mediation task

Checklist: How to do a written mediation task   I. Understanding the instructions  Read the instructions carefully.  Find relevant information:    o What is the situation?    o What is your role?    o Who is the addressee?    o What is the relationship between “you” and the addressee?    o What is the purpose of the text you must write?    o What text type must it be? o How formal will the text be?   II. Working with the Spanish text   Read the text carefully.  Find out which information is immediately relevant to the task, which is potentially relevant, and which is not relevant at all.  Mark the information you decide to use.  Identify keywords you need to explain   III. Planning to write  Remind yourself of the features of the text type you produce.  Decide what to add to the relevant aspects from the Spanish text in order to complete your text, e.g. a headline for an article or some small talk for an informal e-mail.  Put everything you want to include in your text into a logical order.  Find ways to express the ideas from the Spanish text in English. Avoid word-for-word translations; summarize and paraphrase instead.  Decide how to express yourself in order to be formal or informal (depending on the text type).  Decide how to deal with culture-specific words, e.g. ¨modas ¨ trends, tendencies, fashions... REPHRASING  Make good use of your active vocabulary.    IV. Writing • Watch the tenses. • Watch where and who you start a new paragraph.       V. Checking your work • Focus on types of mistakes you typically make. Adjective/adverb, subject/verb(singular/plural), add frequency, manner adverbs, inversion, modal verbs, accurate answer, right spelling, connectors, participles, adjective clauses...

HOW TO DEAL WITH MEDIATION TASKS � Read the task carefully, paying special attention to the communicative context: (PONERSE EN SITUACIÓN) Who are you supposed to convey the sense of a text to? What does the other person need it for?  � Read the text thoroughly and mark its structure either while you are reading it or directly after the first reading. � When writing your version of the text, make sure you restrict yourself to the gist of the original; leave out unnecessary details.   � Translation is a special case of mediation. If the task requires a translation, pay attention to all the details and strive to produce an exact stylistic equivalent of the original text in the target language.   � Restate in your own words, rather than simply parroting the speaker. � Avoid direct speech and giving your own opinion. � Begin by giving the reason for your mediation, then name the original title, translate it and add the author’s name. � Use linking words/connectives

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