Supprimer l’édito ... dans certaines situations

The title line is drawn from a post entitled L'édito : sa place est dans les journaux on Les feuilles volantes -- Le blog de SFM Traduction. My colleagues at SFM Traduction are absolutely right. They also beat me to it by posting on this important aspect of 'translation by emulation'.

Headlines, take #2

After reading Headlines, take #1, some readers might think that my claims apply more to general journalism than technical journalism.

I trust that the following examples from Jane’s International Defence Review (JIDR), Jane’s Navy International (JNI)  and Jane's Defence Weekly (JDW) will convince you that English-speaking journalists specialising in naval defence use the same types of devices as their colleagues writing for everyday newspapers.

Device: techno-metaphor
JIDR, 13/03/07: Gas turbine design ignites race for naval powerpacks
Device: techno-metaphor
JNI, 13/02/07: Power trip: re-energising naval electric weapons
Device: humorous naval metaphor
JDW, 14/02/03: Is the alliance holed below the waterline?
Device: humorous naval metaphor
JNI, 11/05/05: UK casualty ship project faces major surgery
Device: pun
JNI, 17/03/06: Singapore moves to realise its Formidable ambitions
Device: pun
JDW, 29/07/05: Not-so-spritely Seasprite plan still off course

Headlines, take #1

My post dated 11/11/11 referred to David Bellos's Is that a fish in your ear? (subtitled, Translation and the meaning of everything). Chapter 7 features a number of clear, succinct descriptions of well-known translation challenges.
The section on headlines says that the target-language version of a source-language headline "must conform to the general conventions of headline writing" in the target-language culture "because headline writing is just as much a genre -- a particular kind of language use restricted to particular contexts -- as promising, christening, threatening, and so forth".
French headlines and article headings typically explain quite a lot of what is to come, often at greater length than English headlines.
English headlines are often written specifically to intrigue, arouse curiosity, trigger a smile (using a pun or other play on words or language) or even be thorough enigmatic, since the point is not so much to summarise as to entice the reader to read on.
This approach can also be considered as an aspect of 'translation by emulation'.

Much the same approach applies to caption writing.

To sum up, headlines and captions should be drafted after completing the translation of a technical journalism article. The words of the source texts are a minor consideration. The aim has to be to write headlines and captions that work in their own right for the assumed or explicity defined target audience.

NavTechGloss: M&M review

Le 15 décembre 2015, Mer et Marine a écrit à propos de "A French-English Glossary of Naval Technology":

Les professionnels français du domaine naval militaire le savent : les traductions du français vers l'anglais de textes techniques sont, parfois, loin d'être évidentes. Et, jusqu'ici, il n'existait pas vraiment d'outil très spécifique pour aider à la traduction de tels textes. Ce problème est désormais solutionné puisque Steve Dyson, traducteur et rédacteur technique pour l'industrie française de la défense navale depuis plus de 15 ans, vient d'éditer un glossaire français-anglais de la défense navale. « Cet ouvrage s'adresse aux traducteurs avertis et aux spécialistes de la défense navale. Il est le fruit de la traduction/adaptation de français en anglais de milliers de pages de journalisme technique concernant la défense navale et des sujets connexes », explique Steve Dyson.

Il s'agit d'un outil très spécifique en ce qui concerne le sujet (la défense navale), la « matière première » (des articles de journalisme technique destinés à promouvoir des produits, services et entreprises français) et l'approche traductologique que l'auteur désigne par « traduction par émulation ». L'auteur s'est permis d'écrire l'introduction (« Why this glossary is the way it is ») et les autres pages préliminaires en anglais. Il espère que l'utilisateur francophone l'excusera !