ABSTRACT
You will need more than one draft; all writers who want to write accurately and clearly revise again and again.
Edward J. Huth (1999: 121)
When we draft the target text, we are making a rough sketch from which the final copy is made; that is, a delineation of a text − giving the prominent features of its structure and contents without full detail − which is intended to serve as the basis of a finished text. But before starting to write the draft (4.1), we will briefly look at the general principles that should guide the overall process. It may also be useful to become aware of our own writing styles and to become familiar with some of the methods used by successful medical writers. Only when we have defined the assignment and have an adequate understanding of the source text, can we start drafting the target text. A three-step drafting methodology (4.2) − composing, crafting and improving − that takes into account the target genre’s restrictions and possibilities, can be applied to any medical genre. The first step, composing the target text (4.3), focuses on the overall structure and content. Once structure and content are in the first draft, we can then move on to crafting specific aspects of the target text (4.4) such as paragraphing, cohesive devices, modality, phraseology and titling conventions. The next step will be improving the draft (4.5) paying special attention to semantic, pragmatic and stylistic aspects that may affect the readability and acceptability of the target text. Both genre shift in the process of translation (4.6), also referred to in the literature as heterofunctional or transgeneric translation, and the translation of research papers into English (4.7) deserve special attention owing to their growing relevance in professional practice. Some tasks (4.8) and suggestions for further reading (4.9) are presented at the end of the chapter.
