Freelance translators' use of translation technologies and the problems they face in proz.com forums in Turkey: An analysis of freelance translators' forum posts

In the last century, the great development in technology has changed the working principles and methods of institutions and professions all over the world, and has initiated a radical process of innovation. While those who cannot keep up with this innovation have been disabled, those who keep up have become the best in their fields. One of the professions affected by this change is undoubtedly the profession of translation. Translation technology systems are now widely used by translators all over the world and have a large market. The more effective and accurate use of translation technologies by translators enables their translations to be carried out more accurately and faster, and has become an indispensable equipment for a good translator in the historical process, which has given vital meaning to translation technologies such as translation memories, machine translation, etc. The benefits of translation technologies to translators are many. Although many studies have been conducted on the limitations and advantages of translation technologies, it has been observed that there is a lack of studies on individual translators' use of translation technologies, the problems they experience and their attitudes. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the translation technologies, computer assisted translation tools and the changing attitudes of translators in our country over the years, to analyse the various problems they experience while using them and to present a descriptive analysis on this subject with the comments of registered users on Proz.com, which is known as the virtual platform of translators in the world.In this study, forum threads were examined using document analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, and the comments made by the users for each computer assisted translation tool were presented in a comprehensive analysis. As a result, the problems related to translators' use of translation technologies have been comprehensively identified and categorised, and solutions to these problems have been proposed.