- Make sure you revise the document(s) and the files before starting a translation. Understand any instructions that come with the job: they show you the way in which the translation must be approached. Ensure that all the files and documents the client needs are the ones you have received.
- Make sure that you are comfortable with the subject matter and language style. Whilst you may take on translations in fields in which you are not an expert for the sake of expanding your business, it will take you more time to master the terminology and you will have to invest time in doing so. There is nothing wrong with it, but be aware that your own quality checking and revision become even more important. Sadly, there may be some subjects for which you are simply not qualified or you are not good at. It is OK. Professional translators specialize in a few subjects and, in time, they become so good at them that they hardly take on anything outside their sphere or expertise.
- Make sure you are familiar with the file format. If you are working for a translation company, the files will come quite probably in a translation-friendly format and with translation memory. Do not change the CAT tool your client has specified.
- Use any reference material, style guides, glossaries and terminology databases. Never ignore any glossary that has been sent to you. If the client has created a database, use it. If it is a simple excel file, you know all tools can import this format into a CAT tool and csv can create a glossary file in seconds. It is essential that you are consistent in terminology and style with previous work. Quite often, you will not be the first translator involved in a publication process. One-time translation buyers are few and far between and if you want to succeed in business as a translator, you want regular, paying clients and recurrent income. It may be the first time you are translating a particular piece or set of files. It may be the first time you are translating for a particular client, but they surely have bought translation services before and they expect consistency in style and terminology.
- Contact your project manager or client immediately if you encounter or foresee any problems with the document, with the format, with the word count or with the delivery time.Identify relevant reference sources on the Internet for the subject you are going to translate. If you are going to translate technical documentation for bicycles, find the brand’s website in your language. The manufacturer’s competitors are often a source of good terminology and style. If you are translating medical devices, you are sure to find some relevant material in related websites. Have all this ready before you begin to translate. It is called “background work”.
- When you have finished your translation, run your spellchecker and correct any misspellings and typos. Now is time to become your own editor and read over the document comparing it to the original. Read again without looking at the source text to make sure that it makes sense. Readers will not have access to your source material and, frankly speaking, they do not care the text was translated and how it was translated. They want to read natively in their language. Your version has to read as if it had been written originally in your language, free of literal translations and cumbersome expressions that are directly transferred and there are no errors.
- Check your translation against the source for any missing text or formatting issues. Most CAT tools include QA features as standard within their software. Each tool offers different features, but they all are good at detecting untranslated segments, source same as target, and even missing or wrong numbers..
- Do not be literal. Translation buyers and readers never appreciate translations that sounds “corseted”, a word-for-word carbon copy of a foreign language. It is no acceptable. Unless if you are translating technical material, expressions and twists seldom translate literally from one language to another. Technical material may include pharma translations, engineering, translations for the automotive sector, medical translations, software translation, patents, etc. Accuracy and precision are more appreciated than beauty in legal translations. Many examples and references may seem very relevant and clear to the original writer, but not to the target audience. Some years ago, British Prime Minister put Japanese translators on freeze mode when he announced on a visit to Japan that he was prepared to go “The Full Monty” on his economic policies. The film had not been released in Japan. Website translations, any type of books and literature, news and newsclips, CVs, all require beauty of expression and flow that only come with a “neutral approach to translation”. You have to distance yourself from your work, edit and proof it from a critical point of view. You should always look at your translation as if it were the final product. You offer a professional translation service and each one of your clients is unique. Do not count on editors or proofreaders to fix your unchecked work and your mistakes. Nobody likes to correct other people’s lack of care.
- Remember to include any notes or comments for your client or for the editors about your translation with your file delivery. A blank delivery with your signature, or a “please find files attached” shows little interaction with your client. It may signal that if you do not have time to write two lines about the delivery of the project… well you probably did not have time to do any quality check at all.
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