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Review of Thinking English Translation: Analysing and Translating English

Source Texts

Article in Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics · March 2019

DOI: 10.32601/ejal.543797

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 Available online at www.ejal.eu
http://dx.doi.org/10.32601/ejal.543797 EJAL
Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(1), 181–184 Eurasian Journal of
Applied Linguistics

Review of Thinking English Translation: Analysing

and Translating English Source Texts
Cüneyt Demir a *
a Siirt University, Kezer Campus, Siirt, 56100, Turkey

Received 19 November 2018 Received in revised form 01 January 2019 Accepted 03 January 2019

APA Citation:
Demir, C. (2019). Review of Thinking English Translation: Analysing and Translating English Source Texts. Eurasian
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(1), 181–184. Doi: 10.32601/ejal.543797

Abstract
Thinking English Translation: Analysing and Translating English Source Texts, Stella Cragie
and Ann Pattison. Routledge, Oxon / New York (2018). 134 pp., Paperback: £23.99, Hardback: £88.00,
ISBN: 978-1-138-71394-9
© 2019 EJAL & the Authors. Published by Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics (EJAL). This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY -NC-ND)
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Keywords: translation; fast-track; analysis; languages; texts

This book is a welcome contribution to the existing body of research into translation
studies. It is a helpful source for instructors of translation courses as well as advanced
undergraduate and postgraduate students. The nearest resource it could be compared
to is James’s (2012) Interpretation: Techniques and Exercises which provides more
detailed information on translation techniques for different discourses. Inside a
continuum of research, evaluation, and theorizing in translation studies, this book
offers implementation samples through authentic translation examples.
The book is organised into four chapters with a brief preface provided by the
authors. One useful feature of the book is that the chapters follow a line from
theoretical knowledge of translation to practical implementations. This allows readers
to get background knowledge on translation methodologies before translation
practices, though there is still room for pre-translation preparations. A glossary and
an index are provided at the end of the book. The first chapter includes criteria before
initiating translation; the second chapter informs readers on some grammar points,
and draws readers’ attention to various factors that may affect the quality of
translation. The third and fourth chapters include practical activities through ready-
made translation examples from different languages. In brief, the chapters fall
largely into two categories: theoretical and applied; the first two chapters explore

* Corresponding author Tel.: +90-505-937-4345

E-mail address: cuneytdemir@siirt.edu.tr
182 Demir / Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics 5(1) (2019) 181–184

ideas and theories whilst the last two chapters intend to put theoretical knowledge
into practice.
Chapter One, the longest chapter, aims to establish a general framework for pre-
translation analysis; i.e., it informs readers on what to know before starting a
translation process, which includes three phases: pre-translation reading, in-
translation reading, and post-translation reading. Having indicated the importance of
understanding the source text, the authors define the criteria of pre-translation
analysis through explanations of specific terms and example tasks for readers. The
criteria that the authors mentioned are subject matter, purpose of the translation,
genre, format, language related matters like grammar, vocabulary choice, discursive
features, organization of the translation, meaning, viewpoint, and culture and
context. The explanations of these criteria for pre-translation analysis may help
readers to create their own path in the process of prospective translations. At the end
of the chapter the authors provide a useful summary of the chapter. Also, key terms
are presented to familiarize the readers. The chapter is good for readers to develop an
analytical preview of translation.
Chapter Two mentions the importance of unique attributes that every language
holds in its structure as every language has its own distinctive features to be taken
into consideration throughout translation process like grammatical, lexical and
pragmatic (appropriate use of language in context) differences. It is underscored that
there is not an eclectic method that could be applied to all translation work; therefore,
each translation work is to be regarded as a unique work that necessitates customized
translation implementations. Being aware of the importance that register and genre
of a source text may have on the target text, the authors provides translation samples
from different registers such as recent and older texts, information and advice,
specialist and technical, fiction and non-fiction, and newspaper and magazine articles;
accordingly talks about the challenge that a translator may encounter if s/he is not
qualified in the register that the translation is carried out. In other words, any
registers that fall outside the translator’s specialization may affect the quality of the
translation, which is why familiarization with genres and registers is of utmost
importance for the translation quality. At the end of the chapter, some practical tips
on how to overcome the challenges that the context and registers have posed are
suggested.
Chapter Three provides authentic samples to illustrate the problems that a
translator may encounter in the process of translation. It is aimed at developing a
practical approach to source text analysis so that more informed, coherent and
appropriate target text may be created. To this purpose, the authors introduce a
technique that they have developed; fast-track analysis. The issues that are related to
establishing the theoretical foundation of pre-translation analysis in the first chapter
are put into practice through the implementation of the technique. The validity and
efficiency of the technique is tested through authentic translation samples so that its
merits could be witnessed by the readers. This technique is based on two questions:
what and how. What questions allow the translator to categorize the source text, thus
 Demir/ Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics 5(1) (2019) 181–184 183

understand the small details that should not be overlooked (e.g. what type of text is
it?) whilst how questions offer possible ways that the translator may follow in the
process of translation (e.g. How is the discourse organised?). In the chapter, you may
find many samples; first the full sample texts are given, and then the analyses are
conducted in line with the pre-translation criteria mentioned in the first chapter.
The final chapter is fully devoted to practical applications. It expands its scope
through some examples of texts from languages, namely, Arabic, Chinese, French,
Russian and Spanish. The text types include fiction, business, administration,
tourism, cookery, science and technology. The chapter can be thought as an
application area for ideas and theories covered in the previous chapters. Different
from the criteria used for the analyses in Chapter Three (pre-translation criteria), the
translation analyses in this chapter are conducted according to two strategies which
are macro (concise) and micro (detailed). After presenting the source text in English,
the translated text in the target language is provided. Then the translated text are
analysed based on macro and micro strategies. The activity is good to be able to show
weak and strong sides of the translation. This chapter can be thought as an annotated
activity chapter as it entirely includes assessment and evaluations of the sample
source texts.
Taken together, the book has many merits. The strong point of this book is that it
provides numerous authentic translation samples as well as critiques regarding some
translation problems. The book also deserves praise with its originality of developing
a technique which eases and accelerates the translation process thanks to the
successful pre-translation analysis. As known, one of the problems that students in
the Departments of Interpretation and Translation encounter is to create a
convenient framework before initializing a translation work (Gutt, 2014). Therefore,
this book may help them to establish a pre-translation framework for a better
understanding of how to approach source texts and where to start. On the whole, the
book widens our knowledge of analysis skill for translation process. However, there is
still room for minor critical remarks. One demerit of the book is the lack of theoretical
information on translation studies. Theoretical information is important in
constructing practical knowledge on it. Furthermore, the last chapter is absolutely
beneficial, though it would be better if there were not samples from so many different
languages since the authors miss providing enough explanation for each sample due
to number of languages. The struggle for providing examples as varied as possible is
absolutely praiseworthy; however, the number of the samples from each language is
not sufficient in understanding the basics of techniques mentioned in the Chapter
Three because only a few examples from different languages do not appear to be
enough to get the technique. Accordingly, a welcome addition for this book would
simply be the suggestion that the authors focus on two languages with most
translated text (namely English and French) rather than five languages so that more
detailed evaluations and samples could be presented for the readers. The last addition
is that more examples regarding the use of the developed technique on each language
may help readers be more practical in applying the technique in their own studies.
 184 Demir / Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics 5(1) (2019) 181–184

These minor shortcomings should not detract from the positive contribution that
this book makes to the translation studies. Thinking English Translation: Analysing
and Translating English Source Texts is valuable for anyone; particularly for
instructors who need a practical course book for their undergraduate students. I also
recommend this book for freelance translators, who make translation on different
genres, in order to critique their own work.

References

Gutt, E. A. (2014). Translation and relevance: Cognition and context. London, UK: Routledge.
Nolan, J. (2012). Interpretation: Techniques and exercises (Professional interpreting in the Real
world). Salisbury: MPG Books Group.

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Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the Journal.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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