The translator as a plain text designer for the Public Administration: A necessary role?

Abstract

The language industry requires adaptive experts who are able to perform new roles and to provide new services. Here we discuss the introduction of one of these new services, the plain text design of source texts for the Public Administration; and we contend that translator skill sets equip them to implement this service. Then, after introducing the notion of plain text design, we outline a methodology that translators may use to implement this service to enhance administrative forms effectiveness before translating them. We then showcase the usefulness of this methodology. Our initial findings highlight the added value of human translator skills to provide this new service in the language industry.