This page of the ATS website features various
German and English articles about aspects of the
translation business likely to interest purchasers of
translations as well as translators.
Most of these articles have
already been printed in trade journals, conference
proceedings or blogs. One or two
of them have been written by freelance translators we
employ.
You'll also find some
social bookmarks and links to other sites of
interest such as translators'
forums ("platforms") and
newsletters published by translators'
associations.
Please visit this page regularly as it is updated
and expanded from time to time.
Articles on legal issues
Patent translation
- "Die Sprache der
Patente" by Peter Thompson, Kiel, Germany
(on the language used in patents and the
difficulties such texts present)
-
(reprinted by courtesy of Peter Thompson and
ADÜ Nord. First published in the 3rd ADÜ Nord
Conference documentation, Hamburg, 2007).
Pricing translations
- Preisentwicklung und Preisgestaltung im
Übersetzungsbereich. "Reine Lockangebote..." by Axel
Schmidt, freelance journalist
(on good and bad ways of using pricing to attract
customers)
-
Reprinted courtesy of Hüthig Verlag. First
printed in Produkt Global, issue 04/08
Articles on the Web
Various Web platforms for translators also feature
articles that are directly relevant to our work. Here
are just a few of them that we visit from time to
time:
Translator's Café has a series of free articles on
how to do things as a
translator, such as how to market yourself, how to work
with translation agencies and direct customers, how to
use CAT tools, how to go about proofreading or
localisation, and so on.
ProZ.com is another popular platform that features
a large number of articles on translation. You'll find
them listed here.
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Newsletters, magazines and blogs
Two very active translators' associations in
Germany, namely the BDÜ and ADÜ Nord, both produce free
newsletters and/or magazines for their members (which
interested non-members can buy).
The BDÜ's journal, "MDÜ", can be ordered via its website (it's
listed in the navigation bar). This contains articles,
reviews of dictionaries and details of forthcoming
workshops.
In addition to this national publication, there are
a number of local newsletters issued by the BDÜ's
regional groups for their members. These also feature
articles, some of which are written in response to
members' enquiries about issues, and summaries of local
training events are included as well.
The ADÜ Nord's publication is simply called
"infoblatt" and is available in PDF or print format. To
sign up for it, go to their website and click on
"Publikationen" > "infoblatt" in the green
navigation bar on the left).
The website contains various articles as well (go
to "Archiv").
Publications including articles on topics of
current interest can obviously be discussed at local
meetings or in Web forums (like "MeinBDÜ") if
translators wish.
Blogs
Blogs (= "Web logs", a sort of interactive personal diary or commentary) are
a form of "Web 2.0" communication that can
also be an interesting platform for
translators to discuss their thoughts and ideas with other readers.
Here are a few in English and German that we've
come across on the Net and can recommend. (These
generally also contain links to other blogs of
interest.)
- Thoughts on
Translation
by Corinne McKay.
One of the many interesting posts Corinne has
written here is on whether or not to lower your
translation rates because of the economic slump.
Her readers' comments on the topic are also worth
browsing through.
Corinne has also written down some essential tips
about doing
proof-reading, which will be of interest to any
translator wishing to produce high-quality texts in
his/her own language. Again, her readers' comments
are also helpful.
- Swedish Translation
Services' blog by Tess Whitty, a Swedish
translator and editor living in the US who writes
about many aspects of translation work.
- Naked
Translations by Céline Graciet (on curious
aspects of English and French).
- Translating
Patents, run by Martin Cross, who runs his own
patent translation business.
- Margaret Marks'
TRANSBLAWG blog on legal translation.
As well as writing about a host of topics, Margaret
lists various other translators' blogs in English,
German, Dutch, French, Italian and Portuguese (along
with other resources for translators).
- Kevin Lossner's Translation
Tribulations, "an exploration of translation
technologies, marketing strategies, workflow
optimization, resource reviews and other topics of
interest".
Kevin, an independent freelance translator and CAT
technology consultant, wrote a
review of our website and firm on his blog on
8 May 2009.
- The Translation
Journal.
- Plus
Translation Directory's list of blogs on
translation, which covers blogs in various languages,
not just English.
-
Über-Setzer-Log - a well-written German blog by
Gabriele Zöttl (with links to a host of other German
blogs).
- There are lots of intriguing articles on another
German blog by korrektur.de, a
German proof-reading service.
The site even has its own forum about issues in
spelling and wording in German.
Social bookmarking
This is also a promising area for translators -
another way of profiting from the community idea of Web
2.0: you can share your own bookmarks with anyone
interested in looking at them or benefit from other
translators' collections of potentially useful Web links.
More stuff on translation...
Go to the "Reviews" page on our website to find out what we think about various dictionaries, manuals and literature concerned with translation. You might fancy reading or using some of them yourself afterwards.
ATS, Amper Translation Service, Fürstenfeldbruck,
translation, editing, translation agency, language
services, Carl Carter, BDÜ, ADÜ Nord, articles, essays,
resources, literature, liability, legal aspects, blogs,
prices, pricing, patents, patent translation,
newsletters, magazines, journals, Web 2.0, forums,
bookmarks, social bookmarking, proz.com, translator's
cafe, marketing, CAT, CAT tools, proof-reading,
localisation, localization
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