Linguistic, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal Volume 5 Nomor 1, Juli-Desember 2021 e-ISSN: 2597-3819 p-ISSN: 2597-9248 DOI : https://doi.org/10.31539/leea.v5i1.3075 107 WRITING STRATEGIES EXHIBITED BY A TRANSLATOR IN TRANSLATING A SHORT TEXT Risna Saswati Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing (STBA) LIA Jakarta risnasaswati@gmail.com Submit, 15-11-2021 Accepted, 24-12-2021 Publish, 25-12-2021 ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the use of writing strategies by translators when translating short texts. The method used in this research is explorative- interpretative. Participants are freelance translators who complete short text translations. The data collection techniques are Think-Aloud Protocols (TAPs) and Trans Log II. The results showed that the participants used various writing strategies when translating the text at all stages. Rhetorical, cognitive, metacognitive and social/affective writing strategies were found in the transfer stage. Communicative strategies are not found at this stage. The last stage, restructuring, applied all writing strategies: rhetorical, cognitive, metacognitive, social/affective and communicative writing strategies. Regarding TAP, data collection techniques can reveal the translator's thought process while translating. In conclusion, the strategy identified at all stages included metacognitive, cognitive, communicative, and social/affective strategies. Keywords: Writing Strategy, TAP, Translation Process INTRODUCTION In general, translation is an acitvity of transferring a message from the source language to the receptor language. Translation proposes to gain the information from one language and then to transfer into another language related to its culture. Translating is to reproduce in the natural language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message in meaning and style. Accordingly, translating aims at reproducing the message. In order to reproduce the message, the translator needs to do many grammatical and lexical adjustment (Baker, 2018). To translate the text well, the translator should have good ability to understand the meaning and the culture of the language as well. Therefore, the translation result can be understood by the readers. Nowadays, books are imported to other countries for the sake of commercial benefits. However, not all people are able to understand the language mailto:risnasaswati@gmail.com 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 108 written in imported books. Therefore, they are translated in order to satisfy of the lovers. The people can buy the translated books easily now since many have been published. One of them is novel. Novel is defined as fictional story involving a plot which is revealed by action of different characters. It contains a series of events of different genre such as romance action, thriller, history, mystery and many more. The word novel, when used as noun, is defined as an extended work of fiction which is written in prose. Novels are usually written in the form of story. To enjoy reading the translated novel, a good translation is a must since the readers are not to read the same novel but in a different story. Translating a text is not easy in which it takes a process. To understand the source text the beginning process is taken in the first stage are having general and close reading. General reading is to get the gist of the source text and the close reading is to find in details the words used, the intention of the text, text styles, readerships, setting, and the context of the text. There are three steps in analysis: (1) determining the meaningful relationship between the words and combination of the words; (2) determining the referential meaning of the words and special combination of the words (the idioms); (3) determining the connotative meaning. After having completed with the process of the analysis of the source text which involves both grammatical and semantic aspects of the text, it is to transfer the analysis to the target text. The meaning is transferred; however, there must be structural adjustment in translating the text regarding grammar (Nida & Taber, 1982; Newmark, 1988; Baker, 2018). There are two different systems for translating. The first system consists of setting up the rules which are applied in order and designed to determine the selection of the corresponding form in the target language. The second system is to conduct the translation procedure that comprises three strategies. The first strategy is analysis in which the surface structure is analyzed in terms of grammatical relationship and the meaning of the words. The second strategy in this system is transfer in which the analyzed material is transferred in the mind of the translator from the source language to the target language. The last strategy is restructuring in which the transferred material is restructured in order to make the final messages acceptable in the target language. In this process, the transfer, the translator finds many problems of nonequivalent words and he/she tries to solve the problems by finding the strategies of translation to translate the nonequivalent to result good translation. Translation product orientation is related to the end result of the translation. Regarding research, it sheds light on the strategies applied by the translators to meet the equivalency. The object as research is a written translated text. It is different from translation as a process in which translation involves cognitive aspects of the translator when translating a text. The researchers are to 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 109 find out the writing strategies that the translators do. Cognitive approaches to translation try to comprehend and elaborate the workings of translators’ minds. It is to open how the translators manage the problems in translation, apply the strategies and meet the equivalency. Additionally, it can provide insights the mental processes of the translator when translating the text. The cognitive behaviors are investigated using Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs, henceforth) that are suggested by many researchers as the best method to find out the translators thinking in translating the text. The study conducted by Zhou & Lin (2012) was about the translation process of the student translators while translating a text from English to Chinese and Chinese to English. The result found that those student translators translated the text well by applying the strategies of translation. The most strategies employed were incubation and illumination. It was found preparation and evaluation as strategies used by the participants but only a few. The TAPs were used as the technique of data collection. The evidences showed that TAPs could uncover the thought processes of student translators while translating. The article written by Olk (2002) about a think-aloud protocol study explored translation processes of degree-level language students translating culture specific words. The study found that one main problem that hindered was a fixation on questionable word-level parameter. It was found at text-level processes. Additionally, it was related to teaching practices which focus on students’ attention in translation only on small text units. It was suggested that the students were supposed to be trained in translating to longer text level to enhance their achievement in translation. The previous studies explore translation processes of student translators using TAPs. The student translators employed some strategies in translation to result good translation for a short text (Zhou & Lin, 2012) and culture specific words (Olk, 2002). These studies investigate strategies applied by student translators. However, these previous studies did not investigate writing strategies used by the participants. This study investigates writing strategies use by a translator translates an English short text to Indonesian. What the writer thinks is verbalized and recorded using Translog II as a tool to uncover the translator’s thought processes. The method used is Think Aloud Protocol (TAPS). The research gap compared to other researches is this study investigates the writing strategies exhibited by the translator when translating the text. This study interfaces between translation studies and teaching practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate writing strategies exhibited by a translator when performing a task to translate an English source text to the Indonesian as a target language. It attempts to explore what writing strategies identified in order to inventory the translation processes. 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 110 LITERATURE REVIEW The elaboration of equivalency in Baker (2018) consists of the equivalency at word level, above the word level, grammatical equivalency, textual equivalency and pragmatic equivalency. Accordingly, there are the problems of nonequivalent word and its translation strategies. The problems of this levels are: (1) the words have culture specific context in which it is unknown in the target language; (2) the words contain semantically complex in meaning; (3) the words are not lexicalized in the target language. The words are easy to understand, but it has no equivalent, such as the word standard in English which is translated standar in Indonesian; (4) the word has a different distinction in meaning both in SL and Tl; (5) the target language lacks of superordinate and specific terms; (6) the words have a physical or interpersonal perspective which is related to the pairs of words such as in come and go, take and bring; (7) the words have differences in meaning and forms, frequency and purpose and; (8) the use of loan words. Additionally, she proposes the strategies for those problems such as using the superordinate words, cultural substitution, loan words, paraphrasing, omission, and illustration. Those strategies are applied by the translator to meet the equivalency in the target language; therefore, the translation sounds natural. Equivalence Above the Word Level It consists of the elaboration of collocation which is defined as certain words that occur in a language. Some words have the broader range in use but some are others have restriction. Collocation is a reconstructed in which there is structurally coherent. Additionally, collocation contains complicated semantically lexical combination that consists of two words, which is more frequent instead of by chance (Feng et al., 2018). Differences in collocation patterns that vary from language to another language can create problems in translation. The problems are misinterpretation of the collocation, marked collocation and the tension between the accuracy and naturalness. The problems as well occur in idiom and fixed expressions since they have literal and idiomatic senses in the same type. To solve the problems, the translator can employ the strategies of paraphrasing, omission and using the same idioms and fixed expressions in the target language. Grammatical Equivalence It includes the aspects of numbers, person, gender, tense and aspects, and voices. Regarding numbers, not all languages have grammatical category of numbers. English has the markers for the countable nouns by adding the –s for plural and the uncountable nouns do not have the markers to identify them. In Indonesian, both do not have the markers for countable and uncountable nouns. 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 111 The nouns are repeated to show plurality or use the lexicon, such as banyak, beberapa, sedikit, lebih banyak. Gender is defined as a grammatical distinction to show masculine and feminine. English has the division for them based on semantic areas and based on the person system such as he/she, uncle/aunt, mare/stallion, and cow/bull. Indonesian does not have marker to differentiate the gender in semantic areas. The next category is person relating to the notion of participant roles. In English, the most common dimension is the first person, the second person, and the third person. In Indonesian, gender dimension is absent. Tense and aspect are related to time: present, past and future. Aspectual differences have to do with the temporal distribution of an event, for instance its completion or non-completion, continuation or momentariness. Tense and aspect are not grammatical category in Indonesian which lexicalized the time. It is found the use of lexicon of sudah, telah, sedang, akan to describe past, progressive and future. The last category is voice which is related to active clauses and passive clauses. Languages which have a category of voice do not always use the passive with the same frequency which is based on stylistic choice, registers. Scientific and technical writing in English depend on passive structures. Translating Grammar is not an easy task to do. The problems to overcome these the translators employ the strategies of translation. Additionally, the translators should possess the grammar competence in source language and target language (Nida & Taber, 1982; Newmark, 1988; Baker, 2018). Textual Equivalence It comprises of reference, substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Related to reference, it is used in Semantics for the relationship which holds between a word and the real world. It is categorized into repetition, synonym, superordinate, general word, and pronominal reference. There happens the shifting reference to refer to the same person or people to vary the use or to avoid boredom. Substitution and ellipsis are grammatical relationship in which the former is to replace the word with another to avoid repetition. However, ellipsis involves the omission of the items while substitution is replacement of the item. Regarding conjunction, it involves the markers to relate sentences, clauses and paragraphs. It involves the meaning of addition, adversative, causal, temporal and continuation. The last category for textual equivalence is lexical cohesion marked by repetition, reiteration and collocation. Textual equivalence discusses the theme and rheme. It is to discuss thematic structure that suggests a clause consists of two parts: theme and rheme. The theme is what the clause is about and the rheme is what the speaker or writer talks about the theme. In translation, the translator should be aware about the two segments to avoid misunderstanding. 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 112 Pragmatic Equivalence It concerns with the way utterances are used in communication and how they are interpreted. It involves the aspects of coherence and implicatures in language use. Additionally, context plays the role in finding the equivalence. As House (2018) states about the important role in finding the pragmatic equivalence. The translated text is contextually bound. In line with her, Baker (2018) adds that the strategies recommended is the translator should provide enough background or context in which the utterances occur in order to give meaning to the readers. Writing Strategies Cognition is defined as the mental processes and abilities such as memory, learning, problem-solving, evaluation, reasoning and decision making. Cognition is to generate new knowledge through mental processes and to use the knowledge. Metacognition is defined as thinking about thinking. Metacognition is related to how to how to complete a given task using planning, monitoring, evaluating and comprehending. Translating a text needs the writing skills and good competence in grammar. Regarding Grammar, the translator should possess the grammatical competence in both languages, the source language and the target language. The problems raise in voice, gender, tense and aspect, person and culture (Ezzati, 2016). Table 1. The Taxonomy of ESL Writing Strategies Writing Strategies Sub-Strategies Speculation Rhetorical Strategies Organization Beginning/development/ending Use of L1 Translate generates idea into ESL Formatting/Modelling Genre consideration Comparing Different rhetorical convention Meta-Cognitive Strategies Planning Finding focus Monitoring Checking and identifying problems Evaluating Reconsidering written text, goals Cognitive Strategies Generating Ideas Repeating New Words Revising Making changes in plan, written text Elaborating Extending the content of writing Clarification Disposing of confusions Retrieval Getting information from memory Rehearsing Trying out ideas or language Communicative Strategies Summarizing Synthesizing what has read Avoidance Avoiding some problems Reduction Giving up some difficulties Sense of readers Anticipating readers’ response 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 113 Social/Affective Strategies Resourcing Referring to libraries, dictionaries Getting feedback Getting support from professors and peers Assigning goals Dissolve the load of the task Rest deferral Reducing anxiety Translator should have strategies in writing good sentences in order to produce good translation. In writing, there are two strategies, namely metacognitive and cognitive strategies (Congjun, 2005). The categories of the metacognitive and cognitive strategies in writing that are borrowed to analyze the translation process to find out the mental processes of the translator when translating the text. The translator should master the target language grammar and writing skills to transfer the message. Metacognitive strategies consisting of planning, evaluation and monitoring are parts of other strategies of ESL writing strategies classified by Wenden (Congjun, 2005). The classification of ESL writing strategies is summarized in the following taxonomy with the corresponding activities in which the writers can do variety of activities in writing. The taxonomy is borrowed to analyze the translator in translating the text since translating needs writing strategies to produce good translation. Think Aloud Protocol as a Tool for Translation Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs) are widely used in applied linguistics to discover the thinking and cognitive processes language learners engage in when performing different language-related tasks (Lumley, 2005; Barkaoui, 2011). In translation as a process, translators are asked to say what comes into their mind when they are to complete the translation work. The introspective data collection consists of think-aloud protocol and stimulated recall. Think aloud-protocol involves the completion a task or solve the problem by the writers and verbalize their thought process. Their self-report is audio- TAPsed or video-TAPsed recorded. It is then transcribed and the written result named as protocol. The writers are not distracted by having to introspect their activities. It is to stimulate their memories to produce good introspective data. Introspective is the process of observing and reporting on one’s feeling, thought, motives, reasons, and mental states. It is accompanies with a view to determine the processes and state shape one’s behavior (Gass & Mackey, 2000; Nunan, 2009; Barnard & Burns, 2007). The method is to elicit qualitative data that regards with the thought processes associated with the performing an action or participating in an event. A stimulus in the form of video recording is used as the instrument of this method (Barnard & Burns, 2007). 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 114 RESEARCH METHOD This study is to apply the qualitative approach. The data are taken from the translation log II video containing participant translating the English text titled Eggnog into Indonesian. The type of analysis conducted in this study is interpretative. This study uses a non-experimental design, qualitative data and interpretative analysis; therefore, it applies exploratory-interpretative method. The participant was a freelance translator participating in this study to use the Trans Log II. One of a short English text is given to her after a brief introduction about basic procedures of the tryout and how to use the tool. The text translated is Eggnog from English as a source language to Indonesian. The data are collected by the steps: (1) listening to video of a participant translating the text using Translog II; (2) the TAPs is applied to record all the talk, activities, silence and the verbalized behavior in translating the English text; (3) marking the words, idioms and fixed expressions, grammatical units; person, gender, numbers, voices and tense and aspects, textual units: reference, substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion, and theme and rheme, pragmatic aspects: coherence and implicatures; (4) making a grid as a data card to collect the metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies, process of translation, and activities done by the translator; (5) put all the data into the data card. The data taken from data card are classified based on the translation process, activities, and behavior strategies: metacognitive and cognitive strategies based on the recorded data. FINDING The data taken from the Trans Log II. It is started from the minutes of the translating the text. The data card shows the translation process in which the translator tries to comprehend the source text, translate and do some editing. The activities the translator does when translating related to deleting the words, typing the words, thinking, and taking some times to translate. Behavior is related to the translator’s cognition in which it represents the translator mental processes when translating. The translator’s activities in comprehending as the first stage in translation processes comprised of reading the text, referencing the new words, reading the text aloud, reading by typing the words/phrases/ sentences, reading the words/phrases/sentences. The activities are named as general and close reading. The writing strategies involved were rhetorical, metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies. The other strategy, communicative, was not found. The next stage, transferring, in which the translator translated the text, the writing strategies of rhetorical, metacognitive and cognitive were found. The other strategies, social/affective and communicative strategies were not found while 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 115 translating. Those writing strategies, communicative and socio/affective, were revealed in restructuring stage, as the last stage in the process of translation. Although the process of translation was sequel; however, the stages are not so that rigid. Those stages can be found in any time, in the beginning of the translation, while-translating, and the last process of translation. The TAPSs can give some valuable information about the process. The translation happens naturally which means if the translator encountered problems in translating, she consulted dictionary and other search engines. This study revealed that there was revising and editing for the text. There were deleting, pausing and repeating activities to finish the task. There were no activities in which the translator tried some other strategies such as formatting, summarizing, or organizing the translated text. The translator used various writing strategies in the beginning stage, transferring stage and restructuring stage. In summary, strategies identified among others in all stages include metacognitive, cognitive, communicative, and social/affective strategies are shown in the table below. Table 2. The Use of Taxonomy of ESL Writing Strategies by the translator Writing Strategies Sub-Strategies Speculation Rhetorical Strategies Use of L1 Translate generates idea into ESL Meta-Cognitive Strategies Planning Finding focus Evaluating Reconsidering written text, goals Cognitive Strategies Generating Ideas Repeating New Words Revising Making changes in plan, written text Clarification Disposing of confusions Retrieval Getting information from memory Rehearsing Trying out ideas or language Communicative Strategies Sense of readers Anticipating readers’ response Social/Affective Strategies Resourcing Referring to libraries, dictionaries Assigning goals Dissolve the load of the task Rest deferral Reducing anxiety 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 116 DISCUSSION Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs) are widely used in applied linguistics to discover the thinking and cognitive processes language learners engage in when performing different language-related tasks. In translation as a process, translators are asked to say what comes into their mind when they are to complete the translation work. After analyzing all the data, it can be concluded that Think Aloud Protocol as a method for a technique for collecting the data can give the assistance to reveal the mental processes of the translator. This study reports that the translator applies all the strategies proposed by Wenden (1991). It reveals that the translator is supposed to have good writing skills and grammatical competence to produce good translation. TAPSs have advantages to be used as a tool for revealing the thinking process. However, this method has weaknesses as well (Fraser, 1996; Olk, 2002; Li, 2004; Barkaoui, 2011). TAPSs studies are labor-intensive since doing transcription takes much time. For only a short text, it can take days to transcribe the recording. Additionally, if the classification of the data is coded, it is necessary to allocate the time to do it. If TAPSs use Trans Log II, the internet connection should be supported well. If not, the validity of the research is in a question. It is recommended to use screen-recorder that is not needed an internet support. This study uses Trans Log II which can create problems for the participants who are not technology literate. The problems are not how to translate, but how to operate the machine. When starting, the translator faces the problem with the machine, it will bother her thinking process. It can possibly invite negative responses from the participants. The research is not valid in terms of the participants are not motivated anymore. Regarding the stages in translation, the participants should translate the text by process. The first cycle is the participants translate the text and it becomes the first draft. The second cycle, the participants should check the translated text again to do some revision. The last cycle is the final draft of the same text. By so doing, it can be seen that the process of translation is not done once but it happens in sequel. Therefore, the writing strategies can probe the translation as a process not a product. Concerning the text, the choice of the text and the level of the participant’s proficiency should be under consideration to result validity. If the text as a source language is challenging, the writing strategies can be reported by this research more varied. If the text is too easy for the participant, so the problems reveal during the translation are not significant (House, 2018; Li, 2004). While working on a text, the participant thinks and verbalizes her thinking. She does these activities at the same time, thinking and verbalizing. It is not easy for a participant doing these. Moreover, it raises problems if the participant is shy 2021. Linguistics, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal 5 (1):107-118 117 and quiet. In the case of she does not want to voice his/her thinking, it hampers the steps of the research (Barkaoui, 2011). The choice of participants with good abilities should be under consideration. Moreover, it is not only a text, but also the text-proficiency level. The text is to choose based on the participants’ proficiency level. If it is too easy or too difficult for them, what the research expects from the participant cannot be gained. For further research, the research designs should be reconsidered to result the trustworthiness and minimized the drawbacks (Li, 2004). CONCLUSION The writing strategies that are constituted are rhetorical strategies, metacognitive, cognitive, communicative, and social/affective strategies identified in the process of translating English SL to Indonesian TL. All the strategies occur in all stages in process in translation which are comprehending the text, transferring the meaning from SL to TL, and restructuring to meet the accuracy, clarity and naturalness. Concerning TAPs as the technique of data collection used in this study, it is convincing that TAPs could reveal the thought processes of participant. REFERENCES Baker, M. (2018). In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. New York: Routledge Barkaoui, K. (2011). Think-Aloud Protocols in Research on Essay Writing: An Empirical Study of their Veridically and Reactivity. Language Testing, 28(1), 51-75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532210376379 Ezzati, A.(2016). 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