Assessing translation quality

In this assignment, you are asked to assess the quality of two translations with special reference to ease of comprehension and clarity of argumentation based on metadiscourse.

In short, metadiscourse (MD) can be:

Interactive MD: helps to guide the audience through the text

Interactional MD: involve the audience in the text

Please watch the following Ted Talks videos:

Brian Cox Why we need the explorers https://www.ted.com/talks/brian_cox_why_we_need_the_explorers

Stephen Wolfram Computing a theory of all knowledge https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram_computing_a_theory_of_everything

1. Read the introduction to each talk and its author and then listen to the video in English. You can use English subtitles but please do not read the Italian transcript or subtitles. You can watch the video more than once if you like.

2. Write short notes about your impressions of the videos: which one is more communicative, i.e. interesting to watch because of the way the speech is delivered?

3. Now read the transcripts in Italian and rate the translations: which one is better? Why do you think it is better? Which talk is easier to comprehend in Italian transcript? Which talk has clearer argumentation in Italian transcript? Which one has the better translation of metadiscourse? To what extent do you think metadiscourse contributes to the ease of comprehension and clarity of argumentation (little - so-so - a lot)?

4. Finally look at the subtitles in Italian: how effectively have Italian transcripts been turned into subtitles? Give reasons for your answer.

Please post a word file (named surname_name_Ted_Talk_assignment) with all your answers. This is individual, not group work.