ATA SLD

Slavic Languages Division (American Translators Association)

American Translators Association: The Voice of Interpreters and Translators

Achieving High-Quality Translation: The Final Step

High-quality translation requires in-depth domain knowledge, meticulous attention, and a series of well-defined steps. In this article, I’ll focus on the last stage of a standard translation project: automated Quality Assurance (QA).

QA ensures that hard-to-spot and easy-to-miss errors are eliminated. Common issues include source and target inconsistencies, capitalization errors, incorrect spacing around punctuation marks, numerical mistakes, missing or extra tags, incorrect quotation marks, terminology mistakes, measurement unit discrepancies, etc.

Below are the steps I use when doing QA.

  1. Built-in CAT tool QA:

Most computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools (e.g., Trados Studio or memoQ) offer built-in QA functionality. Enable the relevant options in the CAT tool menus and run QA.

  1. Export to Word and use Word’s proofing features:

If your CAT tool allows it, export the translation to Microsoft Word. Press F7 to check for additional mistakes that the CAT tool may have missed. Ensure that Word’s proofing options (grammar, repeated words, uppercase words, etc.) are activated.

  1. Standalone QA tools:

Use standalone QA tools for comprehensive checks. Xbench, Verifika, and QA Distiller are some of the oldest and most popular ones.

QA Distiller is completely free, Xbench has a free limited-functionality version, and Verifika (my personal favorite) has a fully functional free web version, provides language-dependent checks, and covers numerous mistake categories. Take the time to configure Verifika with the options you need—it’s worth the effort.

  1. Double-check and run QA again:

Correct any mistakes the tool found and run another round of QA to catch any overlooked errors or newly introduced mistakes.

  1. Use multiple QA tools:

If you’re doing a test translation or working on a particularly important project, consider running QA using multiple tools. It’s better to spend time reviewing false positives than to miss an embarrassing error.

  1. Impress the client:

Go the extra mile by exporting a final QA report containing only false positives. Demonstrating your commitment to quality will leave a positive impression.

Let no mistakes slip through into your translations!

This is the third and final post in a series of posts on translation quality. The first post can be found here, and the second here.

headshot of Mikhail YashchukMikhail 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.

Navigating Translation Tests: Tips for Success

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.

headshot of Mikhail YashchukMikhail 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.

Tips for Self-Checking Your Translations

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.

headshot of Mikhail YashchukMikhail 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.

Feedback in Translation (Part 2): Responding to Feedback Constructively

Sign with directional arrows to "awesome" and "less awesome"

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

This is the second part of the Feedback in Translation series. You can find Part 1, “What to Expect,” here.

By Anna Livermore

 

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

– Henry Ford

When was the last time you received feedback on your work? Were you happy with it? Did it sting a little? Did you learn anything from it?

Receiving feedback from clients is important by all accounts, especially as detailed review of one’s work can be hard to come by. The fact that an agency or a direct client takes time to provide feedback (that is more than just a numerical value on an arbitrary scale) is a great sign: it means that they value the work you do and are willing to invest in making the relationship more productive[i].

However, receiving feedback is just the beginning. What really matters is how we respond to it and what we learn from it.

Being able to respond to feedback constructively is a key skill for building trust and rapport with clients[ii] and coworkers, if you hold an in-house position.  If they know they can count on your cooperation in achieving the quality of translation that they require, you are more likely to receive repeat business and referrals.

One of the main difficulties with processing feedback is the fact that in translation it usually entails finding faults in the target text and informing the translator of those faults. One look at the ProZ[iii] contest supports that: the number of mistakes (dislikes) fellow translators highlight in translations submitted to the competition by far exceeds the number of merit points (likes) those entries receive. There is a reason for that: our job demands perfectionism. And although research proves that receiving negative feedback is critical to improving one’s performance, it also suggests that dealing with negative feedback can be difficult, because initially people tend to feel defensive[iv].

It does take some effort not to take it personally but to remember that feedback is not an attack on your skills. It is worth remembering that the intention of any editor is (or should be) to improve the target text, to work on its readability and style, iron out mistakes that slipped through your net and to identify any localization issues.

It is therefore important not to rush your response, but to read everything carefully and consider the nature of the corrections and why an editor would make them. Some corrections will be obvious (grammar, style, register, word choice), others might contradict what you thought was the right solution, and then, of course, there is the grey area of preferential corrections that do not improve the quality of a target text but “sound better” to the reviewer.

Responding to feedback constructively does not mean agreeing to everything that a client says and corrects. A lot of the time feedback from agency and direct client reviewers will be valid: they might insist on using specific terminology that conveys their market expertise, or they might feel that a change of register would better suit their brand identity. But there will be times when you should defend your choices. Some inexperienced direct clients might question the target text from a position of translation and localization ignorance: for instance, insisting that every word in a title is capitalized in a Russian target text, which is not the norm, or making corrections to a translation based on the logic “but I saw it on other photographers’ websites written this way (albeit completely ungrammatical).” Cases like this are a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in what you do and provide valuable advice to your clients.

If you do challenge any corrections made to your translation, make sure you can back everything up with reputable sources (corpora, references to style guides and grammar manuals etc.). Personally, I also try to keep it simple: when discussing feedback with direct clients who wouldn’t know their gerund from their participle, I aim to uncomplicate the information for them and put it in terms that they can relate to. Doing so can be challenging sometimes, but will certainly earn you some extra points with clients.

And of course, don’t forget that the process of deconstructing feedback and analyzing it for the purpose of responding to a client will benefit you in other ways too:

  • The most obvious reason is that the analysis enables us to perfect our translation skills. It is equivalent to satisfaction surveys other service providers send out to try and understand how well they are doing in addressing their customers’ needs. Here is a little trick I developed after I took my first ATA Certification practice test: I would analyze feedback from every test translation and project I completed and categorize every mistake according to the ATA Certification exam rubric[v]. This gave me an insight into areas I could improve, allowing me to focus my efforts.
  • Other reasons include understanding the tone of voice, style and terminology different clients prefer and expect in future assignments to ensure the consistency of how their brand is presented. We do not have a crystal ball, and even the most thorough project brief won’t always cover everything.
  • And finally, the type of feedback received speaks volumes about the client, where translation fits into their business and how much they value it—information that can be useful when analyzing your client database.

 

Anna Livermore is an English>Russian and German>Russian translator and former marketing specialist. With a linguistics degree from the Oxford Brookes University and a Professional Diploma in marketing, she came to specialize in translating marketing materials, corporate communications, website content and various components of SEM. She is a member of the Slavic Languages Division’s Social Media team. Contact: livermore.translations@gmail.com

[i] Source: https://www.technolex-translations.com/ru/articles/the-human-factor-in-translation-agencies-why-being-a-good-translator-is-not-enough.html accessed 10/8/18

[ii] Source: https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2014/03/17/five-reasons-feedback-may-important-skill/) accessed 10/15/18

[iii] Source: https://www.proz.com/translation-contests/pair/2834 accessed 10/20/18

[iv] Source: https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-right-way-to-respond-to-negative-feedback accessed 10/20/18

[v] https://atanet.org/certification/aboutexams_error.php

Feedback in Translation (Part 1): What to Expect

A large cat dressed in a collared shirt and sweater sitting on a pile of books and acting aggressively toward a kitten

True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes.
– Daniel Kahneman

Image by The Found Animals Foundation (www.foundanimals.org) via Flickr

Whether you crave it or dread it, feedback is an essential part of the translation process (at least it should be). Depending on who you work for—agencies or direct clients—feedback can take a variety of forms. But even within those two categories the level of detail will vary.

And let’s not forget the fact that different types of materials require different approaches to assessing the quality. Rubric style tables and spreadsheets with predefined categories are perfectly suited for working with legal and medical documents where accuracy is paramount, but when it comes to assessing the quality of marketing translation, they can be misleading. Most marketing texts require a degree of linguistic and cultural adaptation, which could be viewed as mistakes within the rigid constraints of such forms. For instance, when translating English-speaking seasonal promotions into Russian, one has to modify all references to Christmas (firstly, in Russia it is not celebrated in December and, secondly, it does not have the same commercial impact on the Russian audience).

Agencies that adapt rigorous quality assessment are more likely to give detailed feedback compiled by an experienced professional editor. This might take a shape of an evaluation sheet, which clearly highlights all mistakes and their category (e.g. style, register, syntax, critical mistranslation etc.) or a Word file with comments, explaining all corrections. This type of feedback is greatly beneficial for both agencies and translators. It enables the former to assess the translation quality and hence decide whether to assign a particular translator future projects. The latter receives an important overview of areas that could be improved. And of course, there is the added benefit of providing clear, structured, documented comments on the quality of work submitted in case of any disputes.

This is, however, a time-consuming task, and under the constraints of tight deadlines, competing prices and a typically high turnover of PMs, some agencies choose to resort to a simpler system of rubric tables or even asking a reviewer to assign the quality of translation a numerical value between 1 and 10. Some agencies choose to dispense with reviewing translations and providing feedback altogether.

Similarly, feedback from direct clients tends to vary in quality. On one end of the spectrum, I have had clients who have a bilingual editor in house checking all the translations and giving feedback on inaccuracies, suggesting alternatives or trying to clarify localization issues. On the other end of the spectrum are those clients who accept and use translations as they come and have no processes in place to check their quality.

In between those two extremes are clients who choose to hire an editor in addition to a translator, and those who use online translation tools and back translation to spot check the final product (and who then panic when Google Translate produces a masterpiece like “deny the witches of motherhood and tours” as a back translation for a perfectly sound sentence in Russian—true story, by the way).

In general, direct clients appreciate receiving translations that do not require additional editing, especially if they do not have any in-house expertise in the language pair in question or are unaware of this step in the QA process. It is therefore beneficial for freelance translators to work with a trusted reviewer: not only does it add value to the service you deliver, but also provides you with valuable feedback that allows you to continue to hone your craft.

The areas that direct clients address in their feedback provide an interesting insight into what they value most. I found that direct clients are more likely to comment first on elements of their overall translation experience, such as work ethics, handling projects and offering helpful localization advice or tips on best practices, and then they turn to linguistic intricacies.

Despite such a wide spectrum of approaches to providing feedback amongst agencies and direct clients, I could not help but detect certain trends. Most agencies share a relative impartiality towards content and a focus on accuracy. Direct clients, on the other hand, tend to focus more on translation impact: nuances of meaning, tone of voice, copy sounding more interesting and engaging.

Receiving feedback on your work is critical. In her blog post How to ask for client feedback, Carolyn Yohn highlights the importance of asking for feedback and names some of the reasons to do that: it could help you create a better relationship with a PM or benchmark the quality of your work.

Feedback in translation has been covered before, although not as extensively as most other industry topics. Here are some helpful links for further reading:

https://www.thoughtsontranslation.com/2009/03/30/some-thoughts-on-feedback-and-the-translation-process/ by Corinne McKay

https://untangledtranslations.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/how-to-ask-for-client-feedback/ by Carolyn Yohn

Coming soon in Part 2: the challenges of responding constructively to feedback and solutions to try.

Anna Livermore is an English>Russian and German>Russian translator and former marketing specialist. With a linguistics degree from the Oxford Brookes University and a Professional Diploma in marketing, she came to specialize in translating marketing materials, corporate communications, website content and various components of SEM. She is a member of the Slavic Languages Division’s Social Media team. Contact: livermore.translations@gmail.com

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