Critical Reflection on Translating Interdisciplinary Social Research

This essay provides a critical reflection on the process of translating research journal articles for a lay audience. It highlights the importance of translating complex scientific language into accessible terms for the general public, emphasizing factors such as information selectivity, specialized language, uncertainty expression, and mixed audience considerations. Various mediums for translation, including guidance notes, templates, and publishers' resources, are explored, along with the role of audiovisual materials in enhancing understanding. The essay concludes by underscoring the significance of this translation process in bridging the gap between scientific research and public comprehension, making research findings more accessible and impactful for a broader audience.

Critical reflection
(Interdisciplinary Social Research)
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Factors for translating the journal article for lay audience...........................................................................2
Medium chose to translate the journal article..............................................................................................4
Key concepts...............................................................................................................................................4
Role of audio/visual material in the translation...........................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The paper reflects upon the process that is utilized for the translation of the research journal
articles for the lay audience. It provides with the various factors that are considered for the
process of translation. It focuses on the different mediums that help in translating through
various processes. It states that it is significant for the scientist to translate the articles for
providing convenience to the lay people by making use of lay summaries. Also, it defines the key
concept of the critical reflection and the process that is utilized for the translation. It provides
with the role of audiovisual material in the process of translation of the article. Thus the paper
aims to provide an overall process used to translate an article.
Factors for translating the journal article for the lay audience
Translating the journal articles for the lay audience is difficult for the scientists. For the scientist,
the ability to translate the journal articles for the lay audience is significant1. The journal articles
are translated as the scientist has the habit of using specialized or jargon language that is difficult
for the lay audience to understand. In order to translate the journal articles, I determined some of
the factors for translating the journal article for the lay audience. The factors such as selectivity
of the information and elimination of the distraction, specialized language and knowledge,
expressing uncertainty and statistics and mixed audience are the factors for the translation of the
journal articles. The factors are explained as follows:
Selection of information and elimination of distraction
It is believed that message effectiveness is better than message efficiency. Researchers generally
found that always the research does not provide with concise bottom lines and valid solutions2.
With the help of collecting data, the scientific journal articles are written after months or years.
The objective of the scientist is to present the information about a specific point and by using
method it came to the particular point. The translators of the research must identify the
newspapers compelling style like World Wide Web (WWW), electronic communication and the
USA today that allows the customers to have a greater selectivity and provides information that
1 Bodin, Örjan, Michele L. Barnes, Ryan RJ McAllister, Juan Carlos Rocha, and Angela M. Guerrero. ("Social–
Ecological Network Approaches in Interdisciplinary Research: A Response to Bohan et al. and Dee et al." Trends in
ecology & evolution 32, no. 8 2017): 547-549.
2 Pérez-González, Luis. "Multimodality in translation and interpreting studies." A Companion to Translation Studies.
Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell 2014): 119-131.

3
is user-friendly3. According to me, this factor is important as it identifies the trends and the
glossy reports makers in the business world eliminate the complexities of accounting to
information streamline. The analogies reinforce and repeat messages by the use of metaphors
that distinguish between two different elements for the subset of metaphor, similes, and
illustration4. I undertook this factor as it splits the information into adaptable pieces that improve
the readability and can be executed by the use of typographical devices, bullets, subheads, and
graphics.
Specialized language and knowledge
For an effective lay communication, the specialized knowledge of the scientist is considered to
be the hindrance. An effective lay communication needs the information based on the
perspective of the subject and the knowledge of the audience5. I consider this factor as it states
the use of jargon language in the articles that is the factor for discouragement in lay
communication. Most of the words are not written in simple terms as it uses a unique style of
writing.
Expressing uncertainty and statistics
The scientist demonstrates the validity and expresses the uncertainties by the use of statistics
which becomes difficult to translate in lay language for the lay audience. According to my
opinion as most of the lay audience are not interested and have no knowledge about the statistics
it becomes difficult to present the main points of the article in detail.
Mixed audience
It is found that there is a mixture of a lay audience who are considered to be heterogeneous. For
the peers, it is easy for the scientist to write as they could concentrate on the message6. I
determined this factor as it states that the lay audience varies as per different language, socio-
3 Jorgensen, Danny L. "Participant observation." Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: (An
interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource 2015): 1-15.
4 Sovacool, Benjamin K., Sarah E. Ryan, Paul C. Stern, Katy Janda, Gene Rochlin, Daniel Spreng, Martin J.
Pasqualetti, Harold Wilhite, and Loren Lutzenhiser. "Integrating social science in energy research. (" Energy
Research & Social Science 6 2015): 95-99.
5 McCormick, Kes, Lena Neij, Oksana Mont, Chris Ryan, Håkan Rodhe, and Renato Orsato. ("Advancing sustainable
solutions: an interdisciplinary and collaborative research agenda." 2016): 1-4.
6 Jorgensen, Danny L. "Participant observation." (Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An
interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource 2015): 1-15.

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economic background, professions, cultures, and age. This mixture helps me in gathering
knowledge of how to translate the journal articles for the lay audience.
Medium chose to translate the journal article
In order to translate the journal articles for the lay audience, I undertook guidance notes and
guidelines as an educational medium. Most of the organizations provide guidance notes and
guidelines that comprise of lay summaries. This guidelines provide the information based on
structure and content and also about the language that should be used for the lay audience7. I took
the help of this medium as it provides me with the details, appropriate tone, and usage of active
voice, spelling, and punctuation that must be included while translating.
Another medium that I utilized is the utilization of forms and templates that highly helped in
writing for the heterogeneous lay audience. Most of the association states that there is a
requirement of lay summaries that help in answering the queries of the lay audience related to the
research. It helped me as gives the forms that consist of interesting questions for the the4 lay
audience.
The medium that highly helped me in translating the articles is the use of publishers and journals.
It is helpful as it possesses the lay versions of the publications. This strengthens my effort to
present the lay summaries to the lay audience. It is required to focus on the extra evidence of the
lay information to avail the effectiveness of the cost-benefit assessment and lay summaries. I
acknowledged that a better lay version will be relevant for the translation of the journal article.
Evaluating the effectiveness of the lay material guided me of how to translate the article for the
lay people. I made the use of lay materials that helped me to differentiate between literacy skills
and the readability level of the article. It is stated that the organizations must conduct easy-to-use
feedback systems, interviews and surveys to gather information related to lay materials8.
Key concepts
The key concepts of the critical reflection are to evaluate the process that I undertook in order to
translate the journal article for the lay people. In the journal article, the use of jargon and
7 van Dijk, Mathilde, José van Aelst, and Tom Gaens. "Introduction." (Church History and Religious Culture 96, no.
1-2 2016): 1-12.
8 Wong, Catherine Mei Ling. "Assembling interdisciplinary energy research through an actor network theory (ANT)
frame." (Energy Research & Social Science 12 2016): 106-110.

5
specialized language make it difficult for the lay people to understand the concept of the article9.
Thus the scientist makes use of simple words so that to make the readers understand the concept
in a better way. They determine various factors for the process of translation and focus towards
its components. Also, the scientist makes use of different mediums to translate the articles as
different mediums help in making the article easy to understand10. In the process of translation,
audiovisual material helped in translating the articles appropriately.
Role of audio/visual material in the translation
Audiovisual translation is usually a component of the verbal translation of the video. Its major
characteristic is the components of verbal and nonverbal synchronization. While working with
the product of audiovisual the translators not only works with the texts but also with the elements
of the media art that are polyphonic. Hence they execute with atmosphere, image, sound effects,
comments and dialogues of the video. While translating the articles the four major channels of
information are taken into account. They are as follows:
1) Channel for verbal audio: songs, off-screen voices, dialogues;
2) Channel for nonverbal audio: off-screen sounds, sound effects, music;
3) Visual and verbal channel: inscriptions that appear on the screen, notes, signs, subtitles;
4) Channel for nonverbal visual: image on the screen11.
In the process of translation of the article for the lay people, the audiovisual material helped in
distinguishing between structures of the nonverbal and verbal components separately in the
actual work and its translation. It is helpful for me as it describes the three major levels of the
theory of synchronization they are, level of text function, level of synchronicity and level of text
meaning. The description of the audio converts the visual picture into spoken language and
visual information into words12. I acknowledged that the audio description is considered to be the
9 Kuehne, Lauren M., and Julian D. Olden. "Opinion: Lay summaries needed to enhance science communication."
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 12 2015): 3585-3586.
10 Hirschberg, Julia, and Christopher D. Manning. "Advances in natural language processing." (Science 349, no. 6245
2015): 261-266.
11 Roggeband, Conny, and Bert Klandermans. " Displinary Approaches to Social Movement s. Introduction to
Second Expanded and Updated Edition." (In Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines), pp. 1-7. Springer,
Cham, 2017.
12 Marres, Noortje, and Carolin Gerlitz. "Interface methods: renegotiating relations between digital social research,
STS and sociology." (The Sociological Review 64, no. 1 2016): 21-46.

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descriptive method that inserts the description and explanation of the information of the articles.
The audiovisual translation comprises ten components that are divided into two wider
subdivisions. Audiovisual translation helped me in translating the article as the last level of the
text function perceived the original article by showing the structures of the original article. I
utilized the voice-over translation that is considered to be the faithful translation that translated
the messages in a simultaneous method.
Conclusion
The paper evaluated the process that has been undertaking for translating a research journal
article, particularly for the lay audience. It is observed that as the scientist uses specialized
language in writing a journal article it becomes significant to translate the articles for the lay
audience to understand the concept. It discussed the primary factors that are responsible for the
process of translation. It stated that the translation is due to the heterogeneous audience of
different groups of people. It aimed to focus on the utilization of different mediums for the
process of translation. Also, it provided with the role of audiovisual material in the translation
process.

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References
Bodin, Örjan, Michele L. Barnes, Ryan RJ McAllister, Juan Carlos Rocha, and Angela M.
Guerrero. "Social–Ecological Network Approaches in Interdisciplinary Research: A
Response to Bohan et al. and Dee et al." Trends in ecology & evolution 32, no. 8 2017:
547-549.
Fazey, Ioan, Lukas Bunse, Joshua Msika, Maria Pinke, Katherine Preedy, Anna C. Evely, Emily
Lambert, Emily Hastings, Sue Morris, and Mark S. Reed. "Evaluating knowledge
exchange in interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder research." Global Environmental
Change 25 2014: 204-220.
Hirschberg, Julia, and Christopher D. Manning. "Advances in natural language
processing." Science 349, no. 6245 2015: 261-266.
Jorgensen, Danny L. "Participant observation." Emerging trends in the social and behavioral
sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource 2015: 1-15.
Kuehne, Lauren M., and Julian D. Olden. "Opinion: Lay summaries needed to enhance science
communication." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 12 2015:
3585-3586.
Marres, Noortje, and Carolin Gerlitz. "Interface methods: renegotiating relations between digital
social research, STS and sociology." The Sociological Review 64, no. 1 (2016): 21-46.
McCormick, Kes, Lena Neij, Oksana Mont, Chris Ryan, Håkan Rodhe, and Renato Orsato.
"Advancing sustainable solutions: an interdisciplinary and collaborative research
agenda." 2016: 1-4.
Pérez-González, Luis. "Multimodality in translation and interpreting studies." A Companion to
Translation Studies. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell 2014: 119-131.
Roggeband, Conny, and Bert Klandermans. " Displinary Approaches to Social Movement s.
Introduction to Second Expanded and Updated Edition." In Handbook of Social
Movements Across Disciplines, pp. 1-7. Springer, Cham, 2017.
Sovacool, Benjamin K., Sarah E. Ryan, Paul C. Stern, Katy Janda, Gene Rochlin, Daniel Spreng,
Martin J. Pasqualetti, Harold Wilhite, and Loren Lutzenhiser. "Integrating social science
in energy research." Energy Research & Social Science 6 2015: 95-99.
van Dijk, Mathilde, José van Aelst, and Tom Gaens. "Introduction." Church History and
Religious Culture 96, no. 1-2 2016: 1-12.

8
Wong, Catherine Mei Ling. "Assembling interdisciplinary energy research through an actor
network theory (ANT) frame." Energy Research & Social Science 12 2016: 106-110.