The Emerging Role of the Translation Coordinator  

Career opportunities for technical communicators are expanding by leaps and bounds. Ask a roomful of technical writers to define their jobs and you receive a myriad of answers, with responsibilities ranging from the specific and focused to the broad and encompassing. As the business world goes global and multilingual, technical communicators are being brought into this trend as translation coordinators, creating new opportunities and challenges. We’ll explore these new roles and possibilities from both the macro and micro perspectives—that is, the larger trend within technical communication, and the specific skillsets, methodologies and case histories from several positions in the work flow.

Romano, James V., Carol Peterson, Lynda Shindley and Bogo Vatovec. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Language>Translation>Localization

So You Want to be a Technical Translator...

Rapidly expanding international commerce demands multilingual product descriptions and instructions for users. Technical products require precise translations by knowledgeable translators to avoid costly or even fatal errors. These may range from simple business letters to legal documents, patents, scientific articles, service or end-user manuals.

Miele, Charles H. Boston Broadside (1991). Careers>Language>Translation>Technical Translation

Translation and Interpretation Work for the LNG Tangguh Project in Papua, Indonesia

Translation and interpretation are communication skills that a person acquires through involvement in actual translation and interpretation work. One who knows two or more languages is not necessarily a good translator or interpreter, because not only linguistic issues, but other communicative and cultural aspects are also involved. Accordingly, a translator or interpreter always faces linguistic and non-linguistic challenges in performing a job if they come to it unprepared.

Morin, Izak. Translation Journal (2005). Careers>Language>Translation>Technical Translation