Language revision and terminology work at EFSA

Interagency Terminology Workshop – Luxembourg, 09.12.2011

What does EFSA do?

Mission

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.

2

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

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EFSA‘s linguistic regime

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:

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Why proofreading/revision

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”

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Why

in-house

revision ?

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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Why

in-house

revision ?

• 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

EFSA’s outputs use of

terminology

throughout

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Who we are ? do?

Who?

Bernd ELZER (DE) Céline KALAITZIS (FR) Alessandra FANTINI (IT)

What we

1.

2.

3.

4.

What?

Our work focuses mainly on 4 areas:

Language check

proofreading and copy-editing of translations – including discussing unclear source passages with authors – and preparation of localised texts for printing or publication

Quality control

feedback to translators and ad hoc advice on problematic language issues

Translation

work, occasional, last minute requests

Terminology

work: EFSA glossary + IATE + ad hoc advice to translators on terms or EFSA jargon

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What we do, in detail

Revision outputs 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

Translation outputs :

 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

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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

We do not translate

 Texts above 1,500-2,000 characters, except in cases of urgency  Non urgent texts above 1,500 characters  English proofreading of scientific opinions is managed either within Science or by external providers

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Our workflow

Our main “clients” Communications Directorate EDITORIAL unit Executive Director’s Secretariat EDITORIAL (plans, coordinates, allocates) DE proofreader FR proofreade r IT proofreader Publication on EFSA website or on print Feedback to translators 11

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 15

EFSA-specific terminology: the EFSA glossary

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

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The EFSA glossary on the Intranet

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EFSA glossary workflow

Identify new terms from Communications outputs Share terms among proofreaders Consult : 1. specialist sites 2. native speaking scientists Add/update validated terms to EFSA internal glossary Create/update entry in

IATE

( or send Excel sheet to CdT for incorporation in

IATE

)

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.

Terminology work at EFSA

TODAY

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.htm

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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.

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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

 Create a

terminology network

with partner agencies (ECHA, ECDC, EEA,EMA) to share knowledge  Obtain access to    QUEST

CdT’s resource

IATE macro, updated version Xerox Term Suite or other Term Extraction such as: 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 agencies

Terminology Watch Project

Increase CdT’s terminology manpower dedicated to the EU

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Networking: the EFSA Extranet ?

• • •

Sciencenet

information is the EFSA’s Extranet platform for the exchange of 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 26

Let’s keep in touch!

e-mail us:

[email protected]

1.

or find us on the EFSA website

http://www.efsa.europa.eu

2.

3.

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