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A writer for periodicals like "Popular Psychology," "Popular Science," "Popular Mechanics," Science Digest" and other media aiming to convey announcements on new developments in technical fields to the general public is a translator. I used to have a manager that, at meetings, would translate corporate
lingo into common English. She offered a new "paradigm" for management to employee communication. The translator I have in mind would be like a "Popular Science" writer loaded on my PC. I could hold up the tablet and aim it at the accountant, doctor, lawyer, engineer, physicist, etc. while at an appointment and the translator could tell me what the person actually said, as well as record the words of the visit for my records.
Robots are now writing for the media so the wheels are in motion. [1]
2013-10-07 edit: Thank you Voice for the link to the plain language website. This septic tank explanation [2] is an example of something the average person would say, "Duh?" to, even though many of these average people look to the site for help on deciphering what their last septic tank inspection report described. Many of the complex words are linked to definitions, but the definitions can be baffling as well, and contain links to even more perplexing definitions. Perhaps a "Common Man" (marked for deletion) errrrrrrr "Common Being" dictionary (something along the lines of the "Urban Dictionary" [3] is order here so that that all websites could link words to the "Common Being Dictionary" site. In a nutshell I would like to see the septic tank Wiki articles with the trade's word, like "nematode community" replaced with "worms," and "saponified" replaced with "fat turned into soap."
[1] Robots are now writers
http://www.dogpile....stamp=1380993022045
Thump, thump, thump, another career field bites the dust [Sunstone, Oct 05 2013, last modified Oct 07 2013]
technical jargon translation example
http://www.plainlan...worthydirective.cfm
[Voice, Oct 06 2013]
[2] Uhhhm... worms
https://en.wikipedi.../Septic_drain_field
Dough! [Sunstone, Oct 07 2013]
[3] Urban Dictionary makes it dossy for those 40 watters in the wood hood
http://www.urbandic...efine.php?term=wood
The "Common Person" Dictionary for break it down for those not in the science, law or medicine hood [Sunstone, Oct 07 2013]
Find out how to use the hot new MBA word launched at the last business meeting
http://search.dilbe...?w=paradigm&x=0&y=0
[Sunstone, Oct 08 2013]
Same idea but for print: Auto hot link words and phrases in trade articles to "common being" dictionary or Wikipedia
http://www.cnbc.com...ing-commentary.html
An app would automatically recognize and auto hot link trade words and phrases on web pages and digital documents like "fixed asset bubble," "leveraging up its balance sheet 77-to-1," and "market cap-to-GDP ratio" in the above article [Sunstone, Jan 15 2016]
Now baked in one variation: Legalese to plain English
https://www.nytimes...-own-jobs.html?_r=0
Update business speak to normal language translation with: Legal Robot, a start-up that uses artificial intelligence to translate legalese into plain English. Having reviewed nearly a million legal documents, Legal Robot also flags anomalies (strange wording or clauses) in contracts. “Lawyers have had 400 years to innovate and change the profession, and they haven’t done it,” [Sunstone, May 03 2017]
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Annotation:
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The problem is that "Case Flow Coordinator"
doesn't precisely mean "lawyer's assistant".
"Complex Litigation" doesn't precisely mean "a
special court for complex cases". |
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"Work around for a bug in .NET 4.5 that causes a
VerificationException at runtime" |
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"Work around for a bug in .NET 4.5 that causes a
VerificationException at runtime" |
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but the only way to "translate" it would be to
make it less useful. |
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Specialized language is actually generally needed
and the best translation is for the listener to learn
what the terms mean. |
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From the linked example of a translation: |
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This part prescribes airworthiness directives that
apply to aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, or
appliances (hereinafter referred to in this part as
``products'') when-- (a) An unsafe condition exists
in a product; and (b) That condition is likely to
exist or develop in other products of the same
type design. [Doc. No. 5061, 29 FR 14403, Oct. 20,
1964, as amended by Amdt. 39-106, 30 FR 8826,
July 14, 1965] |
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FAA's airworthiness directives are legally
enforceable rules that apply to the following
products: aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, and
appliances. |
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Now the second one is easier to read but omits
parts of the law that may be very important -- like
the fact that the directive doesn't apply unless
the product was found to be unsafe. |
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EDIT: disregard the last half of my comment
because I am an idiot. |
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EDIT: Duly complying with idiot's instruction. |
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// I used to have a manager that, at meetings, would translate corporate lingo into common English. // |
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Not a proper manager, then ... |
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// Duly complying with idiot's instruction. // |
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You are a Management Trainee and we claim our five dollars ... |
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[voice] While I agree that the translated text is necessarily less precise and useful, for a person who is not in the "in crowd" the translation could give the general idea of what is being talked about. The precise meaning is in many cases useless anyway since the consumer of the translation doesn't have enough background knowledge on the subject to fully appreciate the subtleties unless each sentence was expanded into a multi-page explanation of background information. Now if that background information was accessible as a hyperlink off specific words/phrases while viewing the original and tranlated text side by side, that would allow very efficiently digging into statements where a deeper undsertanding is desired without spending as much time googling for terms and sorting out all the different use cases. [+] |
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Hate to see you pick on Dilbert. Catbert, Dogbert and pointy haired manager. Sure! Line em up and shoot en down. But poor Dilbert. Sigh. We always hurt the ones we love. |
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Would Bert and Ernie be proud of what we hath wrought? |
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gr. "we have wrought"; "hath" is third person singular. Hence, "I have, thou hast, she hath, we have, ye have, they have". |
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