Hello all, I have been translating papers from Portuguese and Spanish, and fixing the English in papers already translated, for around 10 years now. As a biologist, I can usually figure out what the person wished to say in English and how to say it reasonably well. However, I have seen that when translated or reviewed by an English speaker who is NOT a biologist, or a non-native English speaker who speaks English very well, the translations often end up very poorly written. Also, translations are often done by computer and the original author often may not have the ability to recognize poorly written English and all these cause issues with the paper after it is submitted.
At the same time, reviewers often seem disinclined to allow for what we might call an accent in the English. I have seen papers with minimal "accent" that often came after a translation when the original author thought that one or two sentences needed revision, and did so without consulting the translator. Those few sentences caught the eye of the reviewer who then gave a blanket recommendation to review the ENTIRE English. Perhaps reviewers need to be a little more flexible as well. Jim Hamazaki, Hamachan (DFG) wrote on 19-May-09 3:33: > One snag with this is the language barrier for those writing papers in > their second or third language: English. > > I agree with Cara. > > I always submit manuscript after being edited by my native English speaker > co-workers and a professional editor. Even after those editing, journal > reviewers often put low on Readability Criteria, such as > > * Interest: Captures and holds readers' attention. > * Understandable: Uses easy-to-understand language and flows smoothly. > * Development: Appropriately sequences and constructs paragraphs and > sentences to support the central idea and conclusions. > * Mechanics: Uses acceptable standards of spelling and grammar. > > In my experience, most of my Native English speaking coworkers can correct > simple spelling and grammar errors. However, most of them can't correct > language flow smoothly, except for them rewriting the entire manuscript, > which they would not do. > > > Toshihide "Hamachan" Hamazaki, PhD : 濱崎俊秀：浜ちゃん > Alaska Department of Fish & Game > Division of Commercial Fisheries > 333 Raspberry Rd. Anchorage, Alaska 99518 > Ph: 907-267-2158 > Fax: 907-267-2442 > Cell: 907-440-9934 > E-mail: [email protected] > > CL wrote: > > One snag with this is the language barrier for those writing papers in > their second or third language: English. I'm working hard to get my > Taiwanese students to attend and follow directions, but it is an uphill > battle. Some authors are just going to need some help. > > CL > > malcolm McCallum wrote: > > we are > > working to shift most of the formatting to the authors, but this > > requires VERY GOOD directions! > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Cara Lin Bridgman [email protected] > > P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin > Longjing Township http://www.BugDorm.com > Taichung County 43499 > Taiwan Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ James J. Roper Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Bocas del Toro Marine Research Station MRC 0580-03 Unit 9100, Box 0948 DPO AA 34002-9998 Skype-in (USA):+1 706 5501064 Skype-in (Brazil):+55 41 39415715 E-mail - personal: [email protected] E-mail - consulting: [email protected] STRI Bocas del Toro <http://www.stri.org/english/research/facilities/marine/bocas_del_toro/index.php> Programa de Po's-graduac,a~o em Ecologia e Conservac,a~o <http://www.bio.ufpr.br/ecologia/> Educational Pages <http://jjroper.googlepages.com/> Ars Artium Consulting <http://arsartium.googlepages.com/> 9^o 21.122' N, and 82^o 15.390' W In Google Earth, copy and paste -> 9 21.122' N, 82 15.390' W ------------------------------------------------------------------------
