I finished the first draft of my ski tuning instructions. Of course, it is but the first step of the final version, and there is still of lot to be done. If most of what I did seems pretty accurate to me at the moment, I already found some parts that I can improve.

- At the start of every step in the instructions, I have to use imperative, and not infinitive (which I used until recently).  This advice comes from my technical writing teacher, when I asked her which tense should be used in instructions.
 
- I need to translate a schema describing the differents parts of the ski. Since the captions of this schema are in english, I need to modify the image by replacing the english terms by french translations.

- Overall, I need to carefully proofread my text, and ensure the fluidity of what I've written. I have to keep my sentences useful, but as short as possible : I should be able to say these sentences loud without ending up breathless.
 
I'm also going to contact my expert about alpine skis, (which in our case is my father, or eventually my grandfather) so that he can tell if the translation I found for various specific terms are accurate.

Today, I had to email my american coworker in order to get help or vocabulary, more especially about the word "gouge". While it's a rather common word in the english language, I struggled to find a good translation, because I found some that related to "gouge" more as a scratch, while other had the idea of an hole.
When I asked him about that, he answered :

"When I say a gouge in the ski, that means there is a deep scratch is the base od the ski. So there is a chuck of the base that got taken out of it."
 
That really helped, and I came up with the translation "entaille", using both of the scratch and hole ideas.
 
I'm also facing yet another problem: in the french ski tuning sector, we talk a lot about "fartage" when talking about waxing or sharpening skis. For someone who don't know a thing about ski tuning, it's hard to understand, but it is indeed the french translation. On the other side, english terms are much more easy to understand for starters. For now, I'm keeping the "fartage" vocabulary, but I'll do more ressearch about it in order to maybe find an easier word.

I have been working on the project for a few days now. The first problem that I encountered was about my internet ressearch overall. Firstly, I wanted to become familiar with some of the specific vocabulary of the project (ski parts, tuning vocabulary and so on...) , and maybe to find some equivalence in french (for exemple, the different parts of the ski, since there are the main focus of the ski tuning).

Unfortunately, what I could find on the internet was much more about ski slopes vocabulary, ski areas and various ski figures names. After a first search, I found it rather difficult to find reliable informations about ski as a mere material and even less about ski tuning. I still managed to find interesting translations on http://shop-skiclinic.fr/ but I think that a lot of materials names are still anglicized, and a better translation might be found.

Until I found more specialized and reliable sources so that I can be informed about the specialized vocabulary, I started translating easier materials names, which do not require specific knowledge about ski.

On the other hand, I joined an audio conference with my american co-worker, Scott, so that we could discuss about our project. Since I've read the first draft of his instructions, we shared a few tips. I suggested he adds some images in order to illustrates some of the main steps of ski tuning, since it was kind of lacking in the firt draft and some of the steps did not look very clear.
Adding pictures of some specific materials needed would also be a good idea, since the various materials to use are very specific, and someone tuning its skis for the first time may not understand what he needs.
The next day, Scott took some pictures and added some more to incorporate them in the instructions guide. I think it looks much better now.

Hello,

I am Camille Croz, student of University Paris Diderot. I am currently working on the TAPP Project with a student from the Fargo University, North Dakota. Our subject will be an instructions guide about "Alpine Ski Tuning". My coworker will write a first draft of the guide, while I will translate it as best as possible.

I'm not too afraid of this subject, since my father is an expert on this field, and may be able to help me  if I happen to struggle with some specific terms. I already have some translation idea that I could try on.

This blog will serve as a logbook, so that I can explain my difficulties, my choices in translation and so on.