Companies in need of localization services are always balancing these three important factors:

Quality

Quality is understandably a very sought-after quality in localization. The content that requires localization usually ends up in front of an end customer or user and it has the potential to generate more revenue for the company.

Presenting your audience with a high-quality product is more often than not the key to success within a market. In order to achieve quality, several steps need to be taken—from making sure you’re working with seasoned professionals, to working with the technology that reduces the chance for human error, to performing additional quality assurance steps.

In your pursuit of quality, you’ll quickly notice how quality impacts the two other factors you need to balance—speed and cost. When it comes to a quick desired turnaround, some things can’t be rushed and each step requires spending the appropriate amount of time on it to ensure quality. Achieving quality also involves choosing the right vendors, technology, and additional services, all of which can impact cost.

Speed

When it comes to turnaround times, your specific needs may vary. If you have an upcoming launch, you may have no choice but to meet a tight deadline. In this case, there are a few ways you could save time:

• You can skip the editing and quality assurance steps, but quality may be impacted
• You can hire multiple linguists, so that the work is finished sooner, but this leads to increased costs
• You can turn to machine translation, but if you also want to achieve quality, you will still need to have a human linguist perform post-editing

If, however, you’re not in a rush and have started analyzing your options with plenty of time, this won’t be a factor for you.

Cost

It’s very likely that you have a budget for your global growth strategy. Because of this, when contracting services, cost becomes a very important element.

If your budget is on the smaller side, omitting quality assurance steps will also allow you to cut down costs. The fewer people involved, the less expensive a localization project is. Who does the work also may affect your budget, as highly skilled professionals often have more expensive rates. If you’re looking for high-quality translations, we advise against employing a bilingual friend and skipping quality assurance steps.

Another cost-effective solution could be to use machine translation. Quality will most definitely be impacted by making this choice, but you can improve the quality of machine translated content with the help of post-editors who can make the necessary corrections to achieve a human-made translation level of quality.

The Takeaway

As we always say, localization shouldn’t be an afterthought. If global growth is in your business plans, think in advance what your priorities are so that these factors don’t weigh you down on your path to success.

The post How to Juggle Quality, Speed & Cost in Your Next Localization Project appeared first on Terra Translations.

The Difference Between Editing and Proofreading

The point of undergoing both editing and proofreading is to ensure accuracy and create a quality translation, so it’s not surprising that many people use these terms interchangeably. However, there is a difference between editing and proofreading, and they should be treated as separate activities. 

Editing is when you execute changes to the translation and make suggestions to improve the overall quality of the product. Ideally, editing will lead to the translation becoming more consistent, sharper, and error free. An editor typically takes on the following responsibilities: 

• Doing a bilingual review between the original text and the translated version
• Identifying and correcting any translation errors
• Pointing out inconsistencies and adjusting to better suit market and audience needs
• Ensuring the correct use of language
• Confirming that the translated message is conveyed correctly in regard to both language and culture
• Double check that the style is correct and make suggestions to improve it

Proofreading focuses on correcting any superficial errors in the translated content, such as spelling or grammar errors, formatting, punctuation, or syntax. The proofreading process begins once you have a potential “final” version of the content to work with. As this is the final step of the process, the proofreader should read the text and try to make sense of it as if they themselves were the target audience. This is especially helpful as they are the final pair of eyes on the content before submission to the client or publication.

The Importance of Proofreading

Proofreading is such an important step because during translation and editing, your original text can undergo many variations as it is reworded into a different language. When translating, the goal is not to translate word by word but to think how the same message would be said in the target language. During this process, translators may copy structures seen in the source language unintentionally and when the editor is fixing issues like this, they may introduce unintentional mistakes such as typos, double spaces, a missing word, repeated articles, and misplaced commas. These are the type of mistakes that ideally a proofreader will spot and fix.

Proofreading is a valuable step in the translation process and helps lead to an error-free translation product that illustrates how carefully translated the work is and what high-quality work the translator does. 

When Should You Proofread?

The proofreading step should be the last part of your quality assurance process. You won’t dive as deep during proofreading as you did during editing. Proofreading gives you a fresh opportunity to catch any mistakes not found in the editing stage and as you’re more focused on looking for superficial errors than making massive changes to the language and expression, it can be easier to catch small errors such as grammatical or spelling ones. 

Ideally, you’ll have a second translator carry out the editing and a third translator take care of the proofreading process, as a fresh set of eyes can more easily spot errors that the first translator and editor may have overlooked. Proofreading is a challenging task and it can be tempting to make changes relating to personal preference, but at that stage the translator should focus on just fixing mistakes and syntax issues.

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In business, the stakes are often high. Many times, you have only one chance to nail important business objectives, such as entering a new market, and failure simply cannot happen. This is often the case with projects that require transcreation. For some business objectives, a literal or more straight forward translation can get the job done. When it can’t, that is where transcreation comes in. 

One of the main challenges of transcreation is measuring quality. Doing so can be more difficult than when handling a more typical translation. Transcreation requires a level of creativity that is difficult to measure. Addressing quality while the transcreation process is actually happening is imperative. While quality standards will vary from client to client, there are ways to work towards general quality standards during the transcreation process.

The Transcreation Brief

Before a transcreation project even begins, steps towards quality assurance must be taken. The transcreator can get a strong start on the project with a solid brief that provides context on the purpose of the content they will be transcreating. For example, a marketing campaign will have different transcreation requirements than a movie would. Understanding the purpose is key, as transcreation projects don’t require a word-for-word translation, but instead aim to adapt a piece of content to have a similar meaning while conveying the same feeling in another language. 

While the brief should encourage flexibility and creativity, it must give the transcreator clear guidance on what direction to take. Who will be reading the final text? What was the original purpose of the text? Why does it require transcreation? These are all important questions that require answering in the brief. A brief can also share brand values, how the client hopes their brand to be perceived in the target location, and what the desired approach to break into a new market is. 

The Timeline

Transcreation is not a project that should be rushed as it can involve a high level of research and creativity to master. Providing a transcreator with a clear timeline without expecting rushed work can help ensure they manage their time in a way that leads to a quality final project. 

The Back Translation Process

The back translation process involves giving the translated version of the text to a separate independent translator who has not seen the original text. They then translate the new text back into the original language. Their results will help ensure clients that the meaning of the source text was not literally lost in translation. 

Back translation is a quality assurance step that can be useful in certain scenarios such as when content requires a high level of control because semantic errors can have consequences. Or when a client doesn’t speak or read the target language, back translation can allow them to check the accuracy of the translation by themselves.

How to Measure Success

While the goal is to achieve quality during the transcreation process, there are post-publishing measurements that can check if the transcreator accomplished the intended effects and purpose. Pre-publishing, there are tools that can be used to measure readability. Post-publishing measurements require more collaboration though and can involve human intervention. Changes to text can sometimes be made post-publishing, so using the following methods to test quality can provide value.

• Seeking an objective corroboration that examines sales and site traffic data. 
• Employing a third-party editor or reviewer. 
• Hosting market surveys and focus groups.
• Undertaking blind A/B testing. 

At the end of the day, the ultimate “quality test” can be uncovered through the feedback the client receives or the bottom-line results of the project. If feedback is positive and the expected results arise, the client can have confidence that the transcreation project was successful.

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Quality is subjective. The old adage is true, one man’s trash is another’s treasure. Chances are, no two people will agree on the quality of every single meal, movie, piece of clothing, or electronic device they encounter. The translation industry is no different. When it comes to creating quality translations, all clients have varying standards. These standards may even differ from what the translator considers a quality translation to look like. This begs the question, does translation quality mean different things to different people?

Standards Vary

There is an expected set of quality standards that top translators aim to meet, such as ensuring that the final text of a translation project reflects the meaning of the source text, delivers the intended effect, and meets all project parameters. Avoiding any errors and accommodating cultural differences are important as well. That being said, clients may have their own idea of what quality means in regards to translations. 

In a sense, quality is accomplished when the client is satisfied with the work. Clients who work in more sensitive fields, such as the medical industry where a mistranslation can lead to fatal misunderstandings, may expect the final text to be perfect. Some clients may feel that a below par translation can damage their brand. Other clients may simply require a translation that is decent enough to convey the overall meaning of the source text. For example, if the text won’t be customer facing or serves internal purposes. They just want to get the gist of it. Because of the time and resources required to perfect translated text, some clients may have lower standards than others. Before commencing a project, it can be helpful to define quality standards with the client. 

Machine Translation and Human Intervention

The Takeaway

Unfortunately, there are no official metrics or benchmarks that translators can follow to achieve quality, as a one-size-fits-all approach to translations can’t universally meet the needs, purposes, and budgets of every client a translator will encounter. The goal of service providers should be to ensure the client is satisfied and to be mindful of their expectations of quality. If the expectations of qualities are clear at the beginning of the project and ultimately met, then both parties should be satisfied with the service provided.

The post Does Translation Quality Mean Different Things to Different People? appeared first on Terra Translations.

There are certain textual materials that are highly sensitive and have a major impact on the life of people related to them. This is the case, for instance, with pharmaceutical and clinical protocols, clinical research, and financial or medical reports. When working with these documents, clients and/or Language Service Providers (LSPs) can opt for adding another quality assurance step, called back translation. This step can be useful in the following scenarios:

• The content needs rigorous control since any semantic error can have practical consequences.
• Sometimes clients don’t speak nor read in the target language and want to check the accuracy of the translation by themselves.
• When reviewing transcreated text, clients want to assess how the linguistic team translated a slogan or other marketing copy, and what meaning it conveys in the target language.

The three-column text

The aim of back translation is to have another instance of control of the target text’s quality; mostly in terms of terminology and semantic accuracy. It consists of performing another translation, but this time of the target text into the source text language.

For example, if we translated a clinical protocol from English into Spanish, we would apply another process of translation, but from the Spanish target into English again. The resulting new English text will never be an outbound translation. The new English translation is not intended for publishing or distribution. The outcome of a back translation process is only for internal use in the localization process. The linguistic team performs it only for quality assurance purposes.

Moreover, we can point out the following characteristics for back translation outcomes:

• They are literal.
• They will never result in a version exactly the same as the original source; it helps to identify discrepancies or errors in the translation.
• A different linguist not involved in the original translation workflow works on it. Sometimes, they don’t even have access to the first source text (blind translation). 

Let’s reconcile

After the above-mentioned step, the same linguist or a different one will read and compare the source text against this new outcome. If no critical difference in meaning or mistranslations are flagged, the translation is considered accurate, and the process finishes. On the other hand, if the reviewer spots discrepancies, he or she will mark them up for further review, in which the team fixes the translation. Sometimes, they fill reports with the errors found and corrected in this step.

Evaluate

The process of back translation is very thorough and implies an exhausting revision of the translation that goes beyond editing or proofreading. However, it demands a well-planned and wide deadline, and the use of several professionals. Because of this, LSPs and/or clients should consider if the back translation is appropriate for a certain project considering time, resources, and budget. If not, there may be other ways of ensuring quality too, through one of the multiple means the localization industry has come to develop.

The post A Quality Cycle: About Back Translation and Reconciliation Services appeared first on Terra Translations.

Once we enter the workforce, the expectations of what quality work means can vary greatly. In the translation industry, quality work is the key to not only keeping clients happy but to producing effectively translated texts. 

Quality in the Final Translation

Accuracy is of course an important component of creating a quality translation, but accuracy alone does not guarantee quality. The translator must ensure that the final text properly reflects the meaning of the source text, has the same intended effect, and accomplishes all project parameters. 

During the translation process, there are three types of errors worth keeping an extra sharp eye on. Errors of meaning encompass using incorrect terms or forgetting to add or remove a word. Spelling and grammar errors can add unnecessary confusion. And last but not least, errors of compliance that may relate to a brand’s specific style guide or language fluency.

Another important aspect of a quality translation is whether or not the text meets cultural standards as well as linguistic ones. A literal translation can literally get lost in translation if the translator does not account for cultural differences such as pop culture references, humor, politics, and values. 

Quality in the Process

While quality is subjective, there are certain procedures and processes designed to help linguists produce quality translations. For example, per ISO 17100, it’s required that at least two linguists work on the translation. One translates and the second review the translation. For certain projects, it can be beneficial to work with three linguists so that there is a final proofreader ensuring quality. These procedures help keep translation teams on the path to quality. Terra Translations is certified in ISO 17100 which provides the framework for our team to certify quality management procedures.

Similarly, following respected professional standards, like ISO 9001:2015, is helpful for ensuring translation quality. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) develops standards for a variety of projects and translation companies can follow their set standards in order to enact a quality control method. The ISO standards are typically updated every five years, which helps certified firms continue to produce high-quality work.

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