Date: Thursday 8 November 2012
Time: 9:45 - 17:15 (doors open 9:15)
Location: Park Plaza Hotel, Utrecht (just a short walk from Central Station)
Cost: €165.00 for SENSE members; €195.00 for non-members (includes delicious buffet lunch)
Contact: Lee Ann Weeks
Registration opens: Tuesday 9 October 2012
This workshop had been approved for 6 Permanent Education points by Bureau BTV.
A list of particpants is here (visible only to SENSE members).
Terminology that makes SENSE: Management basics for independent language professionals — a workshop by SENSE member Nico van de Water, organized in cooperation with Eastern SIG convenor Sally Hill.
Managing terminology
Anyone dealing with communication about a specific topic/product/service would do well to maintain a list of key (and sometimes not so key) terms. In the case of editors, copywriters, translators and localisers, this is a must.
Depending on the type of professional activity (editing/reviewing, authoring or translation/localization), there are various ways of maintaining terminology. But authoring software is not suited for terminology management, while editing/reviewing can be done using a multitude of software solutions. On top of that, the terminology components of the various CAT tools (Computer-Assisted Translation) may not always meet generic or personal terminology requirements. For the above as well as a number of other reasons, the personal approach to terminology management presented in this workshop is based on Microsoft Excel: it is more or less ubiquitous, guarantees independence from whatever other tools/software one uses, and is highly versatile.
For this workshop, some basic knowledge of MS Excel is a must; furthermore, the hands-on approach of the workshop involves the use of a laptop with MS Excel (2007) installed. So please bring your own or share one with a fellow participant (please check the list of registered participants for someone with a laptop to share (indicated with an asterisk)). In addition, most examples will cover Dutch and English, with occasional material from French and German. This workshop assumes a passive knowledge of Dutch and a high/near-native level of proficiency in English.
There will be a brief introduction to both the business and professional needs for terminology, and then we will turn to the practical side of terminology management. Even before entering any data in a basic two-column layout, the workshop will address aspects such as column labels and source-term requirements (sorting order, spelling). Other examples will clarify the need for additional types of terminological information. Do I need to enter information about word class? What is the use of gender when practically all English nouns are neuter? How do I deal with entries that look the same but have different meanings?
The workshop will also highlight ways of "harvesting" your terminological data and discuss the possibility of moving on from MS Excel to e.g. a database solution. But above all, this workshop will give you a feel for what is involved in proper terminology management and will guide you through the first steps.
About the presenter
Nico is a language consultant with more than 30 years of experience in technical, IT and medical/scientific translation, and software and website localisation for English and Dutch. He has a keen interest in terminology management and is currently working on a terminology structure for both practical (translation, localisation and technical authoring) and more academic (terminology collection, description and exchange) purposes.