Grounded in conversations within technical communication and rhetoric and composition, this project examines the rhetorical, cultural, and technological strategies enacted by multilingual participants during the process of translation. The researcher presents two case studies—one conducted with a student run bilingual news organization in Florida and one conducted with a professional translation office in Michigan—to argue that paying attention to the translation practices of multilingual communicators can help technical communicators and rhetoric and composition researchers understand, value, and highlight the assets of linguistic diversity in professional and academic contexts. Through the use of screencast data, video footage, and artifact-based interviews analyzed through community collaborations spanning across two years, the researcher visualizes complex layering of tools and strategies that multilingual communicators use as they transform information from Spanish to English and vice-versa. This project presents implications for technical communicators aiming to collaborate with translators to develop culturally-situated content, and for rhetoric and composition instructors and researchers who seek to make space for linguistic diversity in their classrooms.
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