ABSTRACT
A real translation, as distinct from a translation done as an academic exercise, is always produced in response to the specific demands of an audience, a publisher or some other paymaster. This puts a particular kind of pressure on the translator. We have tried to simulate such demands and pressures in some of the practicals in this course, for example by asking for a TT that can be sung to a particular tune, or a TT suitable for subtitles. These exercises are necessarily artificial, but they should make it clear that TTs are purpose-made texts, their manner of formulation heavily influenced, both strategically and in detail, by who and what they are intended for. It is to emphasize this vital point that we are giving an entire chapter to consumer-oriented texts, for the decisive influence of ‘translation-for-a-purpose’ is nowhere more strongly felt than in translating such texts.
