James makes a good point about familiarity with subject matter. Even
in a language reasonably "close" to English, such as Spanish,
word-by-word translation can turn elegant Spanish into gibberish in
English. I have found the computer translations to be comically bad.
He makes another good point about the "accent". As an editor I
receive papers with said accent from non-native speakers, and many
from native speakers with fistsful of grade-school language errors.
The former deserve more of that flexibility.
Don
On May 19, 2009, at 6:51 AM, James J. Roper wrote:
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/>
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In Google Earth, copy and paste -> 9 21.122' N, 82 15.390' W
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--
Don McKenzie
Research Ecologist
Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab
US Forest Service
Affiliate Professor
College of Forest Resources and CSES Climate Impacts Group
University of Washington
phone: 206-732-7824
cell: 206-321-5966
[email protected]
