AU Educate

TY - CHAP

T1 - Technical documentation and (technical) translation

T2 - a case study of work practices and concepts

AU - Christensen, Tina Paulsen

AU - Schjoldager, Anne

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - The paper reports on and discusses the results of a case study carried out at a medium-sized Danish Language Service Provider, which offered both technical documentation and translation on a regular basis, a new practice that lacks theoretical and empirical research. Within the field of technical communication studies (Schubert 2009), the study used contextual inquiry and qualitative organisational research methodology and showed that both managers and employees viewed the activities of technical documentation and translation as distinct activities: techncial documentation was conceptualised as a creative process of writing, while translation was conceptualised as a mainly linguistic task. While the workflows of the two activities were mostly unconnected and independent of each other, their processes became connected and interdependent when technical documentation was to be translated. Then, for instance, the technical writer would make his texts particularly suitable for translation by focusing more on linguistic and terminological consistency, and he would participate in the quality assurance of the translations. This occasional connectedness of the processes of the two activities is interesting because it verifies Schubert's (2003) Integrative Model of Specialised Communication.

AB - The paper reports on and discusses the results of a case study carried out at a medium-sized Danish Language Service Provider, which offered both technical documentation and translation on a regular basis, a new practice that lacks theoretical and empirical research. Within the field of technical communication studies (Schubert 2009), the study used contextual inquiry and qualitative organisational research methodology and showed that both managers and employees viewed the activities of technical documentation and translation as distinct activities: techncial documentation was conceptualised as a creative process of writing, while translation was conceptualised as a mainly linguistic task. While the workflows of the two activities were mostly unconnected and independent of each other, their processes became connected and interdependent when technical documentation was to be translated. Then, for instance, the technical writer would make his texts particularly suitable for translation by focusing more on linguistic and terminological consistency, and he would participate in the quality assurance of the translations. This occasional connectedness of the processes of the two activities is interesting because it verifies Schubert's (2003) Integrative Model of Specialised Communication.

UR - https://www.frank-timme.de/verlag/verlagsprogramm/buch/suchbegriff/Klaus%20Schubert/verlagsprogramm/heike-elisabeth-juengstlisa-linkklaus-schubertchristiane-zehrer-eds-challenging-boundaries/backPID/suche.html?sword=Klaus%2520Schubert

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9783732905249

T3 - TransUeD

SP - 17

EP - 37

BT - Challenging Boundaries

A2 - Jüngst, Heike Elisabeth

A2 - Link, Lisa

A2 - Schubert, Klaus

A2 - Zehrer, Christiane

PB - Frank & Timme

CY - Berlin

ER -