Article: Tips for Writing Better Medical Texts in English
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Nov 1, 2005

This topic is for discussion of the ProZ.com translation article "Tips for Writing Better Medical Texts in English".

 
translatol
translatol
Local time: 19:19
Spanish to English
+ ...
(1) Understanding (2) Collocations Nov 2, 2005

Having just finished a very technical medical translation (on CSF shunts), I appreciatd this article and would recommend it to students and beginners. Hopefully the more experienced translators already know it all.

Just two comments.

1) There is no mention of something that is crucial for translators: UNDERSTANDING the source text. To translate without understanding is to translate blind - in any kind of translation. So understanding medical texts means having or acquri
... See more
Having just finished a very technical medical translation (on CSF shunts), I appreciatd this article and would recommend it to students and beginners. Hopefully the more experienced translators already know it all.

Just two comments.

1) There is no mention of something that is crucial for translators: UNDERSTANDING the source text. To translate without understanding is to translate blind - in any kind of translation. So understanding medical texts means having or acquring some medical background knowledge. Before I started my translation, I knew nothing about CSF shunts, so I took a couple of hours to read up about them. Fortunately these days, with Google and the like, it's not hard to find background material.

2) I think you're confusing collocations with idioms. Collocations exist in all registers of the languages that I work with. A collocation is a conventional word combination. So when I write "the patient presented with severe abdomen", 'presented with' is a verb + preposition collocation and 'severe abdomen' is a compound term collocation, and both are formal, technical medical language.

Please keep writing.

Brian Harris
Valencia, Spain
Collapse


 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Lucia Leszinsky[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Article: Tips for Writing Better Medical Texts in English






CafeTran Espresso
You've never met a CAT tool this clever!

Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer. Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools. Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free

Buy now! »
Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »