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FACULTY of LETTERS / WESTERN LANGUAGES and LITERATURE (%100 English)
English Language and Literature (100% English)
Course Catalog
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EF
FACULTY of LETTERS / WESTERN LANGUAGES and LITERATURE (%100 English) / English Language and Literature (100% English)
Katalog Ana Sayfa
  Katalog Ana Sayfa  KTÜ Ana Sayfa   Katalog Ana Sayfa
 
 

ELL3075Academic Translation - II2+0+0ECTS:4
Year / SemesterFall Semester
Level of CourseFirst Cycle
Status Elective
DepartmentWESTERN LANGUAGES and LITERATURE (%100 English)
Prerequisites and co-requisitesNone
Mode of Delivery
Contact Hours14 weeks - 2 hours of lectures per week
LecturerDr. Öğr. Üyesi Muhammed BAYDERE
Co-Lecturer
Language of instruction
Professional practise ( internship ) None
 
The aim of the course:
The primary aim of this course is to equip students with the ability to produce high-quality academic texts that comply with the linguistic, formal, and ethical standards of the academic world. It seeks to develop students not merely as translators, but as skilled editors capable of analyzing texts critically and managing revision, editing, and proofreading processes. The course aims to strengthen students? competencies in maintaining terminological consistency, verifying sources, and adhering strictly to style guides such as CMoS and APA, as well as specific journal requirements. Ultimately, the course intends to raise awareness about responsible AI use and to train students to become proficient academic text producers who master tools like MS Word, understand the academic traditions of various disciplines, and work effectively within human?AI collaboration frameworks.
 
Learning OutcomesCTPOTOA
Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be able to :
LO - 1 : identify and apply the key features of academic language such as formality, precision, terminological consistency, and conciseness?in their own texts.111,3,
LO - 2 : distinguish between the processes of translation, revision, editing, and proofreading, and effectively use tools such as MS Word during these stages.11 - 121,3,
LO - 3 : recognize the requirements of major academic style guides and discipline-specific journal guidelines, and apply them appropriately in their translated texts.111,3,
LO - 4 : conduct reliable research for translation purposes, analyze parallel texts, and implement proper source verification methods.111,3,
LO - 5 : apply responsible AI practices in academic text production and manage an academic translation/text editing project based on human?AI collaboration.111,3,
CTPO : Contribution to programme outcomes, TOA :Type of assessment (1: written exam, 2: Oral exam, 3: Homework assignment, 4: Laboratory exercise/exam, 5: Seminar / presentation, 6: Term paper), LO : Learning Outcome

 
Contents of the Course
This course approaches academic translation as a fundamental component of scientific communication and as a specialized process of academic text production. Going beyond mere text transfer, the course focuses on the distinctive structure of academic language, terminological precision, consistency and coherence, and concise writing principles. The content covers major academic genres such as research articles, abstracts, book chapters, and theses. It emphasizes various textual processes including translation, revision, editing, and proofreading. These processes are taught through practical exercises using features such as MS Word?s `track changes,? `comments,? and style management features. The course also addresses responsible AI use and human?AI collaboration models as a reality of modern academic publishing. Students learn how to use AI tools effectively as assistants in their translation and editing processes. A significant part of the course is dedicated to academic standards and text conventions. Foundational rules from international style guides such as the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) and APA are introduced. Students analyze and present examples from reputable journals across disciplines such as medicine, social sciences, and engineering to explore text structures, terminology use, and writing standards in those fields. Additionally, the course reinforces proper research methods for translation purposes, the use of parallel texts, source verification, and terminological consistency through group projects and peer review activities.
 
Course Syllabus
 WeekSubjectRelated Notes / Files
 Week 1Introduction: Academic Text Production - Topic: Course introduction, assessment, expectations. What is scholarly work?: Scope and core competencies. - Practice: Comparative analysis of good vs. bad academic translation examples (terminology, style, fluency).
 Week 2Academic Language 1: Register - Topic: Features of academic language: Objectivity, precision, formality. Critical reading of the source text. - Practice: Workshop on transforming a convoluted Turkish academic paragraph into a concise English academic paragraph.
 Week 3Academic Language 2: Terminology and Research - Topic: Terminological consistency, accessing reliable sources, using parallel texts, fact-checking. - Practice: Conducting a parallel text search for a specific article and creating a justified glossary for 5 key terms.
 Week 4Process 1: Translation vs. Revision - Topic: Definitions, differences, and applications of the two processes. - Practice: Performing peer revision on a student translation, categorizing errors.
 Week 5Process 2: Editing vs. Proofreading - Topic: Editing (flow, structure) vs. proofreading (spelling, format). - Practice: Taking a translated text and performing editing for flow and style.
 Week 6Tools: Professional Text Production (MS Word) - Topic: Using track changes and comments features. - Practice: Editing a text using track changes and leaving comments throughout the text.
 Week 7Standards: Style Guides and Journal Guidelines - Topic: Overview of style guides and disciplinary journal guidelines. - Practice: Comparatively analyzing the Author Guidelines sections of two journals from two different disciplines.
 Week 8Discipline-Based Work 1: Social Sciences and Humanities - Topic: Textual conventions, structures, and expectations in the social sciences. - Practice: Translation of a short abstract from the social sciences.
 Week 9Midterm
 Week 10Discipline-Based Work 2: STEM - Topic: STEM textual conventions and terminological precision. - Practice: Translation of a method or results section from a medical article.
 Week 11Responsible AI Use in Academic Translation - Topic: AI ethics in academic translation, human-AI collaboration, and post-editing. - Practice: Analyzing an AI academic translation output, classifying errors, and performing full post-editing.
 Week 12AI-Assisted Editing Workshop - Topic: Using AI as an editing or revision assistant. - Practice: Prompting an AI as an editor for a text and evaluating the quality of the output.
 Week 13Group Project Workshop 1: Research and Planning - Topic: Forming project groups. Selecting a journal and text. - Practice: Groups preparing and presenting a style guide summary based on their selected journal?s guidelines.
 Week 14Group Project Workshop 2: Peer Review - Topic: Project-based management of translation and revision processes. - Practice: Groups swapping their translation drafts with another group and providing structured feedback using the track changes feature.
 Week 15General Review
 Week 16Final Exam
 
Textbook / Material
1Olohan, M. 2015; Scientific and Technical Translation, Routledge, Londra.
 
Recommended Reading
1Bowker, L & Ciro, J. B. 2019; Machine Translation and Global Research: Towards Improved Machine Translation Literacy in the Scholarly Community, Emerald Publishing Limited, Londra.
2Sin-wai, C. 2022; Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology, Routledge, New York.
3Munday, J. 2022; Introducing Translation Studies ? Theories and Applications, Routledge, Londra.
4Bassnett, S. 2002; Translation Studies, Routledge, Londra.
 
Method of Assessment
Type of assessmentWeek NoDate

Duration (hours)Weight (%)
Mid-term exam 9 2 50
End-of-term exam 16 2 50
 
Student Work Load and its Distribution
Type of workDuration (hours pw)

No of weeks / Number of activity

Hours in total per term
Yüz yüze eğitim 2 14 28
Sınıf dışı çalışma 1 12 12
Arasınav için hazırlık 3 8 24
Arasınav 2 1 2
Ödev 3 9 27
Dönem sonu sınavı için hazırlık 2 8 16
Dönem sonu sınavı 2 1 2
Diğer 1 3 3 9
Total work load120