The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2022 - 18

style, voice, and tone in
translations. Basic rules also
serve as key points to help
translators stay on track:
1. Understand before
you translate.
2. Give preference to terms
in Spanish.
3. Use consistent phrases,
terminology, and style.
4. Use reference materials
and include sources for
new or difficult terms.
5. Don't use regionalisms.
6. Avoid passive voice.
7. Follow style and
punctuation rules in
this guide.
8. Use usted in general; use
tú in social media.
9. Use language that's
simple, clear, and logical.
10. Review before you deliver
or publish.
Figure 1: Outline of NCI's Spanish-language translation style guide developed in OneNote
Most of the
time, translation
style guides are
either too short
or too long to
be practical.
include short bullet points,
a list of dos and don'ts,
and specific examples from
NCI's content. (Note: The
examples provided in this
article are in Spanish, but
this approach can be applied
to other languages.)
Outline
Based on the style issues that
came up during translation
reviews, we organized the
guide into the following
sections (see Figure 1 above):
1. Introduction
2. Basic Rules
3. Types of Content
4. Plain (Clear) Language
5. Style Norms
6. Publication Titles
7. Uppercase and Lowercase
8. Accents
18 The ATA Chronicle | July/August 2022
9. Punctuation
10. Numbers and Symbols
11. Abbreviations
12. Acronyms
13. Italics
14. Attachments
The Attachments section
included lists with the names
of institutes, federal agencies,
and programs and studies, as
well as common and preferred
phrases and useful translation
resources.
Basic Rules
Inspired by William Strunk
and E.B. White's Elements
of Style, we included 10
basic rules for working with
translations. These rules
provide actionable steps and
set priorities for a consistent
Purpose
To keep our style guide brief,
we started by clearly stating
its purpose: solving common
style and terminology issues
during translation. For
users looking for answers
on general spelling and
grammar, we identified
specific resources. (See
Figure 2 on page 19.)
We were excited about
how the new style guide was
developing, but progress
slowed as more translation
requests and other special
projects came up. Did we
mention we were a team
of two working with two
part-time freelancers? Does
this sound familiar? With
competing priorities, we
knew developing a traditional
style guide would take longer
than expected.
www.atanet.org
http://www.atanet.org
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