by Mikhail Yashchuk

As a former boutique agency owner, I was responsible for linguist selection for 15 years. That meant that part of my routine was checking test translations. Here are some tips I can give test-takers.

✅Before taking a test, agree on rates, payment methods and other terms with the client.

You don’t want to pass a test only to find out the client can only pay you half of your regular rates, 90 days after the invoice, or using a payment method you can’t accept.

✅Leave comments if you want to clarify anything or support your linguistic choices.

Not all tests are ideal—some have ambiguities, some are out of context, some have inconsistent terms and some even contain mistakes.

Don’t be afraid to ask the client to clarify certain things. Asking relevant questions doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing. On the contrary, it shows that you are attentive to detail and don’t translate blindly.

Linguistic choices can be very subjective; there are usually many correct ways of saying the same thing in the target language. So, if you think your choice of a word or term is not obvious and might be considered a mistake, leave a comment for the reviewer. Your reasoning, supported by a link to an acknowledged website or an industry standard, will be appreciated by the reviewer.

✅Use correct quotation marks (e.g. «» for Russian).

Whether you translate your test piece using Microsoft Word, a CAT tool or an online environment that may not directly support all punctuation, make sure you use correct quotes.

You can use keyboard shortcuts (e.g. Alt+0171 and Alt+0187), tick Replace straight quotes with smart quotes in Trados or simply copy and paste correct quotation marks into the translation.

✅Use a spell checker and make sure the UPPERCASE option is turned on.

Make sure the spell checker is turned on and all relevant options are ticked. If you work in Chrome, choose Enhanced spell check in Settings-Languages so that Chrome shows your mistakes in words in uppercase.

✅If you work in a CAT tool, run automated quality assurance (QA) in Xbench, Verifika, etc.

The test translation must be spot-on, so it may be a good idea to use as many QA tools as possible, because not all of them are able to find the same types of mistakes. While such tools often produce lots of false positives, it’s better to spend time checking them than to miss an embarrassing error.

✅Check your text several times.

If time permits, leave the translated piece aside, then come back and check it against the source for meaning. Then leave it aside again and check it later without looking at the source, correcting typos, punctuation, grammar and style. Repeat the last step at least twice.

✅Rephrase sentences that don’t sound natural.

If a sentence is correct in meaning but sounds awkward, try to change it—split a long sentence into two, merge two short sentences into one, use a verb instead of a verbal noun, change word order, etc.

✅Check the translation for double spaces.

Run this check (by pressing CTRL+F and typing 2 spaces) several times to find all double and triple spaces and be careful with extra or missing spaces around tags—sometimes they need to be searched for manually.

❌Don’t use hyphens (-) instead of n-dashes (–) and m-dashes (—).

Know the rules for your language (compound words, minus signs, number ranges, complex sentences, etc.) and use the correct dashes, even if the tool you work in doesn’t directly support them.

❌Don’t blindly copy source grammar structures.

That’s what Google Translate is for 😊. Human translations need to sound natural, and that often entails changing the original grammar and word order.

❌Don’t try to hand in the test ASAP.

I came across an agency once that required completing test translations within 30 minutes. But most clients expect quality and not speed, so take your time to provide your best translation ever, since there may not be a second chance.

❌Above all, don’t take a test in a domain of which you have no knowledge.

This is the last tip, but it should probably be the first on the list.

Good luck with passing your tests and finding good clients!

This is the second in a series of posts on translation quality. The first post can be found here, and the third and last, on ensuring quality by using QA tools, here.

Mikhail Yashchuk is an industry veteran. In 2002, he received his university degree in English, and six years later he founded a boutique agency where he gained experience in linguist recruitment, project management, translation, editing, and quality assurance. He has recently been admitted as a sworn translator to the Belarusian Notary Chamber.
In 2018, Mikhail joined the American Translators Association and is now working as an English-to-Russian translator, actively sharing knowledge with younger colleagues. He is the moderator for the SLD LinkedIn group. He may be contacted at mikhail@lexicon.biz.