Stupid question: how to make it clear translations are my own?

[Averroes MD]

Having struck out this year for PhDs, I'm taking advice and improving my writing sample by including lots of primary sources to flex my language skills. My question is: how does one make it clear in an article that translations are one's own? Where is this noted if anywhere? 

Edited March 10, 2017 by Averroes MD

[RiskyNT]

I often have a footnote in papers, typically after the first biblical quotation, which says something along the lines of "all biblical quotations are the author's own translation unless otherwise noted." But more and more I just don't translate. My writing sample included non-translated Greek, Hebrew, and French. If you quote the languages without translating them then people will know that you know the languages. 

I do NT. This might be different for other sub-disciplines, but I'd imagine it's similar.

[Averroes MD]

29 minutes ago, RiskyNT said:

I often have a footnote in papers, typically after the first biblical quotation, which says something along the lines of "all biblical quotations are the author's own translation unless otherwise noted." But more and more I just don't translate. My writing sample included non-translated Greek, Hebrew, and French. If you quote the languages without translating them then people will know that you know the languages. 

I do NT. This might be different for other sub-disciplines, but I'd imagine it's similar.

This is very helpful. Thank you !

[xypathos]

Like @RiskyNT, I don't translate unless I'm doing something nuanced with the text and I need to stress it and want everyone on the same page.

[Eshtah]

In my Writing Sample, I have included a short paragraph on "Notes on this Writing Sample" right before my Abstract, in order to specify some things. It provides a context to the Writing Sample itself (it is am abridged version of a larger piece of writing), notes on the primary sources, translations and the transliteration system. I have received very appreciative feedback from two faculty members, so I think it is a good way to clarify whatever needs clarification. Here is how I did it:

Notes on this Writing Sample

This Writing Sample presents an abridged overview of the first results of my current PhD project, "Title". The paper at hand concentrates on the analysis of "Primary Source 1" (Title in Arabic with year of publication), "Primary Source 2" (Title in Arabic with year of publication) and "Primary Source 3" (Title in Arabic with year of publication) by this Syrian author. Translations into English, and in the case of Primary Source 2 also into French, are available, but have to be treated with caution, as the translations often differ considerably from the Arabic original, sometimes including completely new paragraphs and excluding whole chapters. This study therefore exclusively works with the Arabic originals; all translations are my own. The transliteration system adopted throughout this paper relies on the style and rules explicated by the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (German Oriental Society).

[sacklunch]

So far as I know in all subfields of antiquity it is customary to note in either 1) the columnar text of your paper in parenthesis (*translation* "my trans.") or 2) in a footnote (with the same "my trans.").