Academic papers: in-line citations of translated quotes Thread poster: Sarah Hirsch
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Sarah Hirsch 
United States
Local time: 13:15
Spanish to English
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I just translated an academic paper on economics, along with various citations within the text. How do I mention this in the in-line citations? For example, would my translated text be: "blah de blah is really cool" (Doe 123, translation by author)? Do I get credit? My client told me that in Spanish it would be "traducción propia", which makes sense, but doesn't translate idiomatically in this context. Any thoughts? Thanks!
| | | | | Easy with footnotes/endnotes | Apr 6, 2018 |
I almost never work with in-line citations, because they are very uncommon in my field. In notes, it's easy, you just add "All translations by Sarah Hirsch, unless otherwise noted," at the end of the first note citing the source of a translated quotation. Because your readers have the title of the cited source in each note, it's easy for them to recognize whether or not a given quotation has been translated.
I suppose you could just add the same comment inside the parentheses at the... See more I almost never work with in-line citations, because they are very uncommon in my field. In notes, it's easy, you just add "All translations by Sarah Hirsch, unless otherwise noted," at the end of the first note citing the source of a translated quotation. Because your readers have the title of the cited source in each note, it's easy for them to recognize whether or not a given quotation has been translated.
I suppose you could just add the same comment inside the parentheses at the end of the first quotation: Readers who are interested enough to care whether a given quotation is translated or not can flip to the bibliography at the end of the text to see the title of the cited source. ▲ Collapse
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Were all citations translated by you, or some by you and others by the author?
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 11:15
Dutch to English
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| Translation in brackets | Apr 7, 2018 |
In the case of inline citations, I usually put: ("Original title, year") [translation of title]. The brackets already indicate that this was added by the translator and no further mention of it is necessary (no credit).
Economics falls under social sciences where inline citations are common. Most follow APA style. You can find their publication manual online at http://www.apa.org/
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Sarah Hirsch
United States
Local time: 13:15
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Sole Translator | Apr 7, 2018 |
Teresa Borges wrote:
Were all citations translated by you, or some by you and others by the author?
All of them were by me.
| | | | | | | Translations of in-text citations | Apr 8, 2018 |
Teresa makes an important point, although I am uncertain that the APA is actually the reference for economic aacdemic writing. I think that Harvard may be more common. You may like to check with the client, who may need to check with the editor.
| | | | | Link to APA-blog very interesting | Apr 9, 2018 |
Chicago's FAQs (or Q&As) suggests using "my translation" in the situation you've described (see, e.g. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0030.html).
That's a very helpful solution for translators, because it fits nicely with the standard expression in a lot of foreign languages. It seems short enough for ... See more Chicago's FAQs (or Q&As) suggests using "my translation" in the situation you've described (see, e.g. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0030.html).
That's a very helpful solution for translators, because it fits nicely with the standard expression in a lot of foreign languages. It seems short enough for repeated use in parentheses. On the other hand, if it seems to be unnecessarily cluttering up the page, the information seems more or less redundant if a foreign-language title is being cited.
And thanks for the blog link, Teresa: I had heard translators express that position before, but never really taken it seriously. Now I know of a semi-authoratative source (it's the blog, not the manual) actually arguing for paraphrasing all translations of quotations when using APA style. APA also translates article titles from Western European languages, which always seemed like an aberration to me, but I now know it is standard in some fields.
Otherwise, I agree with Nikki: I don't think the question can be answered in a productive way unless it is linked with a specific style guide or citation style. For example, the APA blog wants the translation formatted as a paraphrase and not a direct quotation, which is the exact opposite of what the Chicago FAQs state and what has always seemed to me to be standard practice in texts from my fields (humanities: literature, history, art history).
Most English-language journals and academic publishers have a section on their website called "instructions for authors" (or something similar), which will lead you to a style guide. If that option isn't available (often the case with bilingual publications published outside the English-speaking world), you can tell the author that he or she needs to ask the editor (or the agency to ask the author to ask the editor). If that option doesn't work, then you can look at 3 or 5 journals from the field and published in the relevant target-language country, see what they do, and then tell the author you are going to do that unless they explicitly tell you to do something else. ▲ Collapse
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