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Language revision and terminology work
at EFSA
Interagency Terminology Workshop – Luxembourg, 09.12.2011
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What does EFSA do?
EFSA is the keystone of EU risk assessment regarding food and feed safety. In close co-operation with national authorities and in open consultation with its stakeholders, EFSA provides independent scientific advice and clear communication on existing and emerging risks in order to allow risk managers to take decisions based on science.
Mission
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What does EFSA do?
We advise on food/feed safety across the entire food chain from field to plate and we communicate on the
risks
EFSA‘s linguistic regime
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EFSA’s working languages:•EN is the decisive language in case of conflicting versions; •DE, FR and IT are also EFSA’s working languages. As of 2009, multilingualism (EU 23) for certain key corporate documents.
•The EFSA website, in 4 languages, is THE primary vehicle of communications:
Why proofreading/revision
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Recital 54 of the EFSA founding regulation (EC) No.178/2002 states that the Authority‘s
purpose is to
“provide objective, reliable and easily understandable information”
EFSA’s Communications Strategy 2010-2013 identifies, as one of the key strategic
priorities, to
“further increase the coherence of risk communications across the EU and
beyond”
Why in-house revision ?
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EFSA is one of the few EU agencies to have a dedicated team of in-house,
full-time proofreaders.
Why does EFSA need proofreading/revision/copy-editing
services?
Not just a matter of
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• To align translations to EN source text, especially in case of last-minute changes
• To ensure multilingual outreach of complex scientific issues in easily understandable language
• To ensure high quality, timely and coherent release of important communication outputs in all 4 EFSA working languages at the same time
• To improve style, clarity and readability of translations, e.g. when targeting to different audiences or to specific purposes
• To ensure consistent use of terminology throughout
EFSA’s outputs
Why in-house revision ?
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Who we are ? What we do? What?
Our work focuses mainly on 4 areas:1. Language check
proofreading and copy-editing of translations – including discussing unclear source passages with authors – and preparation of localised texts for printing or publication
2. Quality controlfeedback to translators and ad hoc advice on problematic language issues
3. Translation work, occasional, last minute requests
4. Terminology work: EFSA glossary + IATE + ad hoc advice to translators on terms or EFSA jargon
Who?Bernd ELZER (DE)
Céline KALAITZIS (FR)
Alessandra FANTINI (IT)
What we do, in detail
Revision outputs Translation outputs :
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Ad hoc, topical content Press releases & news
articles A-Z topics Newsletters
Key corporate documents such as:
Annual Report Work Plan Strategic papers Corporate brochure
Press releases & news articles of particular urgency and/or sensitivity
Short, ad hoc web texts, e.g. “event stories”
Executive Director’s correspondence of particular urgency and/or sensitivity
Replies to media enquiries; summaries of press articles
Ad hoc requests from all EFSA units
What we don’t do
We do not revise scientific outputs (e.g.
opinions issued by EFSA scientific panels) and their summaries, which are no longer translated as of 2010
English proofreading of scientific opinions is managed either within Science or by external providers
We do not translate Texts above 1,500-
2,000 characters, except in cases of urgency
Non urgent texts above 1,500 characters
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Our workflow
EDITORIAL(plans, coordinates, allocates)
DE proofreade
r
IT proofread
er
FR proofrea
der
Communications Directorate
EDITORIAL unit
Executive Director’s Secretariat
Our main “clients”
Our revision tools
• MS Office WORD for most documents• PDF files in Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard
(text edit function and commenting tools) for publications and newsletters
• We DO NOT use handwritten proof-correction marks
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Our basic reference texts
• The Publications Office’s Interinstitutional Style Guide
• EUR LEX• IATE, the EU multilingual term base• Specialised glossaries, depending on language• Specialised web sites, e.g. DG Sanco, national food
agencies, etc.• EU Style guides such as Fight the Fog, Clear
Writing manual, Writing for Translation (DG translation page),REI (rete per l’eccellenza dell’italiano istituzionale), etc.
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Quality check: feedback
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Terminology work at EFSA
BACKGROUND• In 2006 an internal EFSA Task Force on Proofreading
was set up to ensure, among other, consistency in terminology in all EFSA documents across all 4 working languages and improve the quality of translations by supporting external translators working for EFSA in the Translation Centre (CdT)
• As a matter of fact, the main area of improvement identified by the task force was terminology
• An EFSA glossary (containing about 900 terms and 185 acronyms) was consolidated on the basis of comments received from Science and integrated into IATE, the EU’s inter-institutional terminology database
• EFSA was the first EU agency enabled to enter and manage terms in IATE
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EFSA-specific terminology:the EFSA glossary
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It is an internal list of the most common, recurring and sometimes problematic EFSA terms (ca. 900) and acronyms (185). It is a reference document for our linguists, subject to continuous updates, hence in no way complete
The EFSA glossary on the Intranet
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EFSA glossary workflow
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Terminology work at EFSATODAY
In cooperation with CdT, Comms-proofreaders create, modify and manage EFSA entries in
.
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IATE statistics
• To date, about 2,600 terms in four languages have been introduced into the database and about 1,800 have been modified.
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Proactive terminology
PURPOSE: Provide text-specific terminology to the translators (CdT’s Demand Management Service) using an early warning system: specific instructions are added to the translation request sent via the CdT Client Portal
Example:•Heads up for FR and IT translators: please note that the term ‘applications’ as used at EFSA refers solely to applications for ‘evaluation’ and should not be translated as applications for ‘authorisation’. Please be careful to only use the word ‘authorisation’ in your translations when the text explicitly refers to market authorisation in the broader EU context.
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The : a source of scientific definitions for IATE ?
An example of the Journal’s glossary (EN only)
Source: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/publications/efsajournal.htm22
Future EFSA projects
EFSA’s Scientific Committee’s Guidance on the Harmonisation of Risk Assessment
Terminology(EN only)
Lead by an EFSA cross-panel working group of the Scientific Committee with the overall aim to improve consistency and transparency and to reduce ambiguity in communicating Risk Assessment (RA) within an opinion (consistent use of terms) ; between different opinions of the same Panel and across EFSA Panels
It will also contribute to the collaborative international work to improve harmonisation of RA terminology
Each RA output should include a glossary of RA terminology definitions, which should be compiled as dynamic central glossary within EFSA. 23
Future EFSA COMMs projects
EFSA’s Communications Directorate Lexicon project
Initiated by EFSA’s Communications Directorate in collaboration with the Advisory Forum’s Communications Working Group (AFCWG), this joint initiative with communication representatives from each of the National Competent Authorities in the Member States aims to:
• foster understanding of risk assessment work through the simplification of complex scientific terms while remaining true to their meaning
• explaining references and measures to add greater meaning to the work of risk assessors
• enhance consistent and coherent communications throughout the EU through the use of harmonised terminology and layman explanations to reduce potential confusion and mixed messages.
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Our pipe dream list
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Create a terminology network with partner agencies (ECHA, ECDC, EEA,EMA) to share
knowledge Obtain access to CdT’s resource such as: QUEST IATE macro, updated version Xerox Term Suite or other Term Extraction Software Translation memories concerning EFSA material MT@EC (EU machine translation project) IATE: Improve effectiveness of search engine; spring cleaning of
double entries Finalize EFSA Terminology Watch Project Increase CdT’s terminology manpower dedicated to the
EU agencies
Networking: the EFSA Extranet ?
Sciencenet is the EFSA’s Extranet platform for the exchange of information
• Access is available from the EFSA homepage to certain secure pages on the EFSA Extranet where you can share information. A username and password , obtainable from the EFSA Service Desk, is required to log in.
• Sciencenet facilitates the exchange of information between EFSA staff and its networks and partners.
• Sciencenet
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Let’s keep in touch!
e-mail us:Comms-
find us on the EFSA website http://www.efsa.europa.eu
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