ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to uncover best practices in institutional translation settings from empirical data collected from observing, recording and analyzing the work of a sample of translators at the Directorate-General for Translation (DGT), the translation service of the European Commission. The observations were recorded by means of keylogging data, screen recordings and retrospective interviews, and were supplemented by metadata about the translators’ background. Over a two-week period at each of the two DGT headquarters, thousands of “mini-activities” (i.e. lasting a few seconds) were recorded, ranging from project management to terminology consultations, quality assurance queries and liaising with colleagues. The analysis of the mini-activities reveals examples of best practices in the DGT, considered as one type of institutional translation setting. It also reveals the lengths translators go to in order to ensure terminological consistency and to secure the resources necessary for that purpose. The analysis also highlights several distinctive aspects of institutional translation as compared to other types of professional translation, and contributes to the consolidation of institutional translators as a category of translation professional in their own right. Finally, this chapter reviews the implications these findings might have for updating curricula in translator training programs.
