A Genre-based Study Of Chinese-English Translation Of University Self-Assessment Report

This study is a Chinese-English translation report on a genre-based analysis of University Self-Assessment Report,whose target readers are mainly foreign teachers and experts.The seven-part University Self-Assessment Report is not only the important basis for MOE audit assessment,but also an approach to make a self-reflection and improve its education quality.This Report is an education assessment text which is featured by many educational words,formal and objective language as well as logical and coherent structure.It is easy to understand but difficult to translate.This study,based on the author’s translation practice of part of this Report,conducts a genre-based contrast analysis of the self-translation version and the revised translation version from the word,the sentence and the text structure.The focus is on the choices of words,transitivity process,voice and theme,based on which the author try to explore how the translators represent the genre features and functions of the source text and find the appropriate translation strategy.This study has three major findings.Firstly,the university self-assessment report,as a specific genre,has its own characteristics on the choices of words,sentences and text structure,especially on the language style.Thus,to understand the genre features of the source text is significant for translators in translation practice.Secondly,apart from the form equivalence,the translator should make an appropriate choice and conversion of words,transitivity process,the voice and the theme in order to comply with the genre features and functions of the source text.For example,the translator should accumulate more education related words and choose the material process,passive voice and the thematic progression that the last theme is the next rheme as the first consideration.Finally,the genre theory is highly applicable in guiding translators to achieve the genre equivalence between the source text and target text.The present study can be applied in the further translation and research on the university self-assessment report.