The purpose of this paper is (in the spirit of the more practical aspect of Nida’s work), to propose a simple and pedagogically usable model to describe what, in the author’s experience, constitutes the major elements in the translation process. Just as different maps of the same area may be prepared for different purposes, so the present model should not be understood as competing with others, some of which, with good reason, are more detailed and technical. The model is built up in five stages.