Translating Four Medical Texts Into Chinese:Self-reflections On Quality Assurance And Control Measures

This report is based on the project that involves the translation of four English medical texts into Chinese,which was commissioned by Nanjing Yunzaishangque Information Technology Co.,Ltd.during the author’s internship at the company.Besides basic facts about the project,the first chapter of this report recounts the translation specifications that have been communicated by the company’s project manager on behalf of the end user of the target texts.The specifications put a special emphasis on the accurate and appropriate rendering of medical terms and the readability of the target texts.Aiming to gain some understanding of good practices in the translation of medical texts,the author has read research works that are related to the topic before starting the project and has found Lee-Jahnke’s “Four Readings” theory very helpful.Hence the second chapter summarizes relevant studies with a focus on the author’s reflections.In order to achieve the desired level of quality,the author has adopted quality assurance and quality control measures such as collecting parallel texts,compiling bilingual glossaries containing medical terms to be encountered in the project,implementing self-checking,and having her translations revised by an in-house translator of the company who specializes in translating medical texts.The third,fourth,and fifth chapters discuss these quality assurance and quality control measures and cite illustrative examples that represent the translation problems encountered in this project and the author’s solutions.The final chapter summarizes the lessons learned in the implementation of the translation project.