| As a major form of practical writing, informative texts are widely used in our life; therefore, their translation is always a focus in translation study. With its primary function to convey the information about China to the world, a Chinese informative text usually involves certain professional knowledge and is of its own writing conventions and linguistic features. Therefore, the translation of a Chinese informative text is not an easy task for both accuracy and readability should be emphasized in order to convey the original information smoothly.Based on the author’s translation of training handbook, a typical type of informative text, for XYZ Electric Power Corporation, this paper attempts to describe real problems and corresponding solutions in translating a Chinese informative text. Furthermore, it arrives at certain suggestions for the improvement of the translation quality of similar texts in the future.After a detailed and objective description of the translation project, the lexical, syntactical and stylistic features of the source text are analyzed and Newmark’s translation theory is introduced to guide the improvement of the first draft of translation in this project. On the basis of text analysis and theoretical exploration, three principles, namely loyalty, accuracy and readability, are proposed to guide the translation of an informative text. Meanwhile, this paper suggests that the translator combine both semantic and communicative translation in order to ensure the effectiveness of information transmission in translation. After that, typical cases from the project are analyzed and specific ways to improve the translation quality is discussed at the lexical, syntactical and textual level. In the end, this report arrives at three suggestions for future translation of Chinese informative texts:standardization of term translation, combination of different translation techniques and familiarization of the translation with technical writing style in English. |
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