Scientific and Technical
Translation in English: Week 10
Dr. Ron Martinez

General course outline
• Week 1: Introduction to the course; Important concepts in translation
• Week 2: Research article structure, common discourse problems
• Week 3: Hands-on introduction to electronic tools; grammar in CARS
• Week 4: Intro to post-editing and glossaries; First IMRaD Team translation
• Week 5: Review of team translations; Introduction to corpus tools
• Week 6: Midterm preparation (no class, consultations only)
• Week 7 (4 April 2019): Midterm assessment (in-class)
• Week 8: Midterm review; Advanced uses of corpora
• Week 9: New teams, presentation of final translation articles by authors
• Week 10: Teams work on final translations
• Week 11: Continued work on final translations
• Week 12: Completion of final translations
• Week 13: Group presentations (x4)
• Week 14: Group presentations (x4)
• Week 15: Final group presentations (x3)

Aims for today
• Revisit glossary/corpus activity
• Start final project

WHAT IF THERE WERE A WAY THAT YOU
COULD AUTOMATICALLY IDENTIFY KEY
WORDS FOR A GLOSSARY?

Important concepts
• Sampling
• Representativeness
• Size

Homework – 1
• Build a mini corpus (between 3 to 10) PDF
articles, conveted into .txt, on any specific
topic.
• Generate a keyword list, and n-grams. Which
words/terms would you include in a glossary?
Create a glossary in Excel, and be prepared to
show it to others next class.

Homework - 2
• You will be sent 11 different articles. You
don’t need to read them thoroughly – just
“familiarize” yourself with them.
• Next class, the authors of those papers will
introduce themselves and talk about the
research. You will be assigned to one of those
articles – so it is very importante to attend the
next class.

Assessment
• Class participation (20%)
• Midterm (30%)
• Group presentation (15%)
• Final translation (35%)

Participation
• Presence in class
• Arriving on time
• Completion of tasks assigned in class and for
homework
• Soft skills!

Final Assessment
• You will have time in class to work, with
help/supervision (starting today)
• Translations (35%) should ideally be finished by May
9th
• Sequence of presentations will be determined by
article word count (without references).
• In addition, +10 extra points for 1st day presentations,
and +5 points for 2nd day presentations.
• Presentations (15%) will start on May 16th.
• 20 minutes per pair + 10 minutes Q&A.
• Attendance is mandatory – please be respectful of your
classmates.

Evalation Criteria: Translation (35%)
1. Accuracy – 50 points
2. Resourcefulness (incl. corpus tools, etc.) – 30
points
3. Lateral thinking/creativity – 10 points
4. Soft skills (including author communication)
– 10 points

Evaluation Criteria: Presentation (15%)
20 + 10 minutes for each pair, graded thusly:
• Thoroughness of documentation of translation
process (30 points)
• Presentation of problems and solutions (30
points)
• Evidence of learning/reflection/insight (20)
• Overall clarity of group presentation (10)
• Quality of slides and/or handout (10)

Presentation sequence
PAIR ARTICLE WORD COUNT
Bruna & Lola “Grau de moagem do milho...” 2743
João & Gabriela “A população negra africana...” 3331
Ana Luiza & Marcelle “Mapeamento da mortalidade em crianças..” 4042
Mauren & Luciana “A vitamina D influencia a função física...” 4135
Carolina & Thaina “Estimação de ... Velocidade de Turbinas...” 4755
Amanda & Olivia “...atrofia progressiva de retina em cães...” 5056
Paulo & Amanda “O espaço público na cidade...” 5593
Fabio & Marena “Contribuições das redes sociais...” 6105
Janice & Thais “Structural evolution of mantle peridotites…” 6998
Ïsabel & Andre “Os ativos verdes da Braskem...” 6999
Dayene & Edimara “Efeitos de um programa de intervenção...” 7001

Discuss your assigned articles
1. Did you read the article? What did you think in
terms of level of difficulty?
2. You will each have one section of segments to
translate. How will you approach this
translation?
3. Will you just dive into the translation, or will you
prepare some corpus work first, for example?
4. How will the pair dynamic work? Will you also
work individually?