The chapter begins by exploring ways of working with machine-generated or machine-stored texts. Texts produced with the aid of machine translation (MT) or with the aid of translation memories (TM) can enhance productivity, but almost without exception require significant editing. In the case of MT this usually takes place at the end of the process, in the case of TM typically during the process itself. The distinction between editing and revision is reinforced through an exercise illustrating and inviting practice of the two activities using newspaper articles. Next, the chapter explores translators’ potential uses of the internet for individual or group collaborative translation, and their varying attitudes to this type of collaboration. Finally, it introduces and illustrates an approach to translation analysis known as translational stylistics

This chapter describes the processes of attentional control and contrasts the effects of attention on perceptual processing versus the control of attentional orienting. PET, fMRI, and single-unit recordings have identified a bilateral dorsal attention network (DAN) that controls the orienting of attention and a ventral attention network (VAN) that is critical for the reorienting of attention. The intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and frontal eye fields (FEF) have been found to be core elements of the DAN, and the temporal parietal junction (TPJ) and ventral frontal regions are consistently found to be part of the VAN. Internally generated attention, or willed attention, is contrasted to exogenous attention and externally triggered endogenous attention. New methods of analyzing patterns of brain connectivity that hold promise for helping understand individual and group differences in attentional control are described. Neurostimulation studies (e.g., tACS; cTBS; TMS) that are providing evidence for the causal involvement of DAN and VAN to attentional control are discussed, and ERP indices of attention control processes (such as the EDAN, ADAN, and LDAP components) and of executive monitoring (such as the ERN and FRN components) are described. Finally, this chapter discusses the plasticity of attention and brain training techniques such as meditation, neurofeedback, and video games.

The chapter opens with an account of human translation and the working conditions that human translators should be able to enjoy. A look at translators’ accounts of their métier emphasizes their enjoyment of the translating activity and the responsibility that they typically feel towards their source texts. The chapter also discusses machine translation (MT) and translation memories (TM), which are sometimes considered threats to human translation. However, it is equally possible that automation will enhance the roles of translators. The distinction between editing and revision is introduced and both post-editing and pre-editing are considered: pre-editing is undertaken to ensure that a first-written text can be rendered into another language as unproblematically as possible, using so-called controlled language, which contains rules for what must and what must not occur. The final section discusses the important issue of quality control of translators’ output. A set of stages of translation are identified, along with the practical measures that can be taken at each stage to ensure that the translation reaches the quality agreed between client and translation provider.

The chapter examines the notion of genre in order to distinguish different kinds of translation that are made for different purposes. Genres examined include brochures, tourism texts, community information materials, instructions for use, legal texts, medical texts, official documents, scientific writing and news texts. Next, the chapter discusses the relationships between translators and those who pay translators for their services, and the merits of self-employment and full-time employment in organizations or translation bureaus. Finally, the need for translators to understand their projected readership’s culture and their likely background understanding of the matters related to a given text is highlighted.

The chapter begins with a discussion of the societal conditions that surround translations, and notes that it is more common for economically secure cultures to translate between one another than it is for poor economies to translate into the languages of other poor economies or into the languages of rich economies. The networks and associations that translators may form are introduced, and an example of a code of conduct of the kind that these may adhere to is provided. The second part of the chapter addresses the issue of whether translated language differs in identifiable ways from non-translated language. A third section addresses different types of translators and their working conditions, and the gatekeeping roles that translators play in terms of what they decide to translate, who they admit to societies that they form, and providing access to other cultures.

This chapter contrasts the voluntary, endogenous influences on attention to the involuntary, exogenous influences on attention. The neural effects of top-down versus bottom-up attention are presented, including how these effects are observed at multiple levels of processing in the brain. Evidence from fMRI and ERP studies show the separate and interacting effects of endogenous and exogenous attention in multiple visual processing regions and on the C1, P1, N1, and P3 components. Inhibition of return (IOR), an attention process unique to reflexive attention is described, along with corresponding ERP evidence. The debate concerning reflexive orienting and contingent capture is discussed, and the effects of special classes of stimuli (e.g., new objects; faces; emotion-inducing stimuli) on the involuntary allocation of attention are introduced. ERP indices of attentional orienting in visual search (e.g., the N2pc component) versus the suppression of distractors (e.g., the PD components) are discussed. This chapter also describes how memory affects attentional allocation, both in the initial capture and the subsequent holding of attention. Finally, theories are introduced that propose that selection history and reward learning play significant roles in the involuntary biasing and allocation of attention.

The introduction explains the notion of translation used in the book, distinguishing it from other uses of the term in disciplines such as geometry, biology, social sciences, philosophy of language and the performing arts. It suggests that rather than dwelling on translation problems, the activity should be considered as an opportunity to excel cognitively and creatively.