Articles and Stories

July 2, 2015

By Amanda Scott

UCL Centre for Translation Studies, commonly referred to as CenTraS, is teaching translation through editing Wikipedia. The program had 36 translation studies postgraduates contribute to the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.  The event was co-organized by CenTraS’ Rocío Baños Piñero, Wikimedia Gender Gap Project Worker Roberta Wedge, and Dr. Mira Vogel.

Students of the program translated women’s health articles from English into several other languages. The subject was chosen based upon it being an underrepresented topic, as well as a relatable one, to the primarily female students.

The students were first given some training on the basics of editing Wikipedia. There are some practices specifically important for translations done on Wikipedia. For example, the original article should be cited in the summary. “Translated from [[:en:title of article]]” is the traditional way of referencing.

When the students began their editing, some issues that came up included, finding resources for reliable medical terminology translation and translating bibliographical references. When it came to publishing the translated articles some students were apprehensive because they were worried that their work wasn’t perfect. The nature of Wikipedia is that articles are refined over time though, usually by several different authors.

Overall, students gave positive feedback about the event. Most of the students found that the editing on Wikipedia was very straightforward and easy to use. Students were excited to be publishing on such a prominent site and one which many of them used on a regular basis. Some of the students expressed interest in providing future translation on Wikipedia.

Utilizing Wikipedia as a teaching tool is interesting and clever. The site which has an array of information is a valuable resource for many online users in several countries. The more articles are translated on Wikipedia, the further the reach that article will have. Wikipedia articles all have a sidebar that includes links to translated versions of the article.