law terms, archaic terms and model auxiliaries Many examples and excerpts from a wide selection of authentic legal documents, reinforced by practical discussion points, exercises and practice drills to encourage active engagement with the material and opportunities for hands-on learning. Wide-ranging, scholarly and thought-provoking, this will be a valuable resource for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates on Arabic, Translation Studies and Comparative Linguistics courses. It will also be essential reading for translation professionals and researchers working in the field.

Being a Successful Interpreter: Adding Value and Delivering Excellence is a practice-oriented guide on the future of interpreting and the ways in which interpreters can adjust their business and professional practices for the changing market. The book considers how globalisation and human migration have brought interpreting to the forefront and the subsequent need for interpreters to serve a more diverse client base in more varied contexts. At its core is the view that interpreters must move from the traditional impartial and distant approach to become committed to adding value for their clients. Features include: Interviews with leading interpreting experts such as Valeria Aliperta, Judy and Dagmar Jenner and Esther Navarro-Hall Examples from authentic interpreting practice Practice-driven, research-backed discussion of the challenges facing the future of interpreting Guides for personal development Ideas for group activities and development activities within professional associations. Being a Successful Interpreter is a practical and thorough guide to the business and personal aspects of interpreting. Written in an engaging and user-friendly manner, it is ideal for professional interpreters practising in conference, medical, court, business and public service settings, as well as for students and recent graduates of interpreting studies. Winner of the Proz.com Best Book Prize 2016.

This long needed reference on the innumerable and increasing ways that the law intersects with translation and interpreting features essays by scholars and professions from the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, and Sweden. The essays range from sophisticated treatments of historical and hence philosophical variations in concept and practice to detailed practical advice on self-education. Essays show a particular concern for the challenges of courtroom discourse when the parties not only use different languages but operate from different cultural and legal traditions.

Translating in Town uncovers administrative and cultural multilingualism and translation practices in multilingual European communities during the long 19th century. Challenging the traditional narrative of nationalist, monolingual language ideologies, this book focuses instead upon translation policies which aimed to accommodate complex language situations with new democratic principles at local levels. Covering a time-frame from 1785 to 1914, chapters investigate towns and cities in the heartland of Europe, such as Barcelona, Milan and Vienna, as well as those on its outer rim, including Nicosia, Cork and Tampere. Highlighting the conflicts and negotiations that took place between official language(s), local language(s) and translation, the book explores the impact on both represented and non-represented monolingual and multilingual citizens. In so doing, Translating in Town highlights the subtle compromises obtained between official monolingualism, multilingualism and translation, and between competing views on official and private translation and transfer techniques, during this fascinating era of European history.