Hi folks!
In the past few days I’ve received a couple of emails about getting/giving help for publishing in English: one message was from an international journal, they’re drawing up a list of linguists who’d be willing to help non-native speakers of English in the final stages of preparation of their manuscripts before publication; another message was sent to me as a potential client: it came from a company that’s specialised in helping authors preparing their manuscripts, improving the clarity, the language and the format before submission to scientific journals.
This situation is sure to develop, as French linguists are realising (better late than never…) how important it is to publish in English. As I’m realising that I can’t possibly accept all the requests for proofreading of English articles that I get from colleagues (otherwise I’d simply have no time left for my own research… it could be a nice business but I’ve chosen other priorities!), I’ve been thinking about this issue. I’m posting this message under “ALCO activities” because I thought perhaps the ALCO “linguistic tank” could set up a list of interested people, from undergrads to graduates to doctors in linguistics? ALCO members and their friends/colleagues are among the best potential “text editors” I can think of, as they (we!) combine a good command of the language with a training in linguistics and — last but not least — an experience of the process of translation.
The idea is, that when one of us heard of an interesting paper that was having some trouble getting translated into English/phrased in clear English, we’d post a (private) message to the “text-editor-volunteers” list, and whoever had an interest in the paper would get in touch with the author.
There would of course be no obligation for the people who signed up on the list of volunteers to accept a paper unless they freely decided to. It would be an informal system, a way of getting people in touch, and then it would be for individual authors & editors to decide on which terms they’d collaborate. (Some labs may be able to offer some kind of financial compensation for the time and effort.) I’m sure it could be an interesting experience for the junior “text editor”, and a good opportunity of meeting new researchers in one’s branch of linguistics.
Personally when I arrived at the Phonetics/Phonology Lab in Paris, where I was a bizarre alien (I knew nothing about phonetics and phonology, had no computer skills to speak about, and consequently had only very vague notions about what I was doing there at all…) I found that being able to help others with their English papers was a wonderful introduction, and a rewarding experience for me as well, understanding what the process of research was all about, and feeling that I was making a useful contribution to it.
So if you folks have any ideas about this topic, please pass them on to me!
I think it would also be interesting to write English translations of major articles/books in linguistics/phonetics originally written in French–there’s really a lot to be done there. That could be an interesting topic for a Master’s Degree in translation, for someone interested in translation AND in linguistics? and it could lead to a publication in book form, which would not at all be bad for a graduate student to start a life as a researcher in linguistics. As an anecdote: the great linguist André-Georges Haudricourt did lots of translation from the Russian…
Cheers,
Alexis
