This course is designed to develop the skills of sight translation with an emphasis on the clarity of meaning, style, and presentation in the target language. Particular attention will be paid to a broad analysis of what sight translation is about, why it is important both as an exercise and a basic skill for interpreting. Students will learn how to increase speed of comprehension, and how to elicit and immediately articulate units of meaning, in each syntactic structure. It is also intended to increase students' active vocabulary of words and idiomatic expressions as well as structure manipulation in the target language.

Heavy emphasis will be put on further developing the skills of research, usage of reference materials, including discourse analysis, comparative analysis of English and Russian stylistics, specifics of the cultural differences and how they are reflected in both languages; texts will be presented in segments of increasing difficulty. The role of computers/software in modern translation will also be discussed. Students are expected to prepare by researching topics before each session and compile glossaries.

An important objective of the course is to develop an appreciation of and the ability to feel and use various registers through the appropriate grammar, diction, and style. Texts presented for translation will largely be drawn from commercial and mass media sources.