The Tao of the Guerrilla Translator

Overview

Welcome to the Tao of the Guerrilla Translator! The TotGT is a step-by-step itinerary describing the full journey of a translation project. The Tao is primarily centered on our pro-bono translation work and for material destined to be published in our web-magazine. On the other hand, much of the procedure described herein can be applied to the paid translation work we take on as an agency.

How to use this guide

Each of the different sections below thoroughly detail the different steps a “ project” takes, from reading an article and considering it for translation/curation, through translation and copyediting, to formatting, publishing and promoting it. Of courses we'll explore our workflow tools, but we'll also talk about the protocols we employ to optimize the tools.

Every section in this page contains a brief overview of each step in the process, as well as links to more thorough wiki entries describing the concrete aspects of each section. All sections will be accompanied by short screen-cast videos (once completed) explaining these processes. Keep in mind that the figure of the “Guerrilla Translator” described herein will be akin to the Hero with a Thousand Faces. We will show the Guerrilla Translator taking on different roles (curator, translator, copy editor, etc.) although in reality, some of these processes will be carried out by different persons within a project.

Finally, given the variety of material we have, this is not a one-size-fits-all guide. There will be exceptions, projects with different needs, and changes made to the procedures over time. The intention here isn’t to present an inviolable template, but an expedient way to make yourself familiar with our method. Once you feel comfortable with what we have outlined, you will likely expand on it and adapt it to both your own needs as a Guerrilla Translator as well as to the needs of each project. For this itinerary we have, as a working example, chosen a Standard Translation, target Spanish and with no video content.

Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin….

Main steps in the Tao of the Guerrilla Translator

Before getting down to the nitty-gritty, we’d like to highlight four distinct areas in the process.

1: Content curation, choosing the team – Wherein the Guerrilla Translator reads something outstanding, wants to share it with the group, and together consider whether and how to organize the material as a project.

2: Pre-production, translation and copy editing process – Wherein the Guerrilla Translator inputs the material into our workflow system. Authors are contacted for permission and the material is translated and copyedited. This is the stage where additional tasks related to the project get identified, the necessary materials collected, and everything poised and placed for eventual action (images, extracts, additional needs, etc.)

3: Formatting, proofreading and publishing – Wherein the Guerrilla Translator takes the translated and copy edited text and formats it for publication in our web-magazine. Then, before releasing it to the world, she proofreads it one (hopefully) last time.

4. Social Media, post-production and re-publishing Wherein the Guerrilla Translator promotes the hell out of the great task she has accomplished, ties up any loose ends in this tale, and gives the project new life (and maybe lucrative sequels) by working to have it republished in different specific outlets.

Content curation, assignment of operatives

• Wherein the Guerrilla Translator reads something outstanding, wants to share it with the group, and together consider whether and how to organize the material as a project.

Selecting material

This is how every Guerrilla Translation begins. As we’ve often expressed, more than translators, we’re content curators sharing across languages. This makes content selection a vital part of the process, and something we take very seriously.

This is why we strive to select really high quality, powerful articles with no immediate "expiry date". Another factor is saturation, we really favour quality over quantity. Many blogs and webmagazines have a mistaken impression of the number of eyeball hours their audience is going to award them. So, in brief, we don't put out a huge amount of stuff, but what we choose to translate, has to be both high quality and concordant with our Founding Principles.

We also ask all new arrivals to translate 5000 words (or copy edit 10000) before suggesting material to be translated pro-bono.(Read the reasons why here). If you just starting out and what to choose from pre-selected material, please check out our reader's blog. (Which we'll talk about in the next section)

Sharing it on the Reading blog

Once you've selected some suitable material for pro-bono translation, it's time to present it to the rest of the collective in our Reading blog: "The Guerrilla Translators". The reading blog is place for us to share high quality curated material. We encourage everyone to read and comment on what's posted there, even if you choose not to take up any of the translations.

We choose to make the reading blog a Wordpress blog for two reasons:

• It allows people to "vote" on articles (without the need to make a Loomio thread) and add comments.
• It's an excellent introduction to posting in Wordpress (the process is simpler than in GT's web-magazine).

Material posted on the blog can currently fall under four categories:

  1) English

  2) Español

• These correspond with source-language and are self explanatory. Then there we have:

  3) NEW ARTICLES

  4) Project Underway.

So, let's say you've chosen an article in English that you wish to translate to Spanish, you've ensured that it meets the curation guidelines and you're about to post it in the blog. The actual "technical procedure is detailed" here. The article will be categorised under their source language and as "NEW ARTICLES"

Approval and team assignment

Now the curated article has been published and other Guerrilla Translators have read it. Whether articles are translated copyedited and published in our blog is decided by lazy majority. Every article in the Reading Blog has a poll with the same categories found in Loomio (Yes, No, Undecided, Block). If no one has has blocked the proposal and if there hasn't been a majority of "noes" in the five days following the posting of the article, it is then approved for translation/copy-editing and publication.

If anyone blocks the article, they will be expected to back up their reasons for doing so (referring to the content curation protocols). People voting "yes" and "no" are not committing to translate the article, just whether the article should get "processed" or not.

After reading and voting on the articles, Guerrilla Translators can then auto assign or suggest who'll take care of the translation, copyediting and proofreading, and formatting for the project. We'll go into each of those roles below. Translators are free to start the project, but we encourage you to find an copyeditor and settling on a timeframe before going full-steam ahead.

Last thing! Before you head on over to Trello, go into the post and change the category of the article from "NEW ARTICLES" to "Project Underway".

Links for this section

• "The Guerrilla Translators" Our reading blog.
• Curation Guidelines If you're unsure about what content is suitable for translations or not, please read this entry.
• How to post material in the Reading Blog
• Lazy majority
• Why do I have to translate and copy edit before I can choose my own material?

Pre-production, translation and copy editing process

• Wherein the Guerrilla Translator inputs the material into our workflow system. Authors are contacted for permission and the material is translated and copyedited. This is the stage where additional tasks related to the project get identified, the necessary materials collected, and everything poised and placed for eventual action (images, extracts, additional needs, etc.)

Creation of a project Trello card

Once the material has been selected it is carried over into our workflow tool Trello. You can think of Trello as a big board with little cards. Each card can be a “task” or a “project”. We call translations “projects”. What we’re going to do is to create the project in Trello and then we’ll see its progress as it make its way through the board, left to right. Next we’ll give a brief overview of the procedure used in the translation boards, but you can get a more detailed look in the “How to” wiki entries we’ll link to below. : First of all, we’ll log on to the target language translation board we’ll be using. In this case the GT: Translation ES board as our example is a pro-bono translation, target Spanish.

The board has a series of columns, each of these describes a possible stage in the process of getting a translation published in our webmagazine.

To start, go to the leftmost column and look for a card clearly marked as “TEMPLATE”. This is a preformatted card you can copy to make your project card. Within the card look for the “copy” button in the right hand column. When you hit “copy”, you’ll see a menu where you can choose where to copy the template card to. You can pretty much copy anything anywhere in Trello but, for now, we just wanna make a copy of the template card in the second column “Next up” and we'll tell it to put it in the 1st position of that column.

Once copied get out of the template card by clicking on the “X” in the upper right corner (or hitting the ESC key). Bingo! If everything's gone right you should have a clone of the Template card in the "Next Up" Column. Now we're gonna mess with it to turn the Template-clone into the project card for our example translation.

As you will see, the sections for the template card are pretty self-explanatory but, if you need a step by step breakdown read this article: How to fill in a Translation Template card.

The first thing you have to so is to copy the card (look for the "copy" button on the right hand column) into another column. The copy button leads you to a menu that lets you determine where your copy of card "lands", you can even copy it into a different board! That will come in handy later, after we've formatted the translation but for now, just copy the project to the "Next Up" column. Here's some info from Trello on how to copy cards.

It's very important that you don't modify the template card!! You want to go in copy it, and leave it as it is for the next person.

So, with that cleared, now you want to exit the Template card and go to your copy, in the "Next Up" column.

The first thing you want to do is change the name of the card. The conviction is to use the title of the original article (although you can always shorten it if it's overlong).

Now go inside the card and fill all the fields you can at this stage. Stuff like the hyperlink for Guerrilla Translation's site will be inserted once you've generated the post. Same thing with the translated wordcount.

As you fill the "Translator/Copyeditor/Admin" fields, add these persons (and yourself!) to the card by hitting the "members" button at the top right. Here's [http://help.trello.com/customer/portal/articles/1024320 more info on adding members to cards.

Next up you need to add labels to card. This is done through the "labels" button, and here's more info from Trello on adding labels in cards.

For labelling stuff in the translation boards you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do we have the authors approval for going ahead with the translation? If "yes" add the GREEN (GREENLIT) label, if it's "no" add the BLUE (APPROACH AUTHORS-PUBLISHERS) label

• Is it a text translation? (Most of the stuff featured in the web-magazine has some translated text, but not always If "yes", add the YELLOW (TEXT) label

• Does the project involve Video or Audio work? (This can include subtitling, transcription, etc) if "yes" add the ORANGE (VIDEO-AUDIO) label.

• Will this project be published as a Featured or Standard translation. First of all read the difference between the two in this link. (If you're not sure, ask!). If it's going to be a "Featured post", label it PURPLE (FEATURED), if it's Standard Translation, label it RED (STANDARD). Easy!

We will cover more Trello features during the translation process but, for now, you can start messing with the "Due Date" feature. If you hit the button of the same name you'll get a familiar looking calendar. Now that you're in the "Next up" column, you may want to determine a date for, say, having contacted the author or any preparatory work that the translation may need. It can also mean the date where you will start the translation (and, at that stage, you'll move your project-card to the next column... you'll see!). Here's more info from Trello on the calendar feature.

Now, if you still haven't contacted the author for permission... what are you waiting for!

Contacting Authors

Relax! You don't have to write authors yourself and appear out of nowhere. We'll eventually expect you to take care of this part of the process but, if this is your first Guerrilla Translation, a member will take care of contacting authors. We have an excellent database and have a very high success rate in contacting authors, getting permission to translate and, often, forging great relationships.

Sometimes it's very easy, sometimes it takes a lot more work but we usually get it done. This means that the member doing that work will take on the "pre-production" part of "Admin". She will add her name to the "roster" there. You can read more on the roles within a translation in the more detailed article about creating Translation Trello cards.

We've been contacting authors for a while and we know what works and what doesn't when writing an email. You will be copied in all correspondence and introduced to that author as the translator/copyeditor. This initial contact will come in handy if you need to consult anything with the authors during the translation. Now, if you decide to do that, get a second opinion, we don't want to drive authors mad with unnecessary email!

Being copied in this kind of correspondence will give you a feel for how we contact people and motivate you to create the best translation possible. The author cares!

Links for this section

• How to fill in a Translation Template card
• How to copy cards in Trello
• Adding people to Trello cards
• Adding labels to Trello cards
• Types of post
• Adding due dates to Trello cards

Formatting, proofreading and publishing

• Wherein the Guerrilla Translator takes the translated and copy edited text and formats it for publication in our web-magazine. Then, before releasing it to the world, she proofreads it one (hopefully) last time.

Formatting for Wordpress

How to post a Standard Translation

Social Media, post-production and re-publishing

• Wherein the Guerrilla Translator promotes the hell out of the great task she has accomplished, ties up any loose ends in this tale, and gives the project new life (and maybe lucrative sequels) by working to have it republished in different specific outlets.