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?As English became the universal language of science in the 20th century, most scientific research is written in English all over the world, including the Arab world.

At the same time, there is a growing demand for communicating scientific knowledge to the public in the form of popular science magazines and TV documentaries as well as encyclopedias and books.

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Consequently, there is also an increasing call for translation of these

works into language for the ‘everyman’ reader. It is, therefore, essential for translators and translation trainees to be aware of the translation problems that such popularizations may pose and the factors that affect the quality of translations of such writings.

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Accuracy and Equivalence

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A TT has always been assessed in terms of its relation to the ST, traditionally called the relation of equivalence. The concept of equivalence, however, has so far proved elusive to definition (cf. Bassnett-McGuire 1991; Pym 1992; Baker 1992). Among the most

influential works on equivalence in translation are Eugene Nida’s (1964), who distinguishes between two types of equivalence: formal and dynamic. Formal equivalence focuses on the form as well as the content of the message whereas dynamic equivalence focuses on producing an equivalent effect on target language (TL) readers by

tailoring the message to the linguistic specifications of the TL and the target culture. In other words, when the aim is to keep as close as possible to the ST in content and form, the translator would produce a formal equivalence, but when the aim is to make the TT conform to target culture conventions and read like TL original texts, the

translator would be producing a dynamic equivalence.

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?Nida does not ignore the fact that keeping close to both the content and the form of the ST is often not possible, and therefore considers, as a general rule, that content should always take priority over form if an equivalent effect is to be achieved. Obviously, if this rule is applied to poetry where form is as important as, if not more important than, the content, an equivalent effect cannot be achieved.

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The importance of Nida’s work lies in his attempt to systematize translation methods and assessment. His concept of equivalent effect, however, is vague: equivalent effect on potential source or target readers defies scientific measurement, and also, there are language and cultural differences regarding what is considered as the equivalent effect of a ST in the TL (Munday 2001: 42).

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Newmark (1981) builds on Nida’s work, but even though he questions whether the effect produced by STs could possibly be reproduced on TT audiences, he does not completely abandon Nida’s concept of equivalent effect. Using Nida’s dynamic and

formal equivalences as a basis, he identifies two types of translation as “correct”: communicative and semantic.

The choice between semantic and communicative methods for Newmark seems to depend on the genre, for he assigns serious literature, autobiography and any important political or other statement to semantic translation where the criterion of assessment is the accurate reproduction of the significance of

the ST. As for non-literary and technical writings, communicative translation should be applied, the criterion of evaluation being the accurate communication of ST message in

the TL (Munday 2001: 45). Determining the levels at which the significance of a text and its message are to be found and measuring accuracy in each case remains, however, subjective. The translated text (TT) may be assessed by experts such as professional translators, translation or language teachers and others, including the researcher. Assessment parameters, that may or may not be clearly stated, are in most cases those used in translation courses and, therefore, it will be referred to here as the“pedagogical approach”, although it does not differ considerably from the assessment methods for professional accreditation (ATA, 2000). There are no means to prevent that the evaluator assesses the translation by comparing it to an ideal text she could have produced

herself, thus projecting her own individual standards or prejudices

onto the actual text.

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In that way, the evaluator’s experience on the subject warrants her opinion about the quality of a TT. Thus, it does not provide an objective measure of quality in translation, but it has been used to investigate the translating process (e.g., Jensen, 1999; Tirkonnen-Condit, 1986). Some authors have suggested that a comparison between the propositional analysis of STs and TTs should provide an objective measure of quality, namely the proportion of ST propositions that are also present in the TT (Dillinger 1989; Milit?o 1996; Tommola& Lindholm 1995). Thus, the propositional content figures as atertius comparationis. Such a comparative analysis is, in my opinion,