My Personal Style Guide for the ATA Translation Exam into Spanish
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Based on the comments from a failed exam. I am writing this to help others not fail the same way!
- Include necessary clarifying information to reduce ambiguity. (register former inmates/registrar para votar a los que hab铆an sido鈥) (spread the word to thousands鈥 /informarles la decisi贸n a decenas de miles鈥) Keep it to a minimum. The translation should stand on its own. Sometimes a cultural point needs to be made or an explanation given, but the passages are carefully selected so that does NOT have to be done.
- Make sure caps and punctuation follow Spanish rules. Double check RAE resources in case of doubt. (el partido dem贸crata: capitalize. Es nombre propio. Partido Dem贸crata)
- Get your quote marks in the Spanish order! Dijo, 鈥淓sto no me gusta un comino鈥. (las comillas van antes de las comas y los puntos en castellano, al rev茅s que en ingl茅s.
- Words in the RAE dictionary count for sure. Word creation counts, even using Spanish morphology rules, but they have to follow accepted Spanish morphology rules, and words shouldn鈥檛 be created when other words already exist in the dictionaries of reference. (former prisoners/excarcelados: corrected to exreclusos, antiguos reos).
- Maintain the register.
- Use proper Spanish syntax. (reconoce es posible: reconoce que es posible)
- Word Reference is a good starting terminology resource. Verify its terms with a second source.
- Don鈥檛 get more creative than necessary. Often a literal translation is the best. (might soften their image/que posiblemente matice su imagen:corrected to suavice)
- Check the monolingual dictionary, but not just for the meaning of a word. Check it for usage: is it transitive? How does it fit in a sentence? (spread the word to thousands鈥 /informarles a miles鈥 : informarles la decisi贸n a decenas de miles鈥) informar is a transitive verb.
- Don鈥檛 stutter! (presos en las prisiones)
- Spelling! (libertado condicional: libertad condicional)
- Faux ami (non violent drug offenses/ofensas no violentas: delitos no violentos) Las ofensas son algo totalmente distinto en castellano.
- Printed resources are another reliable choice. Having printed resources also keeps you from going back and forth from your document to another screen, which is hard with the laptop. My favorites:
- Alcaraz-Var贸 legal and business (those are two separate dictionaries), but the Merl Bilingual Law Dictionary by Cuauthemoc Gallegos actually had the best answers in all cases and was easier to sort through the answers. The Business Spanish Dictionary, by Peter Collin Publishing is equivalent to the Merl in my opinion. For the general texts, we shouldn鈥檛 need anything in greater depth than these dictionaries. Cabanellas is great, but they are unidirectional volumes, so you have to buy both volumes to have both directions.
- CLAVE (monolingual Spanish), DELE (Diccionario de la Lengua Espa帽ola 鈥 latest version of the RAE dictionary): take them both.
- Webster鈥檚 New World International Spanish Dictionary. I like this dictionary because it includes a lot of technical terminology, so most technical terms we run into are likely to be here.
- El buen uso del espa帽ol. This book has a two-page spread on the main issues of Spanish grammar and spelling. It was published by RAE in 2013, after all the new Gram谩tica and Ortograf铆a works of 2010 were completed, with the intention of being a quick reference.
- Ortograf铆a escolar de la lengua espa帽ola. Published by RAE for students in 2013 as a quick reference.
- The American Heritage College Dictionary (English monolingual)
- Remember, the general text can have a lot of specialist content in it. Don鈥檛 count on general texts not including technical vocabulary. Be ready for basic technical vocabulary. What you won鈥檛 have to do is deal with formulaic technical texts.
- Good book for learning Spanish writing: Curso de Redacci贸n 鈥 Teor铆a y Practica, by Gonzalo Mart铆n Vivaldi
- Now, go and beat it! May this experience help you!
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