The Voice of Interpreters and Translators THE ATA Jan/Feb 2018 Volume XLVII Number 1 STEPPING OUT ON CAPITOL HILL: ATA’S FIRST ADVOCACY DAY IN WASHINGTON, DC A Publication of the American Translators Association afternoon for all languages into English. American Translators Association The success of our pre-conference 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590 Advanced Skills and Training Day has Alexandria, VA 22314 USA shown us that ATA members want Tel: +1.703.683.6100 hands-on, advanced level training, and Fax: +1.703.683.6122 we’re excited to expand our offerings in that area. E-mail: [email protected] FROM THE PRESIDENT During David Rumsey’s term as Website: www.atanet.org president, ATA became much more CORINNE MCKAY Editorial Board involved in lobbying and advocacy Geoff Koby (chair) [email protected] efforts, creating our Government Jeff Alfonso Twitter handle: @corinnemckay Relations Committee and holding our rst (sold-out!) Advocacy Day at the Lois Feuerle 2017 Annual Conference. (For more Corinne McKay on Advocacy Day, see page 8.) I’d like Mary McKee us to continue and even expand those Michael Wahlster efforts so that the voice of the language Ted Wozniak professions is heard by government Priorities! agencies and lawmakers. Publisher/Executive Director Walter Bacak, CAE often tell people that my main In some areas, we simply need to keep [email protected] problem in life is wanting to do doing what we’re doing. Our Public Relations program has been revitalized I everything. During my term as ATA Editor in recent years, and I will support the president, it will surely be impossible Jeff Sanfacon continuation and expansion of our PR to do everything I’d would like to do, [email protected] so I’ve set some priorities—the most efforts during my term. We’ve also made important projects that I’d like us to great strides in terms of parity between Advertising interpreters and translators in ATA, with accomplish between now and 2019. I’d Lauren Mendell our Credentialed Interpreter designation like to share some of these priorities [email protected] being rolled out in 2017. I look forward with you so that you know what’s on the Tel: +1.703.683.6100, ext. 3001 to exploring ways to further support and horizon for our Association. Fax: +1.703.683.6122 My rst priority, and one that we’re include interpreters within ATA. already working on, is a new website. Design & Production Our website is ATA’s public presence, and What’s on the horizon for our Blue House Design it’s a key resource for current members, www.bluehouse.us prospective members, and translation Association? Here are some clients. Over the years we’ve added (and The ATA Chronicle (ISSN 1078-6457) is published added!) to our website, so much so that priorities that I’d like us to six times per year by the American Translators it can be difcult to nd the information accomplish between now and 2019. Association, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, you’re looking for. Additionally, our Alexandria, VA 22314 USA. Periodicals postage website is becoming outdated in terms of paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and additional design/usability and mobile-friendliness, mailing ofces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The ATA Chronicle, 225 Reinekers both of which are critical in the online Finally, I look forward to working age. Fortunately, our website redesign with President-elect Ted Wozniak and Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314 USA. task force, chaired by Board member the rest of the ATA Board on ways to The American Translators Association (ATA) Karen Tkaczyk, is already at work bring the next generation of translators was established in 1959 as a not-for-prot determining what we want in a new site. and interpreters into the fold. ATA professional society to foster and support the Stay tuned for updates! needs to target new graduates—those professional development of translators and Next, I’d like to see us expand our from translation and interpreting interpreters and to promote the translation and professional development opportunities, programs, and those wondering what interpreting professions. The subscription rate for adding at least one new offering to to do with their foreign language a member is $25 (included in the dues payment). our current slate of options. We have degrees. We need to reach out to the The U.S. subscription rate for a nonmember is $65. a thriving conference and an extensive many translators and interpreters in Subscribers in Canada and Mexico add $25; webinar series and webinar library. the U.S. who don’t yet know about ATA all other non-U.S. subscribers add $45. To this, I’d like to add in-person or haven’t yet joined our Association. Single copies are available for $7 per issue. seminars and/or online courses. By We need to show them that ATA the time you read this, we’ll have membership is the route to becoming a ©2018 American Translators Association tested this model with an in-person true language professional. certication exam prep session in I thank all 10,500+ ATA members Reprint Permission Boston, with the morning focused on for your support, and I look forward to Requests for permission to reprint articles the English>Spanish exam and the serving you during my time as president! should be sent to the editor of The ATA Chronicle at [email protected]. 2 The ATA Chronicle | January/February 2018 www.atanet.org Jan/Feb 2018 Volume XLVII CONTENTS Number 1 FEATURES 17 Copyediting for Stand-Out Style in Any Translation 6 A bit of organization at the Call for Nominations: beginning of a project can save ATA Directors you a lot of time and energy Do you know someone who would during the review stage. make a good potential candidate for ATA’s Board of Directors? If so, ATA’s Nominating and Leadership 20 Development Committee would Prole of ATA 2016–2017 like to hear from you! School Outreach Contest Winner: Marybeth Timmermann When Marybeth spoke to students 8 in an advanced Spanish class Stepping Out on Capitol Hill: at the local high school, she ATA’s First Advocacy Day in impressed her audience with Washington, DC her French skills and real-life ATA’s 58th Annual Conference translation examples. in Washington, DC was an opportunity too good to pass up! It was the right time and place 23 for ATA’s rst Translation and 2017 ATA Honors and Awards Interpreting Advocacy Day. 11 Recipients This year’s recipients are… 11 Why Can’t I Raise My Rates? An Introduction to the ADVERTISING DIRECTORY Economics of Language Services 21 University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Learning how your services are www.utrgv.edu/en-us valued will provide a framework to 40 National Security Agency www.NSA.gov/Careers help you understand the market better, where you stand in it, and what you can do to improve your current position. COLUMNS 2 From the President 14 4 ATA Social Media Evidentiary Translation 4 Letters to the Editor for U.S. Courts 5 From the Executive Director To produce a translation that’s suitable for use as evidence, the 8 Outreach Report evidentiary translator must take 19 New Certied Members a specic approach that differs 27 Business Practices greatly from best translation practice in other elds. 29 Interpreters Forum 30 Our World of Words 34 Resource Review 14 Connect www.facebook.com/ www.atanet.org with ATA AmericanTranslatorsAssociation www.twitter.com/atanet www.linkedin.com http://bit.ly/ATA-youtube http://bit.ly/GooglePlusATA ATA SOCIAL MEDIA FROM OUR MEMBERS 26,810 12,600 3,790 FACEBOOK FANS TWITTER FOLLOWERS LINKEDIN MEMBERS FEATURED FACEBOOK POST LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Language of Sustainable we do best: facilitating communication. American Translators Development | Natalie Pavey Natalie’s list of resources is comprehensive Association I was so pleased to read that Natalie Pavey and helpful, and I look forward to October 6 had adapted her ATA57 presentation on exploring it more. A Native American sustainable development into an article in Finally, this article is full of pearls of ‘Sesame Street’ could help the November/December issue (“You’re translation wisdom: use plain language, save dying languages Not Fluent Yet! Speaking the Language of focus on good writing, trust your intuition, integrate your passions into “Focusing on children is Sustainable Development”). Our planet is at a crossroads. your work, and use your skills as a force crucial to saving the Continuing down our current path will for good and change. We could all stand Diné language. While there likely not end well. While many in the to be reminded of these a bit more often. are 7,600 traditional Diné- U.S. deny that climate change is real, Ben Karl | Reno, Nevada only speakers and about the world has agreed that humans are 169,000 Navajo-English responsible for an alarming rise in global “How Long Will It Take You to uent speakers still in the temperatures that is causing a host of Type This in English?” | Ros Schwartz United States, the language issues for people around the globe. These I love this! Translation is no different will not survive if children issues disproportionately affect those than writing from this point of view. are not learning it. Just in poverty (i.e., the people who most Every book, in my experience as a writer need assistance through the sustainable and translator, dictates its own timing as we help children learn development initiatives Natalie describes). and intensity. Unfortunately, when I English and Spanish through As the article points out, sustainable work in more corporate settings, such as educational programs like development initiatives are accelerating advertising and subtitles, the schedule is ‘Sesame Street,’ shouldn’t around the world.