by Mikhail Yashchuk

In our industry, everyone talks about quality. But how do you achieve it?

Education, experience, specialization, attention to detail, etc. go without saying. But today I’d like to share a simple and proven step-by-step workflow to make your translations sound natural. I have been using this workflow for 15 years and hope you find it useful.

The first step after translating a text is to set it aside for some time. When you’ve been working on a translation for a long time, you can become “blind” to errors or awkward phrasing. By stepping away from the text, you allow your brain to reset and approach the text with fresh eyes when you return to it.

Next, compare the translation against the source. This is where you carefully check for major issues such as meaning, terminology, and consistency. It’s important to ensure that the translated text accurately reflects the original meaning and that the correct terminology has been used consistently throughout. This stage also involves checking for any omissions or additions that shouldn’t be there.

After this, if possible, set the translation aside for some more time. This additional break allows you to return to your text with an even fresher perspective and with less memory of the source.

The final step is to read the translated text without looking at the source. This is a critical step that should never be skipped.

Since meaning mistakes have been fixed at the previous stage, you can forget about the original and focus solely on the translated text. Reading it from your target-language reader’s perspective allows you to spot issues with punctuation, grammar, and flow. During this step I focus on style and make many changes that result in a high-quality target text that reads naturally, as if it was originally written in the target language and not translated. To achieve such quality, sometimes I need to repeat this step several times.

This step is particularly effective for spotting sentences that don’t flow well. I’m not only talking about creative or marketing translations here. Technical, IT, healthcare, and other specialized translations need to sound natural too. They need to be concise and not use unnecessary words that make sentences longer without conveying any useful meaning. One of the few exceptions I can think of is legal translations where there may be limitations on combining or breaking up sentences.

If a sentence seems awkward or unnatural, it’s a sign that it needs to be reworked—you can change word order or sentence structure, split one sentence into two, combine two sentences into one, transform passive voice into active voice, use verbs instead of verbal nouns, etc.

P.S. These steps should not replace standard editing by a second person. To err is human; even the most experienced and careful translators can make mistakes, whether they are minor stylistic errors or major issues in meaning. Having a second person review the translation can help catch these errors and ensure the highest quality output.

This is the first in a series of posts on translation quality. Keep reading to learn about ensuring quality when doing translation tests and using QA tools.

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.