What is a quality translation?

First and foremost, we need to have a clear idea of what quality really is. Although this may also depend on specific features of each particular project, such as industry, language pair, type of material, target audience, there are four basic elements that define quality of translation:

• Accuracy – the translated content is consistent with the source content.
• Correctness – the rules and norms of grammar, orthography, vocabulary, date/time and currency formats of the target language / country are followed.
• Consistency – the translated material lexically and stylistically consistent.
• Fluency – the translation stylistically appropriate in terms of material type, intent and the target language/audience.

Check out our white paper on translation quality for more in-depth information.

It’s all about the team

Language solutions are developed by people, so all quality QA systems start with a quality team.

Having a vendor manager who can source the best translators, test them, and then help them grow into irreplaceable members of the team is just the start. Project managers need to be trained on how to put a translation team together and how to match the right translator to the right project.

Some agencies even have a dedicated Quality Manager who oversees the quality side of all the projects the agency does. They’ll normally be responsible for overseeing things should anything go wrong, too. The final piece of the puzzle has to lie with the rest of the team. This involves training sales teams to know all about the company’s processes, and ensure that management is ready to deal with quality-related issues.

Certification

One way of telling if an LSP is a reputable one is by seeing if they are certified. There are three different certifications to look up in this regard – the ISO 17100:2015 Translation Standard Certificate, international standard that establishes and defines the requirements for the provision of quality services by translation services providers, the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certificate and the ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management System certificate.

These certifications ensure that agencies have to document things like their translator evaluation process, their quality control procedures, and all about their project management, to name a few.

Quality Assurance tools

The translation technology market is highly developed and dynamic. It not only helps us with productivity, but it also helps us with QA too. CAT tools (Computer-assisted translation tools, also known as translation productivity tools) have in-built quality checks that really help translators stamp out minor errors that might get missed. Specialized QA tools like Xbench and Verifika also provide an extra pair of eyes and really help a project manager out, especially if they don’t speak the target language. Also making sure that glossaries and translation assets (translation memories and term bases) are regularly developed, maintained and used prove a vital part of a quality QA process.

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Clarity of the Source Material

The linguistic quality of the source content is the first element of the equation explaining not only translation productivity, but translation quality as well. If the language of the source materials is vague or in any other way compromised, the translator is likely to spend more time trying to decipher the original meaning than to adapt it to the target language. A simple string of a word or two bereft of any context may sometimes take hours to translate properly, affecting the standard quota of 2000-2500 words per day.

Important as it is, the quality of source material is one of the elements a translator cannot control – it is squarely on the hands of the clients and their content producers and the only remedy is to always ask for as much additional information as possible.

The More References, the Merrier

It should always be remembered that our job is easier the deeper our understanding of the meaning, style and intent of the source materials is. Studying reference files and/or consulting translated materials in other familiar languages may appear more time consuming than it really is – it actually takes less time and energy than trying to translate the untranslatable and it always helps us eventually deliver linguistic products of higher quality in less time.

Field of Expertise

No translator can translate all types of materials. Some people may do demanding transcreation jobs swiftly and easily and be hopeless at legal or medical translations and vice versa – despite being excellent linguists. This is because professional translation is a combination of linguistic and expert knowledge. If language is our first love, the field of expertise is our second and finding the one we can do best is as important as finding our language pair. Needless to say, if we are working in the field we know and understand, we also work faster and the translation quality is higher.

Technology

We have all encountered at least one instance of technology being more of a daunting obstacle than a tool designed to help us produce more translated materials in less time. Badly aligned CAT files, poor PDF scans, endless Excel files and unedited translation memories are only some of the issues a professional translator is likely to experience.

Once again, technology is one of the elements out of translator’s control, but using the software and the workflow we are most comfortable working with is, and it can and does speed up our translation projects.

For example, I have always found it easier (and faster) to type in Notepad or Word and copy the translated materials to the Excel file when Excel was the required software – all via keyboard shortcuts, of course.

Ambience

All textual work is solitary by default.

While some translators prefer to work in utter silence, I can’t imagine working without Mozart or Miles Davis blasting from my headphones because it’s the kind of music that helps me stay focused and relaxed at the same time – and we all know about the importance (and challenges) of staying focused and relaxed in our line of work.

Discover the little things than can keep you motivated while you are working – be it silence, music, coffee or chewing gums – and use them as much as you can. Finding the joy in work is the final and the most important element of any work because it glues together everything and contributes to higher productivity as much as anything else.

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