Developing Evaluation Skills with Legal Translation Trainees

Axiomatically, translation is twofold: an activity/process (more accurately designated by the term translating) and a product (the term translation can be restricted to the product). It seems that the product dimension has gained increased importance, being the most visible part of translation as market-driven, design-oriented, precise and measurable - complying with specifications. Translation engenders a sequence: identification of text type and of end users’ needs (experts or non-experts in the field), evaluation of the complexity of the source text via global reading, followed by a close reading of its parts, the translating of the document, the translator’s checking of final version, editing and proofreading. The translator’s choices are accountable in point of cost-effectiveness (efficiency) and effectiveness. Therefore, the legal translator should master the methodological toolkit, conceptual frame and related terminology, and adopt an inward-looking perspective (intuition, subjectivity, ingrained habits, insights deriving from his/her expertise and experience) alongside an outward-looking one (working against objective criteria, standards of quality, benchmarks, etc).