atw: Re: Greek, etc [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
- From: Howard.Silcock@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 09:55:37 +1000
> Another instance comes from my first real gig doing stuff for
translation, when the translator said no " n't" shortening, or
abbreviations like "e.g:".
My reaction to this is: who does this translator think he or she is? A
translator isn't supposed to tell the author how to write - and if s/he
can't make sense of words ending in "n't", I'd be looking for someone else
to do the work! I'm happy to make allowances in my writing for readers
whose native language isn't English, but not if they call themselves
translators. It's a translator's job to understand the language they're
translating from, and if those simple things are too much for them, how
can we trust them to handle much more complex nuances that could well
arise?
Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating using those abbreviations (e.g.
and so on) or "n't" contractions (though I think these are OK for some
types of document). It's just the idea of a translator imposing
limitations on a writer that irks me.
Or was the translator just providing advice on how to write a document
that *wasn't* going to be translated?
Howard
Howard Silcock
Technical Writer
Zare Pty Ltd
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