Conclusion

March 22, 2015

This project was a really good experience. Indeed, I could learn  things such as  how to work as a team, how to translate a technical guide and how to face problems and solve them.

Team work 
People usually think  a translator works alone all day...but that's not true. I've learned it is very important to keep in touch with the experts, in case you need any information about the topic, work with other translator in case I need a proofreading or editing.

I was with a very friendly team that was really into this project. There was a good communication between us, and every question was answered. Even though there was a hierarchy in the technical writers' group, we didn't choose a leader among us. That is to say there  was no project manager  We just stuck with the translator, editing, proofreading hierarchy. We were happy with that kind of organisation.

Difficulties
As translators, we didn't know how to create an instructional document at the beginning. But we learned the rules in the "Communication technique" course, which helped us a lot. When we had difficulties, we could discussed with the US and Irish students or we tried to find answers on specialised dictionary such as Termium Plus, especially when we had terminology problems.

Localisation was interesting
What I really found interesting in this project was the way we have to adapt our translation to the French public. In that kind of text, it was obvious that our translation would have to meet a specific rules implemented for instructional documents : a specific terminology and specific formulations were used. For example:
-open up your device’s web browser  = lancez le navigateur
-proceed with the following steps= veuillez suivre les étapes suivantes.

Discovering the  technical writers's world.
At the end of this project, I was really surprised by me thinking about being a technical writer. It was really interesting to see how they worked. I like the idea of creating a guide, helping people to understand how to use a device or a software. I was very pleased to see how technical writers could be helpful to translators.

Futures students:
I'm sure you will really enjoy this collaborative project. It's a new way to work together with students with different backgrounds. In addition, you will discover the technical writers' world. This collaborative project is actually pretty closed to what you will be doing as a professional: teamwork, research, collaborative works with expert, etc.

Sulis was not a great platform to communicate ( that what everybody was thinking). I would recommend you to use Facebook instead of  Sulis - or any social network - and combined it with Google Docs which is a good way to edit and share information. And do not hesitate to ask the students questions. They are here to help you and...I'm sure they will be friendly!

Leila