Beginning Translator's Workbook

This workbook combines methodology and practice for use in a course for beginning translators with a solid proficiency in French It takes a linguistic approach to the problems of translation in addressing common and major pitfalls, such as delineation of “translation units’ or what constitutes a concept beyond mere words, word polysemy, false cognates, structural and cultural obstacles to literal translation. It offers chapter-by-chapter explanations of the various strategies used by professional translators to counter these problems: the translation devices known as transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. Each chapter concludes with a variety of practice exercises focusing on one specific problem. The second part of the book is a global application of all the principles taught in the first part and guides the student step by step through the actual translation of a choice of literary (prose, poetry and plays) and non-literary excerpts.

Features include:

Each problem in translation is given a specific chapterEach chapter ends with practice exercises for that specific problem in translationModels of literary and non-literary translation are given to guide the student towards what to aim for in translationA list of free online resources for translation in specific fields, such as business, medicine, the law, computer science, science and technology, slang and idiomatic expressions, is provided at the end of the bookA list of books on translation studies is provided at the end

For this second edition, clarifications have been provided in the chapters on the theory of translation that deal with the various strategies used in translation in order to make those strategies more understandable. Furthermore, extra exercises to practice each strategy have been added with model-examples on how to do these exercises before each exercise. Update of some content has also been added throughout the book.

Class support for instructors has been updated in the form of a PDF document on the various translations strategies to show in class with extra exercises to use with students and is made available to them as well as keys to all exercises for the new edition upon writing the Publisher at textbooks@rowman.com

Michele H. Jones was born in France where she received a Master’s Degree in English from the University of Nantes, Lower Brittany. She holds a Ph.D. in French from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, and a certificate in translation studies (legal, medical, commercial and advertising) from New York University. She has presented at the American Translation Association, a presentation published in the ATA Chronicle as “Teaching French to English Translation to Beginning Translators: a Linguistic Approach” Jan 1999 pp.50-54
She is also the author of a book on French grammar specifically intended for Anglophones “French Grammar by Charts: A Comprehensive Review”.
She teaches French at St John’s University in New York City where she is also currently director of the Global Language and Culture Center .