At 3 P.M. on December 24, 2015, Professor Gu Baotong from Georgia State University delivered a two-hour lecture entitled “Transforming from a Translator to a Technical Communicator”, in which he introduced the latest development in this field through vivid case analysis.
After an introduction to the theme of the lecture —“translation and technical communication”, Prof. divided his lecture into three parts: what is technical communication; the development of technical communication in USA; translation and writing. In the first part, professor Gu used an automobile advertisement as an example to prove that the application of rhetoric is to increase the efficiency of information transmission. He also expressed the significance of technical communication in the strategic layout of China and analyzed the trend of its future development.
In the second part, professor Gu introduced the definition and evolution of technical communication, covering the different stages of theoretical development and research method. In the last part, he shared his own opinion of technical communication: translation as writing. He analyzed the common ground between translation and technical communication and pointed out that the demand of localization is to take both translation and technical writing into consideration, which is an inevitable trend of development. Before his lecture ended, professor Gu introduced the curriculum design of technical communication and the requirements for students in his university, and recommended some journals and professional associations in this field. The combination of translation and technical communication would be an inevitable trend of development for English majors in the future, Professor Gu firmly believed.
In the Q&A session, Professor Gu answered many questions about localization and technical communication. His quick-mindedness and erudition impressed the participants deeply and his own experience is a good example of how to grow from an English major to a famous scholar in USA.
(Reported by Wuqing
Translated by Xiongsi
Translation Revised by Wu Lanxiang )
