Chapter 4 presents textual features, text types and genres in the detail necessary for elucidating translation practice. Starting with texture as the essential distinction between a sequence of sentences and a text, it examines textual features, that is, those elements that serve to distinguish between texts and non-texts and that give texts their identity. Among the textual features discussed are cohesion and coherence, markers of cohesion and coherence, information structure and information flow (from old to new), and topic and thematic development (along with topic maintenance and the tracing of participants in discourse). Textual functions (text types) and genres are also discussed. The implications for translation of textual features, textual functions and genres are presented throughout the chapter with numerous examples. Armed with these basic concepts, readers are offered tips on textual and parallel text analysis and on how assistive texts (background texts, parallel texts) and online corpus tools can be used for translation tasks.

Chapter 6 aims to help readers understand how variation and change affect language, so that translation practices and decisions are not based on personal biases and lay views about language but, rather, on a principled understanding of how language interacts with society. Another goal is to create awareness of the impact of social and use-related (contextual) factors on language so that translated texts respond to the requirements of the translation instructions. Other sociolinguistic notions reviewed in this chapter, along with their implications for translation are register, dialectal variation, socioeconomic variation, the nature of language change and variation, prestigious varieties vs. stigmatized varieties, and translating in multilingual societies. The discussion of register includes field of activity, medium and level of formality, as well as the implications for translation of not considering these within the context of the translation brief and translation norms. The connection between register selection and linguistic and translation competence is explained. Illustrative examples are used throughout the chapter.

Chapter 5 shifts the focus from the text to the reader (both the translator and the target-text reader) and the reading process. The misguided belief that reading is decoding and that there is an objective meaning hidden in the text has in turn facilitated the view that translation consists of recoding the decoded meaning into another language, namely, reproducing the objective meaning present in the source text. By providing a more accurate understanding of reading, this chapter presents a more accurate view of translation. It summarizes what reading as an interactive process means for the craft of the translator, including such concepts as background knowledge and its relation to specialized texts, new and old information, word meaning as activation of a potential meaning within a particular text, word meaning and dictionaries, and the translator as a reader. Additional topics discussed are reading and language directionality in translation; reading for translation purposes; and reading in translation process research.

Chapter 3 focuses on language and translation functions by examining pragmatics and its relevance to translation. After a brief introduction to the concept of pragmatics (“doing things with words”), it considers the differences between grammatical/syntactic functions and pragmatic functions; it also addresses speech acts, which are closely related to function and intention, presuppositions (in connection with the idea of information shared by writer and reader) and the non-linguistic context. These notions are discussed in the context of translation and the implications they have for the translator, with multiple examples and practices. The chapter connects with functionalism (the functions of translation) by focusing on the functions of language and how these are formulated differently across languages. It emphasizes that the pragmatic function (what the commissioner intends to “do with their words/text”) guides the choice of words in the target language, rather than the syntactic structure of the source text.

Chapter 7 reviews the challenges presented by translation evaluation. The chapter offers some suggestions for translators and teachers on how to address the topic of quality in a systematic way, connecting it to principles discussed in previous chapters, such as the translation brief, translation norms, textual functions, functional adequacy, and specialized content. It attempts to dispel existing myths about the topic of quality, translation and language. Additionally, the chapter summarizes basic notions of evaluation, while introducing a flexible, customer-defined and easy-to-apply view of quality, which is also functionalist, componential and descriptive. Readers are walked through the use of a translation evaluation tool representative of these features and numerous examples. They are then taught how to review their own translations and monitor quality using the proposed tool, guided by the translation brief and textual considerations; they are also shown how to use customer and instructor feedback to improve their performance in a principled way.

Functionalism proposes that the translation process is guided by extra-linguistic factors, more specifically by the function of the translation. Chapter 2 reviews the theory of functionalism (based on Skopos theory, from the Greek skopos meaning “purpose”) and some basic notions associated with it, while also explaining how to apply them in translation practice and discussion. It addresses basic functionalist concepts: extralinguistic factors (also known as situational features) and how they shape both monolingual and translated texts; the translation brief and translation norms; changes in situational features, and how they influence and guide translation decisions; and the “lifecycle” of a commissioned translation. Examples and illustrations accompany the presentation. The chapter starts by considering the relationship between extra-linguistic factors and monolingual texts, progressing to translated texts and translation tasks.

Chapter 1 discusses various definitions of translation, addressing the challenges involved in trying to define the term. Chapter 1 also provides an overview of translation types, such as overt and covert translation, communicative, dynamic and formal translation, grammar translation, and interlinear translation. Equivalence and equivalence types are discussed in connection with the notion of translation, as well as the problems involved in trying to formulate an a priori definition of the term. Additionally, the idea of an equivalence continuum is beneficial for translation as a professional activity, as it helps to situate it within the wider context of cross-cultural communication and the language industry (language for specific purposes, etc.), contributing to forge a more malleable concept of translation as a profession (i.e., language mediation). In addition, the chapter reviews various types of translation-related activities (e.g., editing, revising, reviewing, localization, proofreading for translation, and machine translation).

Chapter 8 departs slightly from the focus on translation activity by shining a light on the translator, in an effort to highlight their role in the translation process itself, often minimized for the benefit of the text. The chapter serves as a reminder that the translator also has an impact on the text. It addresses what is meant by the translator’s (in)visibility and how practicing or aspiring translators can incorporate this notion into their practice and knowledge base. Also addressed are related topics such as norms, codes of ethics, agency, positionality and ideology. Additionally, the chapter helps inform aspiring translators and those who work with translators about the role and professional expectations for translators, including their role as agents of social justice, the translator’s workplace, recent changes in the field, translator profiles, and the qualifications and skills needed to work as a translator. This chapter guides readers to an understanding of the translator’s possible role/s and assists them with the creation of their own professional identity.