How do you define a high-quality translation?

The question may seem somewhat obvious, but when we talk about quality in translation services, we must not only look at the final product itself but also the processes that allow us to reach that final product and the way in which the service is rendered.

A high-quality translation is a correct one from a semantic, syntactic and grammatical point of view and adequate for the target reader… It is also a translation that fulfils the conditions required by the client in terms of rules, style, deadlines and other requirements apart from that which is strictly linguistic.

Therefore, to be able to offer an impeccable service, an efficient quality control needs to be applied before delivering the product to the client.

What is involved in a quality control?

This refers to the process in which a final verification is made of the product. This verification includes a series of steps to ensure that the translation fulfils the previously established specifications and conditions:

  • Above all, we must ensure that we have understood and followed all the instructions that were given to carry out the project: with regards to using certain terminology, presenting the documents in a specific format, the use of translation memories, etc.
  • Comparison of the original text and the target text:
    • Bilingual revision: ensuring that we have understood the whole original text, the information has been carried over correctly and there are no inconsistencies.
    • Is the content the same? There must be no omissions or additions.
    • The symbols, numbers, dates and names must coincide.
  • Leaving the original text to one side, a revision of the style is carried out:
    • Does the text flow?
    • Is the tone adequate?
  • It is essential to carry out a spell check.
  • Final layout check before delivery:
    • Page numbering
    • Margins
    • Fonts, the body of the text, line spacing, etc.
The best way to carry out a quality control

We highly recommend having your own quality control system that can be adapted to your way of working.

Here is some advice on how to set out and/or improve your quality control processes:

  • Leave the translation to one side for a few hours. If we concentrate on doing something else in the meantime, we will have disconnected and will be able to come back to the revision with a fresh pair of eyes.
  • During the self-revision process, adopt a critical attitude: we must question our translation decisions, and look up anything that creates the slightest doubt.
  • Self-revise the translation in a different format (convert the text to PDF, even print it out on paper).
  • Read the translation out loud: in this way you will ensure that the text really flows. You can even ask someone else to read it to you; hearing our text read by another person helps us to create a certain distance and thereby detect possible mistakes more easily.
  • Read the translation in a different order: starting from the end, jumping paragraphs, etc.
  • Make a list of your most frequent errors and have it on hand every time you do a self-revision.
  • Carry out a quality control with automatic tools, like XBench, or with the quality control functions of the CAT tools you use.
  • Keep a record of the different versions that you have created of the same text, to be able to trace each step of the translation process. Comparing the changes from one version to another will allow you to detect recurrent mistakes that you want to avoid in the future.

Conclusions

The self-revision process is essential to the translation process. Apart from the fact that a quality control can help to avoid many inconveniences, it is risky to think that a translation is ready to be delivered without first having passed through even the most basic of checks.

At Transword we are more than aware of the importance of this and we instil this awareness in the professionals we work with. The rigorousness we demand of ourselves, and that which our clients demand of us, compels us to carry out strict quality controls in all our projects, according to our ISO certificate 17100:2015.

See you in our next post!

Header image by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash