Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6845 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French
| Message 1 of 8 27 April 2009 at 1:16am | IP Logged |
I have to translate the topic of M.A. thesis into English (for the English version of my diploma) so it's very important to have the perfect translation.
My idea would be: "The surnames of Polish origin in Kiel, Germany. Pre-research".
In the word-by-word translation it is: "Surnames/family names of Polish origin in Kiel in Germany. Research reconnaissance".
Any suggestions? I would really appreciate them, it's quite urgent to me.
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Recht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5743 days ago 241 posts - 270 votes Speaks: English*, GermanB1
| Message 2 of 8 27 April 2009 at 9:18pm | IP Logged |
I don't think the "The" at the beginning is necessary. I think most English speakers
would agree.
"The" would be appropriate if it were "The various surnames of Polish origin in Kiel"
or "The 12 surnames of Polish origin in Kiel", but since you have no adjective before
"surnames", "The" is not necessary.
Does that help?
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Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5707 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French
| Message 3 of 8 27 April 2009 at 11:23pm | IP Logged |
I agree the 'The' isn't necessary. In addition, I'm concerned about the 'pre-research' part- I'm not sure what you mean. Is is a 'pilot study'? Or is this a sub-heading for a pre-fieldwork literature review?
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Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6845 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French
| Message 4 of 8 28 April 2009 at 4:16am | IP Logged |
Recht, Dark_Sunshine - thanks a lot!
My work was a pilot study (only some part of surnames in Kiel was taken into account). There was a literature review too but it wasn't the aim of the thesis (the pilot study was). The Polish version actually doesn't explain the character of thesis either but it wouldn't be a problem if the "translation" would be better than original. So what are your suggestions?
Is part "in Kiel, Germany" OK? (It shouldn't be "in Kiel in Germany" or something like that, should it?)
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TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5865 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian
| Message 5 of 8 28 April 2009 at 5:53am | IP Logged |
in Kiel, Germany is fine.
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Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5707 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French
| Message 6 of 8 28 April 2009 at 1:21pm | IP Logged |
"Surnames of Polish Origin in Kiel, Germany: A Pilot Study." would work fine.
Just to clarify (I realise this translation is important so I don't want to advise you incorrectly!) A pilot study, is a smaller scale piece of research that is performed before the main study just to 'test the water', and to test the efficacy of your research methods. The findings can be used to inform the design and the focus of a much larger, follow-up study. My degree was partly in social research so I realise the terminology is important!
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Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6845 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French
| Message 7 of 8 29 April 2009 at 2:34am | IP Logged |
Thanks for your explanation, the definition of a pilot study fits very well to my research. It's good to be sure that the translation with all terminology is right.
Just a small detail: Should there be a full stop at the end of the title?
By the way, it's just incredible how many linguistic details one short title can contain!
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Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5707 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French
| Message 8 of 8 29 April 2009 at 3:43am | IP Logged |
um... not really sure about the full stop. I would think so, but I'm no expert on punctuation use! In the UK, thesis titles usually consist of a main title, then a colon, followed by the sub-heading or very brief description.
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