Investigating multilingual(s') writing processes

Producers of technical texts in Switzerland must be able to move comfortably between languages, perhaps processing source information in English and synthesizing, writing, and/or translating it for a German- or French-speaking audience. The conventional distinctions between translating, technical writing, and editing have become blurred as people with different educational backgrounds are expected to handle various text production tasks. How they do this, what resources they access and incorporate into their writing processes, and which strategies they use to obtain the quality required for a particular job within the time available are just some of the questions that will be addressed. Findings will be presented from a large-scale study into the writing and translation processes of multilinguals. The multi-method approach of the study allows comparisons across different types of language processes (e.g. technical writing, translation, revision, editing), types of texts (e.g. technical, marketing, financial), and languages (e.g. L1 or L2)