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THE GRADUATION PAPER IN TRANSLATION STUDIES: NUANCES OF CRITICAL THINKING

Vol.4, Issue 2, 2018, pp.86-100 Full text

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.18.2.1
Web of Science: 000454237800003

Authors:
Iulia Bobăilă https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4353-5913
Affiliation: Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania

Manuela Mihăescu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7149-5560
Affiliation: Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania

Alina Pelea https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9642-3339
Affiliation: Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania

Contributor roles:
Conceptualization: I.B. (lead);
Investigation: I.B., M.M., A.P. (equal);
Methodology: A.P. (lead);
Validation: I.B., M.M., A.P. (equal);
Writing original draft: I.B., M.M., A.P. (equal);
Writing – review and editing: M.M. (lead);
Resources: I.B., M.M., A.P. (equal).

Abstract
Critical thinking skills play a vital role in a knowledge society and have a direct influence on the quality of teaching and learning. We aim at highlighting the way in which the graduation paper in Translation Studies can become an excellent opportunity to encourage students to test the applicability of key concepts from this field and to tackle research systematically. Based on our experience of supervising graduation papers on translation studies-related topics, we have identified students' typical approaches and recurring difficulties. This allows us to suggest possible solutions for the problems encountered, depending on each stage of the process. Our purpose as supervisors is to endow students with the cognitive flexibility they need in order to draw up an adequate research plan, use translation assessment criteria creatively and hone their critical skills for future real-life situations.

Keywords: research, critical thinking, translation studies, systematicity

Article history:
Submitted: 30 October 2018;
Reviewed: 27 November 2018;
Revised: 16 December 2018;
Accepted: 17 December 2018;
Published: 20 December 2018

Citation (APA):
Bobăilă, I., Mihăescu, M., & Pelea, A. (2018). The graduation paper in Translation studies: nuances of critical thinking. English Studies at NBU, 4(2), 86-100. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.18.2.1

Copyright © 2018 Iulia Bobăilă, Manuela Mihăescu and Alina Pelea

This open access article is published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. If you want to use the work commercially, you must first get the authors' permission.

References
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SkillsYouNeed. (n.d.). Critical thinking skills. https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/critical-thinking.html

Venuti, L. (Ed.) (2004). The Translation Studies Reader (2 ed). Routledge.

Vinay, J.-P., & Darbelnet, J. (1995). Comparative Stylistics of French and English. A Methodology for Translation (J. C. Sager and M.-J. Hamel, Trans.) John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.11

Williams, J., & Chesterman, A., (2014). The Map: A Beginner's Guide to Doing Research in Translation Studies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315760513

Open Review

1.
Reviewer's name: Tatiana Kara-Kazaryan, Pyatigorsk State University
Review Verified on Publons
Review content:
The development of critical thinking skills is important for quality education; this is why the problem discussed in the article is pertinent to education in humanities in general and to translation studies in particular. The author(s) regard(s) the graduation paper as a learning experience that holds enormous potential in bringing theory and practice together, which is, of course, not debatable. The author(s) hardly put forward any ideas with which one could disagree as they are very general in their essence and are widely maintained in scientific literature. The value of the article lies in its experience-based comments and suggestions by the author(s), which could be of interest to their less experienced colleagues and graduate students, including patterns in students’ approach to the graduation paper and the supervisor’s instruments aimed at developing students’ critical thinking skills. The article is written in a logical and well-organized way, which can be considered as its obvious plus.

2.
Reviewer's name: Undisclosed
Review content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons

Handling Editor: Stan Bogdanov
Verified Editor Record on Publons: https://publons.com/p/14022583


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