| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 翻譯學研究所 === 92 === Although popular science writings are mostly centered around a particular science field, an important science discovery or breakthrough, or a scientist’s life, they are not laden with difficult scientific terms or concepts, and are written in a way that a lay person can understand and appreciate. As a result, they have become increasingly popular and are viewed as an important media to educate the public about science.
However, as publishers churn out translations of brilliant science writings from the West, Taiwanese scholars are finding mistranslation to be a major problem, while nonprofessional readers are struggling to understand the book due to their limited knowledge of science and Western culture. Whatever the translation problems may be, they inevitably hinder the function of these books—to educate the general public about science. Therefore, to enhance readers’ understanding and the accurateness of the translation of such writings, this study aims to propose a set of translation principles and strategies for the translation of popular science writings based on a reader-oriented approach.
First, this study will discuss the proposed principles and strategies using examples from 11 translated popular science books. Then, three chapters from David Quammen’s Boilerplate Rhino will be re-translated and compared with their original translation from 2001 to examine the usefulness and practicality of the proposed principles and strategies.
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