Quality control for the Freelance translator: A Guide
Quality control for the Freelance translator: A Guide
Quality Control (QA) in translation can be defined as all the organized and methodical actions established to ensure translation services abide by client requirements and satisfy the expectations of the target market. The translation service provider bears the duty of establishing the approaches and procedures required to satisfy client quality requirements.
Language and Technical Quality:
To ensure the greatest quality translation, you ought to only accept translation tasks where you are a native speaker of the target language and possess expert know-how in the subject matter.
Having a "near-native fluency" in the target language may not suffice to accurately relay cultural idioms or inherent language subtleties and nuances. Furthermore, suitable expert qualifications and academic certifications are necessary for technical translations.
As part of your language and technical quality strategy, make sure your translation goes through modifying and proof-reading stages, besides the translation stage. After you've completed your translation, have it evaluated by an editor to verify its precision. This last, modified variation must then be proofread for the consistency, fluency and stability of its content.
Review and Prepare the Source Text
Any mistakes, omissions or inaccuracy in the source text will undoubtedly be duplicated in the target language, unless an initial evaluation is carried out. It is essential that you examine the technical and linguistic quality of the source text and make any necessary adjustments-- be they basic or substantial-- to incorporate quality. Make sure you call your customer and recommend them of any initial evaluation you deem necessary.
Ask Where and Why
Ask yourself the two-simple concerns of Where and Why on every single translation project your work on. The goal of each translation task will figure out the language register, as well as the translation design you will utilize.
Is the translation intended for professional PC professional or the casual user? An understanding of the target audience of your translation, as well as a comprehensive understanding of local as well as group-specific language variations will eliminate the threat of any misunderstanding and will ensure the quality and integrity of your translation.
Visual and Functional Quality
It is important to verify the quality of the presentation and performance of the translation to make sure it precisely shows the quality of the source product. Visual checks include the confirmation of typography, page circulation and cross referrals. Practical checks test the functionality and output functions of the translation, be it website, software or documents. These may consist of the duplication of the functionality of the source software, compatibility with respective platforms and hardware, and right output, such as publishing and printing standards.
Developing translation quality assurance processes does not only yield increased quality but ultimately helps with successful translation jobs and minimizes turn-around times as future translation jobs enter into the mix.
As part of your language and technical quality method, make sure your translation goes through modifying and proof-reading stages, besides the translation phase. Ask yourself the two-simple questions of Where and Why on every single translation job your work on. The goal of each translation job will figure out the language register, as well as the translation style you will use.
An understanding of the target audience of your translation, as well as a thorough knowledge of regional as well as group-specific language variations will remove the danger of any misconception and will ensure the quality and stability of your translation.
It is essential to confirm the quality of the discussion and functionality of the translation to make sure it accurately reflects the quality of the source material.