In recent years scholars have shown renewed attention to the notion of translators’ agency. Translators adjust texts to a new communicative situation and the choices they make at linguistic and textual level are the evidence of their mediation. In this article the author will analyse a translation assignment completed by a class of advanced students of English for Specific Purposes enrolled in a postgraduate Degree Course in Foreign Languages and Literatures in Italy. The students were asked to translate an unsigned article from The Economist, which is a complex discussion of management practices in post-apartheid South Africa, displaying the use of figurative language in a subtly ironic way. Rhetorical devices play an important role in the popularized literature of Economics (Herrera-Soler; M. White 2012; Charteris-Black 2000, 2001, 2004; Henderson 2000, etc.) In the case of the text considered here, translators could choose to clarify or iron out some of the ambiguities of the ST, thus creating a more coherent specialized TT than the original. On the other hand, they may decide to highlight and reinforce rhetorical devices, making it hard for the reader to identify with some of the positions offered by the ST. This article focuses on the translation of terminology, which is given a peculiar figurative value in the ST. Technical terms are translated with comparable terminology, rather than substituted by paraphrases or more accessible terms. The reason behind this choice is strictly connected with the persuasive and evaluative role terminology is called to play in this text.