This study is led by the overarching idea that a precise metalanguage should be required when intending to critically talk about translations as texts. Due to the lack of communication between the translation industry and academic research, on the one hand, the notions heralded by Translation Studies are regarded as ¿parochial,¿ ¿too technical¿ and ¿academic¿ by professionals (a category that includes editors, proof-readers, translation agencies and all the other figures working in the translation industry), who oftentimes prefer to rely exclusively on their own experience; on the other hand, scholars sometimes fail to make their findings accessible to whole community of practitioners. This book intends to provide a practical, flexible and accurate model to be used when discussing translations. The model will be tested against a case study, i.e. the translations of Joseph Conrad¿s The Secret Sharer into Italian, which also provides an interesting overview of translation practices in Italy from the 1940s onwards.