How to improve translation quality

Whether you’re a multinational corporation seeking to penetrate new markets, a software developer aiming to make your app accessible worldwide, or an author wishing to reach a broader audience, the quality of translation can make or break the success of these endeavors. To achieve top-notch results, you need a blend of linguistic expertise, cultural sensitivity, and meticulous attention to detail. Luckily, you can improve translation quality by adopting the following practices.

Spend time preparing the source text

A well-prepared source text is the foundation for a high-quality translation. This might seem obvious, but you need to catch any typos, grammatical errors, and inconsistencies in the source text. Strive for clear and concise language in your source text. It’s best to avoid jargon or overly complex sentence structures. Simpler language is easier for translators to understand and translate accurately.

Provide consistent formatting and clear sentence structure in the source text to make it easier for both humans and machines to parse the information accurately. Sometimes, the source text contains ambiguity or relies heavily on context. In this case, it’s useful to provide additional information or annotations that can help the translator understand the intended meaning.

Choose the right type of translation

Different types of translation address varying needs and objectives. Depending on the context, audience, and purpose of the text, selecting the appropriate translation method can greatly enhance the effectiveness and quality of the final product. Adaptation, localization, transcreation, direct translation, literary translation, these are just some of the many translation methods one can use.

Understanding the purpose of the text, the target audience, and the desired outcome is crucial in selecting the right translation type. For example, localization ensures that the content is culturally appropriate by adapting idioms, metaphors, and cultural references. This is vital for products and services entering new markets.

Choose the right tools

The tools you use can greatly enhance translation quality. Translation memory (TM) tools store previously translated segments to ensure consistency and efficiency across projects. Reusing translations saves time, which translates to reduced translation costs, particularly for projects with repetitive content like user manuals, contracts, or website content.

Terminology management is equally important; creating and maintaining glossaries and termbases helps standardize terminology and keep translations accurate. You may also find machine translation (MT) systems like Google Translate, DeepL, or Azure AI Translator to be of great use when creating initial drafts. We’ll discuss more below.

Use MT along with post-editing

Machine translation may not beat human translation, but it sure can help you save time and – often – money. Be mindful that different MT engines are better suited for specific types of content or language pairs. Research and select the best engine for your project to improve translation quality.

Some MT engines allow customization through settings or glossaries. Fine-tuning these settings for your domain or terminology can improve accuracy. However, you still need that human touch. Combining MT with human post-editing can leverage the speed of MT while ensuring the quality and accuracy of a human reviewer.

Implement a robust QA process

A good QA process for translations is like having a team of double-checkers to make sure your message comes across perfectly. You should define your quality standards, establish review stages, implement clear procedures, and continue to improve the process through regular reviews and training on the best practices and new technologies used in the QA process.

Think of things like QA checklists and guidelines that outline the steps and criteria for quality assurance. This way, your approach to QA remains consistent across different projects and translators. And if you incorporate advanced translation and QA tools to automate and streamline the QA process, you can catch errors that might be overlooked during manual reviews.

Invest in translation management

Good translation management is essential for improving translation quality, as it involves coordinating various aspects of the translation process to ensure consistency, accuracy, and efficiency. It involves clear communication, proper resource allocation, effective use of technology, rigorous quality assurance practices, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Certain project management software can help you centralize project information, track progress, and manage deadlines. Work management tools and specialized localization platforms, for example, help streamline the workflow, while tools for analyzing key performance metrics allow you to gain insight into the main areas for improvement.

Gather and implement feedback

By systematically collecting feedback from clients, end-users, and peers, and making targeted adjustments based on this feedback, translators can continuously improve their work. This ultimately helps improve translation quality. The process involves collecting insights from clients and end-users, analyzing this feedback to identify areas for refinement, and making necessary adjustments to enhance future translations.

You can gather feedback through various means like forms and surveys, debrief sessions, usability testing, focus groups, and comment sections. Having a new pair of eyes like other translators or language professionals review your translations and provide constructive feedback can also help identify linguistic and stylistic issues that might be overlooked.