Students

TRAN8074 – Professional Practice in Translating and Interpreting

2022 – Session 1, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Adelis Huang
adelis.huang@mq.edu.au
Marc Orlando
marc.orlando@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
(TRAN821 or TRAN8021) and (TRAN877 or TRAN8077) or admission to MConflnt
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit prepares students for professional practice as translators and/or interpreters. Students will be required to complete the fieldwork components (Practicum) required to complete the program. In addition to the fieldwork, the unit will cover a range of knowledge and skills that are essential to working as a freelance practitioner or as part of an in-house team of translators and interpreters. These include a profound understanding of translator and interpreter ethics, business creation and administration, marketing, building good client relationships, and lifelong learning.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Demonstrate a professional manner with or without supervision during a translation/interpreting job under practicum.
  • ULO2: Demonstrate effective communication with clients and good client relationship management.
  • ULO3: Analyse the scenarios during a translation or interpreting job and apply the AUSIT Code of Ethics in the activities of translation and interpreting practice.
  • ULO4: Demonstrate competent management of translation and interpreting tasks in a teamwork environment.
  • ULO5: Get in-depth knowledge on the translation and interpreting industry, incluing code of ethics/conducts for the translation and interpreting professionals, market composition, dealing with clients, industry associations and bodies, etc.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
End-semester portfolio 30% No Week 13
Interpreting and translation field work 50% No Various, along with the jobs
Seminar journals 20% No one week after the seminar

End-semester portfolio

Assessment Type 1: Portfolio
Indicative Time on Task 2: 3 hours
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 30%

 

Students are required to submit a portfolio by the end of Week 13 of the semester in which they enrol in the unit, enclosing all the activities they have done for the unit, including but not limited to: log sheets of translation projects, interpreting placements and court observations; journals of interpreting placements and observations, evidence of self-organised translation projects, client/self-evaluation reports of the translation tasks, and so on. Word count of the portfolio depending on the tasks each student takes.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate a professional manner with or without supervision during a translation/interpreting job under practicum.
  • Demonstrate effective communication with clients and good client relationship management.
  • Analyse the scenarios during a translation or interpreting job and apply the AUSIT Code of Ethics in the activities of translation and interpreting practice.
  • Demonstrate competent management of translation and interpreting tasks in a teamwork environment.
  • Get in-depth knowledge on the translation and interpreting industry, incluing code of ethics/conducts for the translation and interpreting professionals, market composition, dealing with clients, industry associations and bodies, etc.

Interpreting and translation field work

Assessment Type 1: Field work task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 57 hours
Due: Various, along with the jobs
Weighting: 50%

 

Students are required to undertake practicum tasks by attending interpreting placements, completing translation tasks, observing professional work, etc., to complete the required practicum hours. Aside from the interpreting and translation tasks assigned by the unit, students are strongly encouraged to source practicum opportunities by themselves and complete the tasks after the final approval is obtained from the unit convenor. Students are required to keep log sheets of the practicum work they perform, along with reflective journals for interpreting placements and client/self-evaluation forms for translation tasks. Students are required to complete 75 practicum hours in total to complete the unit. Word count of the task: 250 per reflective journal on average. Number of journal entries depending on the tasks each student takes.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate a professional manner with or without supervision during a translation/interpreting job under practicum.
  • Demonstrate effective communication with clients and good client relationship management.
  • Analyse the scenarios during a translation or interpreting job and apply the AUSIT Code of Ethics in the activities of translation and interpreting practice.
  • Demonstrate competent management of translation and interpreting tasks in a teamwork environment.

Seminar journals

Assessment Type 1: Reflective Writing
Indicative Time on Task 2: 12 hours
Due: one week after the seminar
Weighting: 20%

 

The students are required to attend unit-organised seminars on various topics in relation to their professional practise, including but not limited to: code of ethics, legal interpreting, conference interpreting, etc. A journal is required to be submitted on iLearn for each seminar within one week after the seminar is delivered unless otherwise specified. For each seminar, the students are required to submit reflective journals with reference questions in relation to the topic of the seminar. Word count of the task: 300 per seminar journal.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Analyse the scenarios during a translation or interpreting job and apply the AUSIT Code of Ethics in the activities of translation and interpreting practice.
  • Get in-depth knowledge on the translation and interpreting industry, incluing code of ethics/conducts for the translation and interpreting professionals, market composition, dealing with clients, industry associations and bodies, etc.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

The unit seminars will be delivered in a face-to-face mode on campus with live streaming concurrently. The seminars are aimed to cover different topics of working as a professional translator and/or interpreter. Other than attending the seminar, the T&I Program is also liaising with the community to secure interpreting placement opportunities and translation projects for the students to practise in the real mode, with the final products supervised by qualified interpreters and/or translators. Students will also be encouraged to act as practising interpreters/translators for various clients sourced by the program or by themselves (pre-approval of the program is needed before the actual work is carried out).

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Unit information based on version 2022.02 of the Handbook