Types of Translation

06 Dec Types of Translation

Language translation as a profession has grown tremendously over the past years. Currently, there are different types of translation services with each category being served by specialized translators. The most common of these categories include the following;

Technical Translation

Technical translations revolve around translating user manuals and other documentations on the use of appliances or equipment. Technical texts on the other hand is the form of writing used in fields such as engineering, chemistry, electronics and any other industrial related text. Scientific translation falls under this category and deals with texts such as thesis, dissertation and research reports.

Legal Translation

This kind of translation covers all things related to law. Theses essentially include contracts and treaties and common documents such as arrest warrants, and corporate law among others. Translators in this category have a solid background information on law as well as the necessary language skills. To effective translate legal documents, translators should possess the basic understanding of the socio-cultural scene in the target audience. This important because due to the implications of legal documents, a minor alteration to the meaning of a legal text could prove costly.

Business Translation

Business translation deals with commercials documents. Documents include letters (E-mail), invoices, credit and debit orders, purchase orders, bills and business reports. The financial documents in a commerce include elements such as taxation, accounting, auditing, bank statements, and pay slips. Business translation is interlinked with legal translations due to the huge amount of legal responsibilities businesses have.

Judicial Translation

Judicial translations are different from legal translation and are basically the kind undertaken during a proceedings in court. Translators have a wide knowledge of the terminologies used and translate documents which include court minutes, expert-takes, interrogation sessions and disposition.

Market Translation

Marketing translation looks to adapt the language to a target audience while still trying to maintain the appeal of the sales copy. The message should stay on brand while still evolving to meet the tastes of different cultures. Translators seek to maintain the humor, pons, idioms, metaphors, and imagery in the message.

Literary Translation

This refers to the translation of literary works such as plays, poems, short stories and novels. These translations require a lot of effort and skill from the translator with the translations considered literature works in their own right. This is because literary translations go beyond the usual translation of context and factors in elements such as feelings, emotions, humor and other muted elements of literary works. Some writings such as poems are impossible to translate beyond the contextual meaning since any attempts to add a rhyme scheme can result in a totally different meaning.

Website translation

Web translation also known as web localization is a type of translation that aims to adapt a website to a target audience. This is through language modification and cultural consideration. Through this technique, companies are able to expand to non-English speaking territories. As a result, international sales increase increasing the overall profitability of a company.

Medical Translation

Medical translation covers the translation of medical reports, health care insurance policies and other forms of texts that both doctors and patients rely on. It also overlaps with technical translation in the translation of user manuals for medical equipment and machinery. Translators require specialty and a deep understanding of terminologies in both the source and second language.

Translation services help streamline these sectors by facilitating communication and the conveyance of information.