Report On E-C Translation Of Liberal Education And The Public Interest(Excerpt)

This is a translation commentary report based on the translation of Liberal Education and the Public Interest(excerpt),which was published in 2003 by the press of Iowa University,exploring the importance of liberal education in higher education and its relevance to public life.The third,fourth and seventh chapters mainly discuss the significance of preserving liberal education,the value of intellectuals and the impact of conferring an honorary degree.As an educational academic work with profound ideological connotation,the book can provide references for Chinese college students,educators and those interested in educational topics.As this book has a clear goal,that is,to publicize the author’s views on higher education and liberal education,this translator takes Skopos theory as the theoretic cornerstone.As the targeted group is university students,faculty members,and general readers who are interested in educational issues,the translator tries to meet the readers’ expectations for academic texts by preserving its elegance,conciseness,and preciseness.To make the translation acceptable,the translator follows the three rules of Skopos theory and adopts the translation strategy of a literal translation.The translation purpose is the underlying reason for the prevalence of the seven translation methods in the translation practice,namely to use term translation and semantic interpretation,to follow the original syntactic order,to make adjustments,to make integration,to use four-character idioms and to apply Classical Chinese.On the basis of theoretical elaboration and empirical analysis,the translator concludes that Skopos theory has strong applicability and guidance for the translation of academic English text.By consciously following the three rules of Skopos theory and adopting appropriate translation methods,the translator can produce a translation that conforms to the content and logic of the source text.Besides,it’s essential to improve the three basic abilities and to establish three kinds of awareness in the translation.