The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2018 - 9

OUTREACH REPORT

BY MADALENA SÁNCHEZ ZAMPAULO

Talking Language to "Word People" at the ACES:
Society for Editing

I

t's always great fun to meet fellow
"word people" and discuss language. I
had the pleasure of doing so recently in
Chicago, when I presented a 60-minute
session at the ACES: Society for Editing
(formerly known as the American Copy
Editors Society) annual conference in
April. ACES is an organization for editing
professionals in various industries, as
well as educators and students.1 Similar
to ATA, its members are word-loving,
friendly, and collaborative. So, I was
delighted when my proposal to present
"What to Know Before You Send Your
Copy for Translation" was accepted.
While I only recently became a member
of ACES, I found that I was not the only
translation/interpreting professional at the
conference. During my time in Chicago,
I met with two other ATA members who
also belong to ACES and who found the
conference to be a good investment in
their professional development.
While I had the advantage of speaking
to an audience of professionals who
understand and appreciate the power of
carefully placed punctuation and selecting
the proper term for a given text, I was also
surprised to find that this audience had its
own set of questions about what we do and
how we do it. There were about 35 people
in attendance during my session-editors
and copywriters, team leads from midsize companies who frequently work with
translators and localizers, and even some
senior editors from large corporations.
There were even some students who
approached me afterward to discuss their
interest in ATA and in potentially pursuing
a career in translation. All in all, the
diversity of attendees impressed me and
reminded me of the diversity within our
own organization.
My presentation was about how to find
and work with professional translators
and editors who specialize in the specific
area(s) in which copywriters and editors
produce content. I began by talking to
attendees about what it takes to create
a great translation and how to find
professional translators and editors in the

www.atanet.org

target language. I promoted ATA's Directory
of Translators and Interpreters several times
throughout the session, and those present
were grateful for the resource.
Next, I discussed important ways
a translation team can support one
another in gaining insight about the
target language. I covered such topics
as the ability to discuss nuances in the
source text and how they will translate
to the target language, how to define
the purpose or goal of the copy to be
translated, and how to determine the ideal
readership. I mentioned that all these
factors can and do affect such aspects as
word choice, the level or technical nature
of language used, and sentence structure.
I also briefly discussed the importance of
creating a style guide with the translation
team's assistance. I found the article
by ATA member Carolyn Yohn in the
January/February 2018 issue of The ATA
Chronicle, "Copyediting for Stand-Out
Style in Any Translation" to be a helpful
resource for this audience and shared it
with them.2 They were very pleased to
receive this information as well.
I went on to examine other factors to
consider discussing with when working

with a translation team, such as active
versus passive voice, the use of gender
and pronouns, and formal versus
informal language use. I mentioned the
many advantages of collaborating with
the translation team throughout the
translation process, as good translators ask
questions to produce the best product. I
drove these types of messages home by
sharing callouts like this one on my slides:
"It is better to answer questions
during the process itself than to have
your copy become lost in translation."
As it turned out, these callouts were a
great idea, as the conference organizers
had assigned a hashtag to each session.
The hashtag used for my session was
#ACESTranslation. I thought this
was a very clever way for everyone to
follow along with the sessions they
were interested in learning more about,
especially those unable to attend.
Attendees also posed some thoughtprovoking questions after my presentation.
One that stood out concerned the use of
machine translation (MT) and its potential
capabilities in assisting copywriters and
editors in their work. I mentioned the
American Translators Association

9


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The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2018 - Cover2
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