Good translators are well aware of both the visible and hidden issues underlying translation. The prime objective is to work in their clients’ interests (whether the latter be a lawyer involved in a fraud case, a salted peanut vendor, a publisher, a film director, a software developer or a political asylum seeker), or at least, to make sure that their translations will not be detrimental to those interests.

Translators must first and foremost strive to avoid making serious errors (those that can cause considerable damage, like mistranslating drug dosages, switching round the connections in a wiring diagram, confusing a rise with a fall or clockwise with anti-clockwise…) or producing nonsense (e.g. increase the inflation of the bladder instead of “inflate the football” ).

Good quality translation must be comprehensible (even though the source documents itself may not be all that clear), clear (unless of course the translated document is designed to be deliberately ambiguous or unclear, such as the software documentation which was designed to prompt the buyer to contact the support service. . . where he or she could then be persuaded to buy other company products!), acceptable for the reader and, if possible, pleasant to read. The message should be totally coherent as regards the subject matter, the targeted end-users and the aims it sets out to facilitate or achieve.

The contents should be entirely compatible with the end-users’ way of thinking, value systems, preconceived ideas, disabilities, tastes, expectations and culture. In that respect, most people are not aware that in many international groups, the English language documentation designed for production line operatives is produced in three different versions: one for United Kingdom operatives, one for American operatives and one for East Asian operatives. This does not simply mean that each of the three versions is written in whichever variety of English is most relevant for the market concerned. They also differ widely in their contents and structure, in order to take into account deep conceptual-cultural differences.

Finally, translations should comply with all the relevant conventions applicable to efficient communication, and in particular, with all the stereotypes dictated by the subject domain, the medium used and by target language itself in terms of content categories, lines of reasoning, discourse organisation, phrasing and wording. At least in certain fields of industry, such as aeronautics or information technology, compliance is with “controlled languages”, with mandatory or forbidden terminology and phraseology, predetermined paragraph and sentence structures, limits on segment length, etc.

Translations can be categorized in a variety of ways. The most common classification is by subject matter or “domain”: translation of literary work (novels, short stories, poetry, etc.), literary translation with possible subcategories as theatrical translation (stage drama), translation of poetry, translation of children’s books, translation of technical documents: technical translation, translation of medical documents (biomedical or pharmaceutical for instance): medical translation, translation of documents relating to the economy: economic translation, -translation of documents relating to banking and finance: financial translation, translation of documents having a legal tenor or translated for lawyers, so- called legal translation, translation of marketing and promotional documents, translation of ICT documents, other types of translation specific to various sciences, subject areas or economic sectors.

Another criterion for classification or sub-classification would be type of document. In that case, one would speak of such ‘specialties’ as translation of insurance policies, translation of reports, translation of users’ guides, translation of catalogues and parts lists, translation of travel guides, translation of presentations, translation of e-learning courses, and, of course, translation of patents, etc.

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