譯隻綠蠵龜

Once this time of year rolls back around, it also comes time to start working on the anual round of term papers. Of course this entails identifying one's topic, following a research plan, writing the paper according to specification, and finally crossing one's fingers, saying three hail mary's and handing it in for a grade.  This is where the work by Williams and Chesterman comes in.  "A Beginner's Guide to Doing Research in Translation Studies" identifies the areas where there has been work in Translation Studies, what work in those areas consists of, and what road should be taken after the desired area of research has been chosen. It renders the process, from begining to end, with clarity.
The way in which the first chapter classifies translation research give us domains where we can put theories we have learned this semester to use. For example: one could use Evan-Zohar's polysystem to conduct a source-oriented or target-language oriented study of a text. If done in compilation with other research projects of other texts in that culture, it may help to identify the place of translated texts in a culture's polysystem. Or, one could use the same system (polystystem) to compare translated texts and non-translated texts in a single culture. Similarly, one could investigate the effects translation has on various cultural areas by using the same methods of a post-colonial researcher like Naranjuna (or one of its opponents, like 張南峰).

  Their work also sheds light on areas that many--even translators--would not consider for translation research.  Fields like Translation Ethics, the Effects of Technology on Translation, or Workplace Studies are all virtually unknown, understudied, and underappreciated aspects of Translation Studies that would add a great deal to both the theoretical and applied.

The second chapter gives a helpful 'map,' as authors  couch it, for researchers in translation studies as they set out on their research. Here I must say that even though most of the stops on their map are the places we students are familiar with (read more, read critically, take note, ask yourself the who what when where why how), still it is helpful to have it down in writing for when we get lost in our research.

Williams and Chesterman's description of translation research not only facilitates the research we will soon be conducting as students, it also put the papers we have already read this semester in better perspective. Being able to take past research papers (or books), separate them into their respective areas, and reverse engineer the researcher's angle of attack, makes it easier for us students to see the final product while keeping in mind the kind of work that must have gone into producing it. In a way, it is a glance at the man behind the curtain before we take his place.