ARCHIVÉE 3.2.3. Identifying and Evaluating Specialized Documentation in Your Field

 

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In order to conduct any terminology research purported to reflect the current state of the art, you must keep track of knowledge in a given sphere of activity and stay abreast of new developments and their impact on communication. If you are a novice in terminology, you can acquire this knowledge by carefully reading specialized documentation, building a network of specialized consultants, and keeping informed of relevant topics discussed at symposia, conferences and exhibits.

This knowledge will help you identify basic terminology and recognize the most recent terminology. In the latter case, you may not clearly understand all concepts, you may frequently come across neologisms and synonyms, and you may find that usage is sometimes contradictory, all of which hampers understanding as well as effective communication. These are areas on which you might need to focus your attention.

Various sets of activities, units, hierarchies and people in your organization may be visually represented by flowcharts and diagrams. These in turn may help you obtain samples of related documents containing terminology to be extracted, defined and harmonized, and the resulting terminology can then be disseminated in-house for common use.

Documentation Containing Desired Information

The primary function of terminology work is the transfer of specialized knowledge and the authentication of related terminological usage. The acquisition and structuring of such knowledge by finding the concepts involved is an essential requirement of terminology research. The associated requirement is to identify the terms that convey this specialized knowledge because they are the designations of the concepts that you intend to define and whose interrelationships you will study and represent in the form of hierarchical diagrams (tree or rake concept diagrams) or networks (associative relationships).

In order to ensure that these requirements are met, you must be familiar with and able to evaluate the documents in your subject field. Documentation can be categorized as follows:

• encyclopedias
• monographs and technical and academic manuals
• proceedings of congresses and symposia
• specialized and popularized periodicals
• brochures and publicity flyers
• dictionaries, vocabularies, and documentary, terminology, and linguistic databases
• Internet sites of the best content providers in the area of specialization

To make the acquisition of this type of knowledge easier, you may also want to consult documentalists and subject-field specialists, and participate in specialized forums and discussion groups on the Internet.

Criteria for Selecting Documentation

Some types of documentation are traditionally preferred over others. Original-language documents are preferable to translations, and encyclopedias and other recognized academic documents or works recommended by specialists are preferable to brochures and promotional material. However, the selection of documentation must always be adapted to your particular research situation.

The usefulness of documents is evaluated against criteria such as the following:

• the publication date
• the author’s credentials
• the structure of the contents
• the presence of an up-to-date bibliography
• the presence of an index of concepts dealt with
• the presence of a glossary that defines the concepts
• the presence of a table of contents

Trade journals may be preferable to popularized periodicals, depending on your particular research situation.

Although the Internet provides a wide range of documentary sources, they are transitory in nature and vary greatly in quality.

Exercise

Read the following text, then select the quality value of the documentation sources described.

You have been asked to make records about basic concepts related to migraines. In the course of your search for documents in French to examine, you come across the following documentation.

Keeping in mind the criteria described above, select the quality value of each source. Is it a preferred source, a source of some value because it meets some criteria but has a drawback, or a source of last resort that has little value?

Question 1

A recent article in French by a neurologist on migraines in a reputable medical journal.

  Preferred source Source of some value Source of last resort

Question 2

A book on migraines written in French by a medical researcher and published 20 years ago, with a glossary in the back.

  Preferred source Source of some value Source of last resort

Question 3

An Internet site in English posting the diaries of a 13-year-old migraine sufferer.

  Preferred source Source of some value Source of last resort

Question 4

An article in a popular health magazine that is the French translation of an article in an English magazine.

  Preferred source Source of some value Source of last resort

Question 5

A section on migraines on a French-language Internet site specializing in information from the field of medicine (such as www.caducce.net or www.WebMD.com). The site has been in operation for at least three years.

  Preferred source Source of some value Source of last resort

Question 6

A brochure on migraines from an organization not recognized by a medical association that promotes migraine relief through a combination of liquid diet and large donations to their organization.

  Preferred source Source of some value Source of last resort

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