MET workshops

Third session in MET’s Sea of Words Project: a closer look at querying authors or their translators and at collating various types of input


This session provides an opportunity for MET members – whether or not they are participating in the current Sea of Words (SoW) Project – to discuss how we (as manuscript editors) approach authors or translators and how we compose queries. The discussion will take place in the same framework as previous SoW workshops and working group activities this year and in previous years. In other words, we’ll consider querying and collating in the context of the language, psychological, ethical and cultural issues as they arise while we edit a manuscript and work with an author or translator. (For more information, see the descriptions of the first and second SoW workshops for 2014 and MET’s SoW project page.)

Purpose: To discuss some of the principles and concerns that underpin how we write or talk to the authors or translators of the texts we edit.

Developers and facilitators: Aisha Prigann and Mary Ellen Kerans.

Description and structure: We will give an overview of the collation process and talk about where and how we first approach authors or translators and when we query or seek their concerns about or acceptance of edits. We’ll discuss reasons for involving authors and translators, our experience with doing so, and how we respond to their input. In particular, we’ll suggest a three-move querying system and practise it.

Who should attend? Participants in the SoW working groups in the current year. MET members who are interested in helping authors bring their work to publication level, or who are interested in becoming involved with non-technical/literary texts.

Pre-workshop information:
Some suggested reading is listed on the description for Session 1.

About the facilitators:

Mary Ellen Kerans is currently MET’s continuing professional development chair on the association’s council. She is mainly a medical translator and author’s editor who also occasionally teaches academic writing. She has lived in Barcelona since the late 1970s.
Aisha Prigann specializes in translations for the arts and culture sector and writes her own works of fiction. A strong interest in literature and literary translation led her to join the Sea of Words project in 2011. In 2012 she took on the task of collating editorial input for one of the stories and spoke about that process on a panel at METM12.