Thinking About Your Dissertation (Aka Master's Thesis)

8/15/2019 Thinking About Your Dissertation (Aka Master's Thesis)

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Thinking about your Dissertation / Master’s Thesis

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Douglas Andrew Town

Maestría en Traducción

1. CHOOSING A TOPIC

When it comes to choosing a topic and a focus for the dissertation, most students tend to thinkin terms of a linguistic problem – e.g. an area of terminology – or a specific text – e.g. thetranslation of a novel. Of course, you can choose either of these – but there are many moreoptions you could consider.

In ‘The Name and Nature of Translation Studies’ (1972), James Holmes proposed a conceptualmap that identified the things that could be done in the (then) embryonic discipline of translationstudies. Although Translation Studies has evolved considerably over the last forty years

1,

Holmes’ pioneering work may still suggest topics and/or approaches for your dissertation.

Holmes’ map of translation studies (from Toury 1991:181); in Munday p.10.

A: “Pure” Translation Studies

Holmes’ divided ‘pure’ translation studies into descriptive translation studies and theoreticaltranslation studies (or translation theory ). Descriptive (as opposed to prescriptive) translationstudies were meant to describe what translators actually do - not prescribe what is "good" or"correct". Holmes intended theoretical translation studies to use the results of descriptivetranslation studies to evolve “principles, theories, and models which would explain and predictwhat translating and translations are and will be”.

(a) Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) focuses on three areas of research:

Products of Translation (synchronic; diachronic)(= WHAT?)

Functions of Translation (translation sociology or socio-translation studies)

(= WHY? WHO FOR? )

Processes of Translation (psychology of translation or psycho-translation studies(= HOW?)

The results of DTS research can then be applied to develop:

1 For criticisms of Holmes’ map and a more up -to-date discussion of Translation Studies, see:

Remapping Translation Studies: Towards a Translation Studies Ontology (2008) by Sonia Vandepitte:

University College of Ghent, Belgium http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2008/v53/n3/019240ar.html

Translation Studies

'Pure' Applied

Theoretical Descriptive

General P artial P roduct

Oriented

Process

Oriented

Function

Oriented

Translator

Training

Translation

Aids

Translation

Criticism

Medium

Restricted

Area

Restricted

Rank

Restricted

Text-Type

Restricted

Time

Restricted

Problem

Restricted

http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2008/v53/n3/019240ar.htmlhttp://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2008/v53/n3/019240ar.htmlhttp://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2008/v53/n3/019240ar.htmlhttp://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2008/v53/n3/019240ar.html


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(b) Theoretical Translation Studies, subdivided into:

A GENERAL THEORY of translation (very ambitious! )

PARTIAL THEORIES restricted according to: – Medium : human translation (written and oral); machine translation; and

combinations of the two – Area: restricted to specific languages or cultures – e.g. English to Spanish – Rank: e.g. - restricted to a specific level of the text: e.g. paragraph, sentence or

word level – Text type: analyze specific discourse types or genres e.g. literary texts,

technical writings, etc. – Time: limited to specific time frames and periods – or examine differences

between contemporary and older translations – Problem: e.g. problems of equivalence when translating proper names or

metaphors

B: Applied Translation StudiesWith regard to applied translation studies, Holmes distinguished three areas: Translator

Training; Translation Aids; and Translation Criticism

Although “Translation Policy” overlaps with FUNCTIONS, on Holmes’s’ map, some authors

include it within Applied Translation Studies. Pym (1998) pointed out that translators should be

TRANSLATOR

TRAINING

TEACHING

METHODS

TESTING

TECHNIQUES

CURRICULUM

PLANNING

TRANSLATION

AIDS

IT APPLICATIONS

Translation software

On-line databases

Use of Internet

DICTIONARIES GRAMMARS

TRANSLATION

CRITICISM

REVISION

EVALUATION

OFTRANSLATIONS

REVIEWS


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included among our research objects- especially given the increasing interest in translators’agency, subjectivity and status in this discipline.

Finally, here is a (differently arranged) list of research objects of translation studies. Please notethat these interact and have overlaps:

Translation: definition, history, functions, types, influences, evaluation, criticism Translator : roles, personal development, idiosyncrasies, social relationships

Translating: materials to be translated, cognitive processes, strategies, procedures &workflows, aids, external influences (e.g., skopos), ethics

Translation Studies: purpose, research objects, research methods, disciplinaryorientation, history, research trends

For a much longer, interactive list of topics in translation studies, please see:http://benjamins.com/online/hts/

For more ideas, download this book for free:The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies, Revised Editionhttp://doc.nytud.hu/~tpinter/html/KGRE/2012/ford/olv/Routledge_companion_Translation_Studies.pdf

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2. WRITING YOUR THESIS PROPOSAL

Your proposal should be approximately 3,000 words in length (excluding the bibliography). Itcan be written in Spanish or in English and it should be structured under the following headings:

SUMMARYPlease summarize your thesis proposal in two or three paragraphs. Include all key aspectsthat you have elaborated upon: topic, problem, objectives, literature, research questions,methods, and relevance of your study.

1. TOPIC, OBJECTIVES and JUSTIFICATION

What topic or problem do you wish to explore or resolve?

What do you hope to find out and/or achieve by undertaking this research?

What is original about the research you are proposing to undertake?

Why is it important to do this?

2. SHORT LITERATURE REVIEW (Breve reseña bibliográfica)The literature review should explain how your research topic is related to significant literatureand current trends in your field.

What has been written about this topic before? What are the relevant debates, theories and findings? What are the key ideas, theories, concepts, and findings in the current literature on that

topic, and on those specific problems?

TRANSLATION

POLICY

PLACE AND ROLE

OF TRANSLATORS

IN SOCIETY

PLACE AND ROLE

OF TRANSLATING

IN SOCIETY

PLACE AND ROLE

OF TRANSLATIONS

IN SOCIETY

http://benjamins.com/online/hts/http://benjamins.com/online/hts/http://doc.nytud.hu/~tpinter/html/KGRE/2012/ford/olv/Routledge_companion_Translation_Studies.pdfhttp://doc.nytud.hu/~tpinter/html/KGRE/2012/ford/olv/Routledge_companion_Translation_Studies.pdfhttp://doc.nytud.hu/~tpinter/html/KGRE/2012/ford/olv/Routledge_companion_Translation_Studies.pdfhttp://benjamins.com/online/hts/


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Please note: your literature review must be pert inent to the topic and the research problem. Donot write a general history of discourse analysis or translation theory!!!

3. THEORETICAL CONCERNS (Cuestiones teóricas)Here you should state your own ideas about the topic.

What has been overlooked in the existing studies and theories in relation to the topic

and the research problem you are interested in? Are there any new factors, ideas, problems, concepts, etc. that you think should be

considered and added to the debate?

You should also say how you intend to extend existing research:

What theory or theories do you intend to draw on in structuring your research?o Note that theoretical insights do not have to come from the field of translation

studies; they can be drawn from a variety of disciplines, including discourseanalysis, postcolonial studies, linguistics, sociology, history, gender studies,literary theory, cultural studies, etc

4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND THE WORKING HYPOTHESIS (Preguntas de la

investigación e hipótesis de trabajo)

Questions:

Working Hypothesis:

5. METHODOLOGYExplain briefly how you intend to go about doing the research.

Research Design: indicate whether your study is exploratory, descriptive, explanatoryor predictive, hypothesis generating or hypothesis testing. Are you following aqualitative, a quantitative or a mixed research design?)

Method: Interviews, questionnaires, think-aloud protocols, analysis of corpora,contrastive textual analysis etc.

Materials: written tests, texts, textbooks, tape recorder s…

and/or

Participants: How many people will take part? How will they be selected?

Characteristics (male, female, professional, students…?

Data and data sources: What material will you be analysing - in terms of genres, sub-

genres, recorded interpreted utterances, sources of retrieving material, period of

publication, source and target languages, etc.. Where will this material come from(libraries, on-line sources, corpora…?

Data collection and analysis: Procedures for data collection; methods of analysis)

o Operationalise your research questions: for instance, what kind of elements(linguistic or otherwise) would need to be identified and described?

o Will you start the research with already established research categories (deductive approach) or will you look for the categories (to code) to emergefrom the data (inductive approach/grounded theory)?

NB –Inductive approaches are much more difficult!!!

Will your analysis of the coding be qualitative, quantitative or both?


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6. ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS (Problemas previsibles)If your plan is to interview other translators, bear in mind that many translators don’t like talkingabout their work and will simply not cooperate (one of my tutees found this out recently to hiscost); there may be problems of confidentiality regarding their work, their clients, etc.

7. TENTATIVE CHAPTER OUTLINE (Esquema temático: capítulos provisionales)

What is the planned outline of your thesis? Give a title to each chapter and – within eachchapter – a heading to each section with very brief summary of what it will cover.

8. RESEARCH PLAN / TIMETABLEThe research plan / timetable is your plan of action. It can be formatted as a list or a table ofconcrete tasks / activities and deadlines. It should clearly state when - .e.g. June 2013, January2014 - you will start and complete key aspects of your thesis research, such as literature review,fieldwork (if any), drafting each chapter, consultations with your tutor, producing a first draft ofthe entire thesis, and submitting the final work.

Note: Please respect the deadlines for the MA Thesis (which define a general time plan for youand your Supervisor) – which will be sent separately.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHYPlease list in alphabetical order the literature and sources you have used for producing thisthesis proposal. This is not going to be the comprehensive list that you will use for writing your

actual thesis.

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Thinking About Your Dissertation (Aka Master's Thesis)