In: Trends in E-Tools and Resources for Translators and Interpreters
Search for other papers by Joanna Gough in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
The use of resources plays an important role in the translation process. Despite the increased adoption of translation technologies, professional translators can spend on average as much as one third of their actual translation time on various external consultations of resources. From a methodological point of view, investigating the use of resources in the translation process has proven to be a difficult task, even in the relatively uniform working environments of the pre-Internet era. Now that most external resources have moved from paper to online and have started to merge into the complex, heavily technologised translation environments, these investigations have become even more demanding. The present chapter explores the various challenges of conducting research into the use of external resources over the last few decades and presents a multi-method approach suited to the complex translation environment of today. It draws on findings from a recent study into the use of resources by professional translators showing how the adoption of this approach enabled a multi-dimensional exploration of translators’ research behaviours in their natural working environment and facilitated the subsequent classification of these behaviours into a Typology of Translator Research Styles (ttrs).