: Vignette 1: Setting the Scene on Strategic Translation
To introduce our upcoming flagship course, Strategic Translation: A Discourse Approach, we invite you to consider the following two texts that appear deceptively similar—yet a closer look will reveal subtle, yet significant, differences.These differences will form the basis of a broader discussion of the discourse model—one that begins with this vignette and is explored more fully in the course itself.

TEXT A
Final Communique
We, the leaders of the Arab states, 
recognising the seriousness of ...
(...)
Have resolved that ...
(...)

TEXT B
Final Communique
We, the leaders of the Arab States
recognize the seriousness of ....
We resolved that ...

Would you believe that texts nearly identical to Text B, despite being flawed, have been the versions adopted and published by numerous Arab Summit Conferences over the past decade?Texts of the B type are, in fact, deviant renderings from Arabic—impaired translations that have gone largely unchallenged in high-stakes diplomatic contexts.This kind of translation scandal is precisely what our Strategic Translation course sets out to unmask and critically examine.Through a discourse-based lens, we will explore why Text A stands as the model translation—and why the distinction between the two matters profoundly. Welcome to the core of our methodology in Strategic Translation: A Discourse Approach