QA known – The why and how of polishing translations

 

[Demon*]

The large majority of professionals share a similar basis of knowledge, granted with individual style differences. They know how to produce the basic product or service, whether that is a chair or a translation. The devil is in the details. Customers expect a polished product or service, one free of errors and blemishes. This requirement separates the wheat from the chaff, distinguishing those whose work leads to long term satisfied customers and those who struggle to maintain a clientele. Using an example from a production line, no manufacturing process reaches 100% perfection. Thus, it is clear that no reputable enterprise passes on its products to others without a thorough quality assurance (QA) process.

Translation also requires QA. To explain, translators produce a first draft aimed at transmitting the content, tone, subtext messages and structure of the original text to another language. If successful, the result is faithful copy of the source text. However, the first draft is often neither faultless no seamless. It may suffer from incorrect word choices, grammar and spelling errors, inconsistency in terminology uses, punctuation misuse and missing or duplicate words. Even if technically correct, the first draft may use syntax patterns from the original document that are not acceptable in the target language, such as the use of active/passive and the placement of adjectives and direct and indirect objects. The longer the documents, the greater the probability of the occurrence of these mistakes. In fact, a first draft is not an acceptable final product in most cases regardless of the knowledge and skill of the translator.

The key for a proper translation is the QA. The first and easiest step involves software applications. The most obvious one is spell check, F7 in Microsoft products. This function will identify most spelling errors and duplications as well as many grammar and punctuation errors. Of course, there will be false positives and missed errors, especially when the word in error exists. Still, as a first step, spell check identifies the vast majority of the gross errors. An additional step is running a QA function. Most of the CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tools includes this function with others, such as Xbench, available for download. The purpose of these tools is to identify inconsistent translations, missing or incorrectly placed tags, which signal font aspects, missing or additional parentheses and mismatched punctuation. These programs help identify serious issues in the translation. Thus, spell check and a QA function are key elements of the mechanical QA process.

However, in order to create a seamless translation, as in all forms of writing, the translation must be reread, often many times. Theoretically, the best method is to have another pair of eyes read the translation, as is required by ISO standards for translation agencies. In practice, the effective use of an outside reader requires money, time and a trusting relationship between the translator and editor, a rare combination. Instead, in the vast majority of cases, translators must reread their own document and strive to identify errors and text to improve. One technique is a focused reading of the translation that checks a limited variety of issues while ignoring others. This approach is especially useful in documents with numbers, names and complex structure but requires a great investment of time as the document must be read multiple times, each one with a different focus. Another option is to print the document and read the black and white copy, which tends to make certain issues much more visible. My favorite technique, especially for longer documents, is to read the document backwards, paragraph by paragraph, which not only creates a “new” document in the mind but also forces the reader to check each paragraph separately without connection to the previous one. Some translators read the text out loud or use the available software to have it read out loud, allowing them to identify clunky language that needs to be recrafted. It is vital to pay attention to any “red light” that pops into mind and thoroughly examine the issue. A combination of any of these techniques usually produces a polished translation.

Of course, QA requires time. While the 80/20 rule does not apply in translation, review and polishing a translation can easily reach 50% of the total time investment. The rule of thumb is that the longer the document, the more time quality assurance takes. That is the reason why larger translation projects should cost more, not less. Furthermore, the longer the document, the more breaks are required for QA as it is impossible to attentively read through 10,000 pages without many breaks. Thus, translators need to allow for QA time in both scheduling and setting rates. As a result, except for very short documents, same day delivery is a recipe for disaster in translation. Curiously enough, most deadlines easily suffer a delivery delay to the next morning or end of day. In order to provide a proper product, translators must insist on reasonable deadlines.

All products, including translation, require proper QA processes. Whether done by software or human, these processes are not a waste of time but instead are integral to the production process. For translators, like many other professionals, the reward for this insistence on QA is satisfied customers and shining above the rest. Not only is the devil in the details, they are also the key to success.

*Captions help the sight impared access information. 

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Translating instability

I have been a freelance translator for 15 years and have learned one thing about the business: it is dynamic. Specifically, the complex base through which translators ply their trade is in constant change, forcing us to try to understand and adjust to the best of our ability. These changes are reflected in four different areas, at least, that affect our livelihood for better or for worse.

Technology is a major cause of change. Computer-aided translation (CAT tools) utilities with their attendant term memories (TM) have been disputed and implemented for over a decade but have irrevocably changed the manner of translation and project management. Simply put, translator agencies in many cases expect translators to use these tools and accordingly produce more. While there are areas in which TM’s are much less practical, CAT tool use is now a norm.

More recently, neural translation (NT), a form of machine translation (not Google Translate), has shaken up the market. Without getting in the details of how it works, NT can produce understandable text from tens of thousands of pages at significantly less cost and time than human translation in certain cases. Depending on the area, the text may be far from Shakespeare but in many cases the reader will have no issue comprehending it. This automated translation is acquiring an ever-increasing market share and squeezing out certain translation sectors. On the other hand, it is creating a huge market for people to edit the NT output to make it readable. Given the fast pace of improvement of NT, it is hard to predict which niches will be available for translators in five years.

At the same time, the business structure of translation is rapidly changing due to agglomeration and public stock offering.  Once an industry based on small, local agencies, more and more large international business agencies are being created through purchases and mergers. To finance these moves, these large companies are going public, effectively transferring their ownership to the public. The impact of these two trends is to lower translation rates due to the reduction of competition and greater market knowledge of the large agencies on one hand and the need to produce profit to the shareholders on the other hand. To paraphrase Ralf Lemster, a leading German financial translator, we need to either master the technology to increase productivity or hone a specialty to attain high rates.  The middle ground is rapidly shrinking.

In the background of the transformations are local legal developments. For example, changes in patent law eliminated the need for translation of certain documents. By contrast, EU regulations have created a vast need for translation in previous small markets, such as Czech or Gaelic. Likewise, regional or national certification modifications ease or render difficult entry into these markets, affecting the rates. Various ISO and European standards have increased the need for proofreaders. The legal background is truly a wild card for a translator.

A slower but no less powerful force is the ebb and flow of a language itself. Translation into English is one of the few stable markets as few changes have occurred in the demand for documents in that language in the last decade. However, the use of some languages has increased due to economic development, such as Chinese and Korean, while others have declined, such as French. That said, regardless of how small the segment, the demand for transcreation, the localization of a source text into a seamless local version, is increasing and providing good rates for more creative translators of all minor languages.

To be clear, these changes are neither to the complete benefit or detriment of the translator. They both reduce and create opportunities. For example, while the market for translating contracts has definitely shrunk, the demand for editors and transcreators has increased exponentially. The challenge we face is to match our talents, both current and potential, to the opportunities at hand. This effort requires constant, active testing of the market to ascertain what the current situation is, not a simple task in the “fog of war” world of freelancing. “Plus ça change, plus ça reste la mēme chose” does not apply here because the only true constant in business (and life) is change even if we are unaware of the scope of its forces.

Living among the animals

Animals are a vital part of human existence. We would starve without them, for one thing.  This significance is expressed in our vocabulary.  Children learn animal names very early, even today when the animals around us are not very threatening.  Accordingly, animal homes are also part of human lexicon.

First, animals live in our house or immediately around it.  However, if a married man goes to a cat house, a brothel, he might end up in the dog house, i.e. sleeping alone on the sofa. The reason for this behavior in the first place is they many men find marriage a gilded cage, very nice on the outside but quite restrictive in practice.

Second, farm animals have their place of residence, close to our heart. A pig’s sty is a messy place as are the rooms of many people.  Others feel cooped up in their room, like the chickens.  If you are part of a stable, you have value but not exclusive. Still, that is better than being put out to pasture, no longer needed due to age.

On the wild side, old wooden ships had crow’s nests high on the main beam to serve as lookout points. If you have a nest egg, you were financially protected for the future.  Of course, you had to avoid entering a lion’s den, which is filled with dangerous people. All in all, nothing is safer than being in your own lair, without the foxes of course.

Your home may be your castle, but your pet’s home definitely isn’t.