Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Technical Translator or Technical Communicator? 
That the lines separating the role of technical translator and technical writer 
have become somewhat blurred is inevitable. What’s more, this fact is gain-
ing greater recognition in the wider “communication” community. Various 
professional societies for technical communication in Europe and in the 
United States - such as the Institute for Scientific and Technical Communi-
cators and the Society for Technical Communication - specifically include 
translators in their definitions of technical communicators. 
Not only do both camps deal in the same currency, i.e. technical infor-
mation in texts, they also share several key tasks and activities. Perhaps first 
and foremost, technical writers are, to a certain extent, not unlike transla-
tors in that they need to “translate” what Van Laan and Julian (2002:18) call 
“geek-speak” into clear and understandable English. As mentioned previ-
grammers and engineers. With this come the inevitable infelicities of style, 
ously, a technical writer gathers information from a variety of sources
including documents that were produced by and for experts such as pro-
excessively technical content or indeed missing information. This information
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18 Technical Translation 
can be understood and used by the reader. Likewise, the translator needs to 
transform information from a form which was produced by and for speakers 
of the source language into a form which can be understood by the target 
audience. This is achieved by editing, rearranging, adding and even remov-
ing information.
Adding and Removing Information 
Göpferich (1993:52) says that sometimes it is quite necessary to add addi-
tional information to a text to help ensure that the information and text are 
as usable and effective as possible. Similarly, some information needs to be 
omitted, condensed or made implicit because it is of less importance for the 
target audience, because it may not apply to the target audience’s particular 
Pinchuck (1977:206-207;210-211) maintains that a text should give 
readers just enough information for their purposes; no more, no less. Too 
much information, like too little information can lead to confusion, stress 
and unnecessary effort on the part of readers. The rule of thumb is that if a 
user does not need to know something at a given moment, don’t tell them 
about it. But this can be abused, either intentionally or unintentionally. In 
her discussion of medical translation, O’Neill (1998:76) claims that doctors-
turned-translators (who have much more subject knowledge than tradi-
tional translators) tend to edit, reduce and summarise texts to make them 
better. However, the problem here is that unless this is specifically what the 
reader wants and needs, the translator is committing quite a serious error. 
This type of intervention also manifests itself in the formulation and edit-
ing aspects of the translation process. In the case of poorly formulated 
source texts, this requires the technical translator to intervene whenever 
necessary in order to reword, edit or present information in the best way 
for the reader. According to Sykes (1971:6) the translator should “not feel 
compelled to perpetuate the more sinful omissions or commissions of his 
[sic] author”. Sykes goes on to advise technical translators to “look out for 
unnecessary verbiage (including padding)” as it allows the translator to “re-
phrase rather than paraphrase”. The opposite is true of excessively concise 
texts (Sykes 1971:10). In fact, Ramey (1998) discusses how sentences that 
have been overly condensed can result in Escher effects, or sentences that 
can have multiple meanings that take more than a little detective work on 
the part of the reader to decipher. 
it
needs to be rebuilt, reinterpreted, remodelled and restructured so that 
situation or because it may result in confusion. Put simply, sometimes 
information must be sacrificed in order to protect the integrity of the 
communication. 

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The Importance of Technical Translation 19 
Similarly, the translator may need to intervene in the flow of information 
within a text. This is particularly important in the case of user guides or in-
structions for use where instructions in the text must match the actual se-
quence of actions the reader needs to perform. This is also useful for the 
purposes of ensuring the appropriate register in the target text. Gerzymisch-
ticular document type may need to change in translation.
Sometimes, too, changes to the sequencing of sections in a document are 
needed because of cultural norms relating to the structure of a particular 
type of document. For example, a user guide for an electrical appliance in 
German might typically start with an explanation of the parts, then infor-
mation for disposing of the product after use followed by an introduction. 
In English, the user guide for a comparable (or even the same) product 
might start with an introduction followed by a quick start tutorial. 
There is a very definite legal requirement on technical writers and in 
turn, on technical translators to ensure that documents contain enough in-
formation to ensure the safe operation of products and devices. European 
directives such as Directive 98/37/EC of the European Parliament place 
the onus on manufacturers (and the writers and translators working on their 
behalf) to predict possible hazards and to document them in instructions 
and product documentation. The directive states that: 
1.2.2. Principles of safety integration 
Union 1998) [emphasis my own] 
What this means for the translator is that, if a manual describing the pro-
cedure for repairing a machine vital information is missing or incompre-
hensible and could result in death or injury or damage to the machine, the 
translator needs to ensure that the information is either completely refor-
mulated, supplemented and made explicit or at the very least brought to the 
attention of the client. I once had to translate a maintenance manual for a 
die pressing machine used to manufacture body panels for motor cars. As 
such texts go this was fairly unproblematic except for one particular section 
Arbogast (1993) discusses how the sequencing of information in a text 
reflects its register or author-reader contract and how the register for a par-
(c) 
When designing and constructing machinery, and when drafting 
the instructions, the manufacturer must envisage not only the normal 
use of the machinery but also uses which could reasonably be expected. 
The machinery must be designed to prevent abnormal use if such use 
would engender a risk. In other cases the instructions must draw the 
user’s attention to ways - which experience has shown might occur - in 
which the machinery should not be used. (Council of the European 

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20 Technical Translation 
which, if I had translated as it stood, would have caused the user to lose lost 
an arm as a result of reaching in to the machine without first engaging the 
safety mechanisms. The manual was divided into various sections and stages 
which described the different maintenance tasks which could be carried 
out. In a previous section, the manual described how to disengage the 
power supply to the die punch and activate the safety barrier before recon-
necting the power. In the next section, this information was left out al-
though it was still essential. It’s possible that the author assumed that it 
wouldn’t be necessary to repeat the information a second time. Perhaps the 
writer simply forgot to include it. In any case, there are several compelling 
reasons as to why it was essential to include this information again:
the nature of manuals means that people do not always read manuals 
from cover to cover or even in sequence, 
even if users had read the previous section, there is no guarantee that 
they would remember this information 
even if users realise that there is potentially something missing from the 
instructions, many people trust the instructions they are given and will 
assume that the information was left out for a reason, e.g. it does not ap-
ply in this particular instance 
Ambiguous information can also necessitate the addition of information in a 
text. Pinchuck (1977:66) gives an example of ambiguity in the form of the 
following text on a sign: 
“Flying planes can be dangerous” 
We can disambiguate this by making explicit certain information relating to 
the situation in which the utterance is intended to function or be used. 
Thus we could say: 
“Planes flying overhead can be dangerous”. 
While this may seem unacceptable because it is clearly adding text where 
there was none, if we take the view that a text is supposed to function in a