thefastshow Sep 12, 2012:

... I consider your approach to this discussion rather debatable.. You clearly displayed twice that you had no clue what Annäherung means in the context (university) in the first place. There really was no need for further context. "An approach to" as in "Zugang" or an methodology works well here .(Not only) Google results suggest that " An approach to something (the subject matter) " seems to be quite a common solution especially when it comes to titles.
http://cf.linnbenton.edu/artcom/english/fleminw/upload/An Ap...
http://www.amazon.com/Approach-Mormon-Collected-Works-Nibley...
I'll agree you on your "first approaches to" though to settle the case.

thefastshow Sep 11, 2012:

Oh Helen :S ....

Helen Shiner Sep 11, 2012:

@thefastshow Simply saying 'an approach to the subject' is not enough in EN. I think you must misunderstand the difference in meaning of the terms. If you read my posted answers properly, you would see that we were given additional context and my suggestion of 'a closer examination' predates that context. I suggest we leave it now to the Asker who is evidently not going to return to this question - we cannot go any further (or the native speakers who have responded here feel that we cannot, at least) without additional context.

thefastshow Sep 11, 2012:

Helen this goes without saying. Anne mentioned " An approach to the subject " So that would do nicely. After all an approach to something is quite possible in EN. We will not need to know the nature of the approach.
Your proposition "The point being that this article/paper gets closer than has been done before, since Annäherung has the sense here of a comparison, to my ears anyway." does not hit it concerning the use/meaning of Annäherung in German. Neither does " This paper offers a closer examination of the issue of ..." much more apt would be: This paper encourages a closer examination... it will NOT necessarily OFFER one.

Helen Shiner Sep 11, 2012:

Approach I do not dispute that 'Annäherung' is used - why would I do that? What I do say, though, is that 'approach' does not work in EN on its own. What kind of approach is the question. What sort of material is presented? And in which way? EN needs to know and once we have that information, a suitable solution can be found. Equally, the term 'approximation' would not be used. It is a term that belongs in the arena of mathematics, largely. And BTW, it is not only in Germany that papers presenting first findings, stabs at ideas or approaches and suchlike are given. I've given them myself at post-graduate symposia, for instance.

thefastshow Sep 11, 2012:

Believe it or not " ..eine Annäherung" can be read very frequently these days and if you want I'll copy some current workshop/course descriptions. When you say " But any paper is an approach to something.." you're definately right and Annäherung is pretty much just that. It means you present some interesting facts/content as a means of inspiration and education to the students who then may engage in discourse or research themselves. I recently have witnessed the screening of selected movies with a preceding introduction and open discussion afterwards as "Annäherung" an ein spezielles Thema. This " Annäherung" can encompass quite a bandwidth of whatever is felt to be relevant and helpful to illustrate a certain subject matter.It can be a first attempt to formulate the authors individual thesis, which he/she is working on. It is less stringent than an academic publication or expert/specialist essay. It does not claim to be final,finished,constrained or void of mistakes yet. So when you say " it sounds like sloppy work, unfortunately!" a lot of times this can be (but doesn't have to be) the case these days. That's why I talked about a trend/phenomenon.

Helen Shiner Sep 11, 2012:

Tentative Whilst thefastshow is right that there are differences in the education system, with my experience of German academia (extensive), I cannot espouse 'tentative' as the way forward here. There are other better suggestions here.

thefastshow Sep 11, 2012:

Orla I'd stick with your "tentative exploration". Imho it describes best what it is. Google produces some hits too. Though this term may also not have been used by native authors it conveys the a prevailing trend at German universities to be a little anxious, careful if not even unspecific rather than to produce a spot on detailed paper (especially when the author has not acquired an academic title (Dr. or phd.) yet ) . Helen is right when she's pointing out the difference to the UK - I'd sign that . From my own experience I'd say it even boils down to different approaches/methods of teaching and education. From all the answers presented so far I would think approach comes closest , so I'll "agree" it. Your own proposition though even sounds better - depicting the phenomenon very well.

Michael Martin, MA Sep 9, 2012:

@Orla There are other ways of googling this and I am not concerned whether non-native speakers know how to use this term as long as my sources seem fairly reliable. Nonetheless, if anybody comes up with a better or more widely accepted solution, I'd be happy to acknowledge defeat gracefully!

oa_xxx (X) Sep 9, 2012:

As already asked, please provide more context - ideally copy and paste the paragraph after the subtitle and the part where "Dieser Beitrag ist eine Annäherung an das Thema" appears. The context is helpful for a variety of reasons (subject, register, tone, target group), it doesnt matter if the word itself is not explained any further.
I would definitely NOT use tentative.

Introduction often works, initial inquiry/examination/findings, overview (of preliminary research) even - anything could fit here. Closer examination makes sense too.

oa_xxx (X) Sep 9, 2012:

@Michael "first approximation to the topic" gets 17 hits on google, 3/4 of which seem to be from non-English websites/speakers (the first one from tcd.ie also has to be ignored as the English is so badly written I really hope its not from a non-native!) (55 hits without "first") - and/or scientific/computer related (see first-order approximation).

Michael Martin, MA Sep 9, 2012:

@Helen Unfortunately, I won't be swayed on those grounds given that I had little trouble locating examples like the one below: "As noted above, the discussion paper is provocative; it outlines critical aspects realistically and wisely; overall, it is an exceptionally impressive first approximation to the topic of determining audit quality." http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2007/207/perspectives/p12....

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

@Michael Yes, that is a very common expression in GER. However, EN requires to know in what way this is an Annäherung. 'Approximation' just wouldn't be used here - it sounds like sloppy work, unfortunately!

Michael Martin, MA Sep 9, 2012:

We may not need more context. In my opinion, the example below reflects a fairly common use of this term: " Natürlich kann ein solcher Vortrag nur eine Annäherung an das Phänomen Erfolg durch Querdenken sein..." https://diestartseite.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/gig-einer-que...

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

To be specific one would need to know just what was being presented in this paper.

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

@Emma Sorry, but I just need more context to be able to help you, as I said. It is unlikely that someone giving a paper is going to chose something that sounds too tentative. So really this is about 'scoping' or 'mapping' the terrain perhaps for future research, or first ideas towards an approach to ... Sorry not to be able to help at this stage.

Emma Rault (X) (asker) Sep 9, 2012:

Closer than what? Sorry, aneinander vorbeigeredet before, I think. I don't think this article IS the closer examination; I think the author wishes to convey the idea that they might like to examine the subject more closely at a future point in time. I thought that was what you meant.

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

Paper A simple, rather boring alternative might be something like:

This paper offers a closer examination of the issue of ...

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

First? I don't see the need to express the notion of 'first' unless that is specifically stated.

Emma Rault (X) (asker) Sep 9, 2012:

Yes. So. How best to convey this?
"A first exploration", then?

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

Annäherung It could simply be that the author wishes to convey the idea that he/she wants to present a closer examination of the subject.

Emma Rault (X) (asker) Sep 9, 2012:

I don't understand it to be about lack of confidence so much as pointing out the necessary limitations (in depth of understanding and whatnot) of their contribution.

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

Lack of confidence I am not sure the point of the title is about saying the author lacks confidence and is tentative for this reason. I would need more context to come up with something useful. The full title would help, but I realise you may not be able to give it for confidentiality reasons.

Emma Rault (X) (asker) Sep 9, 2012:

The author's first time

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

@Emma - 2 The author's first outing or the first time the subject matter has come up for discussion?

Emma Rault (X) (asker) Sep 9, 2012:

Helen, thanks for weighing in on the discussion. It's not about a lack of research. From what I understand, the author is tentative because of, yes, the former; its being their first time getting involved in public discouse about the subject.

Helen Shiner Sep 9, 2012:

@Emma One would need to know the purpose of the lecture to come up with a good title. Why can't the author of the lecture grasp the issue full-on? Is it a first approach to something, is he/she wanting to map the terrain without going into detail at this stage? Or is the claim that there has just been too little research done at this stage to say anything definitive?

Emma Rault (X) (asker) Sep 9, 2012:

Yeah, but that doesn't work as a subtitle. . .

freekfluweel Sep 9, 2012:

provides food for thought food for talk (after all it's a lecture) ;-)