After nearly 10 years since the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) was signed into law, the deadline for tracking and tracing serialized pharmaceutical products across the US supply chain will come into force in November this year.
Most manufacturers have plans and ongoing activity in place to meet this deadline. However, some, often for very good reason, do not. If you fall into this latter category, read on. If you do have plans and activities in place, then chances are that you have worked with one of the Be4ward team at some point over the last 15 years in developing them.
DSCSA requires manufacturers to put in place several significant elements to help secure the US pharmaceutical drug supply chain:
There are many ways to achieve the above, depending on the nature of your supply chain and the scale of your operations. For smaller manufacturers, this will often involve working closely with and coordinating activity across several internal functions, Contract Manufacturing/Packaging Organizations (CMO / CPO), 3rd Party Logistics organizations (3PL), Wholesalers or Specialty Pharmacies and product traceability system vendors.
If you are unsure that your company understands these requirements fully, or that your plans will get you to compliance on time, we are here to help.
Be4ward is one of the longest standing serialization and traceability consultancies, with a team of senior specialists that have worked with many manufacturers, industry groups and standards organizations over the last 15 years, delivering successful serialization solutions.
It is important to plan ahead for eventual updates. This will help minimize re-work that may impact your budget and schedule. There are several cost effective ways to coordinate your future updates. Your technical document translation service provider should be able to help advise you on the best way to move forward on this is.
It is without a doubt that edits are going to happen in the lifecycle of a document. However, in order to reduce costs and problems down the line, it would be prudent and wise to establish a documented plan for updating your documents. Furthermore, in order to avoid minimum charges or recurring processing fees, consider having any changes done in batches.
It is important for companies to familiarize themselves on how important it is to build a strong translation memory for their translation projects. They do not always realize the large number of real benefits it can bring if it is used in the most efficient way. More particularly, they do not take into consideration the importance of TM management as a fundamental criterion in the selection of their translator provider. The problem is that many translator providers do not indicate nor offer advice on the required attention to the creation and maintenance of a strong TM.
Problems tend to arise when:
• There is a lack of discipline to update TMs with the most recent changes made during proofreading and therefore critical information and corrections made by the reviewer may be lost. By not having an updated list, the TM is composed of inaccurate content that can cause potential mistakes in future translations.
• They keep a master TM that encompasses a mismatch of all segments (a melting pot) containing all their client’s terminology and style and therefore, neglecting to personalise each TM by client.
This unorganized way of managing TMs does not allow for the full benefits for which it was originally intended. It’s essence and reason for being is to store quality linguistic data that will serve to ensure efficiency and better quality in future translations.
In order to maximize the use of TMs:
• One TM per client: It is a good idea to ask your translator provider to ensure that they build a TM specifically for your company. You can go so far as to ask they do so for each of your divisions or product groups (if necessary).
• Verified Quality Process: Make sure your translator provider has a consistent quality pro-cess when it comes to TM maintenance. This means that they do regular updates for all your new projects that include every change made during proofreading.
• Costs/Access: Ask your translator providers if there are fees to maintain the TM and if this includes access to it anytime.
• Past Projects: You may want to consider asking your translator provider if they can create a TM based on past translation projects. They may be able to build it for you if you can provide them with a quality document.
You will come to find that there are many benefits to building a strong TM. This will allow your future projects to have:
• Faster turnaround times
• Increased cost effectiveness
• High quality and consistency
• Preservation of your company terminology and writing style
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
After nearly 10 years since the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) was signed into law, the deadline for tracking and tracing serialized pharmaceutical products across the US supply chain will come into force in November this year.
Most manufacturers have plans and ongoing activity in place to meet this deadline. However, some, often for very good reason, do not. If you fall into this latter category, read on. If you do have plans and activities in place, then chances are that you have worked with one of the Be4ward team at some point over the last 15 years in developing them.
DSCSA requires manufacturers to put in place several significant elements to help secure the US pharmaceutical drug supply chain:
There are many ways to achieve the above, depending on the nature of your supply chain and the scale of your operations. For smaller manufacturers, this will often involve working closely with and coordinating activity across several internal functions, Contract Manufacturing/Packaging Organizations (CMO / CPO), 3rd Party Logistics organizations (3PL), Wholesalers or Specialty Pharmacies and product traceability system vendors.
If you are unsure that your company understands these requirements fully, or whether your plans will get you to compliance on time, we are here to help.
Be4ward is one of the longest standing serialization and traceability consultancies, with a team of senior specialists that have worked with many manufacturers, industry groups and standards organizations over the last 15 years, delivering successful serialization solutions.
Once the translation reviews have been completed and all edits are agreed, the final translation needs to be approved. There are two things to consider at this point — who will approve the translation and how will this approval manifest itself.
These two aspects are probably influenced by the type of material being translated and the usual approach to document approval in your company. If the translated material is for internal use only and the impact of error is not of great significance, then the approval process will likely be relatively informal. However, when the translation is for an external audience and accuracy is paramount, for example pharmaceutical labelling or legal documents, a strict and formal approval process should be considered.
We can expect that the person who prepared the translation and the person who reviewed it should both be approvers of the finalised document.
However, the question is should anyone else be involved as approvers? Should the project manager from your company be an approver? This may be particularly important where both the creator and reviewer of the translation are not employees of your company. You may wish to have a document being used by your company to be approved by an employee of the company.
Do you need other functional approvers to comply with any document approval rules or common practices within your company? Are there certain functions, for example quality assurance, that must approve certain types of documents? If there are, you may need to prepare approval matrices that show who should be involved in approving what documents to guide your project managers.
As well as defining who should be an approver, you also need to consider what they are approving. By nature, these documents are in a foreign language, therefore, there is a potential risk that many roles considered to be approvers cannot read nor understand the content in a foreign language. You therefore need to consider what it is that they would be approving. It could be that the process has been followed correctly and all outstanding issues have been addressed. It could also be to check specific items on content not affected by the translation, for example the correct use of trademarks and registration symbols. We would contest that there is little value in someone approving a document where they have no comprehension of the content. Therefore, you need to consider why someone needs to be an approver; what it is that they are expected to approve; and how they will be capable of doing this.
The second consideration is how the approval manifests itself. Again, there may be specific processes or systems in your company that dictate what you need to follow. However, if not, you need to consider the required level of formality and the need of an audit trail for the final approval.
Regarding the formality of the approval, there are probably two ends to the spectrum. On one hand, it may be appropriate to have an informal approval confirming that the translation is acceptable for use from each required individual. This may take the form of a verbal message or email and has basically become a formal audit trail.
On the other hand, it may be required to have a formal recorded approval process that provides an audit trail of the final authorisation of the document. This could take the form of a signature block on the translation or an associated approval form, or an electronic signature on the file or within your document management system. This is obviously a more onerous requirement.
It can therefore be seen that the type of approval should be appropriate with the type of document translated. The degree of rigour and formality applied to the approval process should increase as the significance of the document and the impact of error increases.
In the next blog we will look at the next step – Securely store approved files and build translation memory.
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
The review of the translation is a critical step in the translation process. You need to consider in advance who needs to be involved in that review. This needs to cover both in-country review and possibly additional review by specific technical experts.
There are really two elements to the review — a proofread to ensure that all of the content has been included in the translation, for example units of measure have been transcribed accurately, and the review of the translated language. The review of the translated language would most often be done by someone from your in-country team who is a native speaker and who knows your products and brand thoroughly.
It is a good idea to get reviewers involved before translation begins. They can be involved in creating the initial appendix and style of the document, learn about the background and goals of the translation, and create a sense of commitment in order to foresee time in their schedules for the final review. Getting them on board from the initial start of the project will help this final step in the process run efficiently and help ensure an on-time launch.
Also consider the skills and capabilities required by each of the reviewers. As this is a critical quality control step, do you need to provide procedures and training on how to undertake the reviews successfully?
It is an advisable business practice to have another team member read and perhaps edit your document prior to proceeding with the actual translation. A second pair of eyes can habitually find ways to improve even the most well written document, whether original or translated. However, if you are self-editing your document, you need to set a procedure or checklist.
This may include printing the document and rereading, check for lapses, missing numbers, lack of consistency, and finally, spell-check. It is important for you to establish how you prefer to review your work; will you look for all types of errors at once or concentrate on one at a time? It is essential to specify these elements before beginning the translation process.
This should always be done, no matter how comprehensive a procedure you have in place. Even if you work with trustworthy translation providers who know your company extremely well, there runs a risk of error with last-minute additions to your document (anything from new headings to simply changing a word) by well-intentioned peers. This is why it is important to ensure that you have a native speaker on hand for the final adjustments — ideally, this person should be on the project from the beginning. It is also recommended that these types of final reviews be done in writing and not over the phone or video. It is essential that the complete document be in context.
Even specialists writing on technology in their own language need to consult the correct reference when providing translation services; even they can make mistakes. Technical and scientific translators, like others, need to ensure that their output reads as intended in the original document. Actually, it often happens that it ends up being better than the original since it benefits from the concentration and skills of more than one pair of eyes. Beware when you review your document, if you notice incorrect use of technical terms, this could mean your translator is not qualified for your project. You may want to ask subject-matter specialists in your organisation for their input and comments.
Finally, before going to press, it is prudent to have your professional translator provide a final check for grammar, syntax, punctuation and style, especially if your subject-matter experts are not native speakers.
In the next blog we will look at the next step – Approving the Translation.
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
Having an inquisitive translator will prove useful — no-one gives your texts more careful attention than your translator. As they progress through your document, he or she is likely to identify uncertain issues — sections where clarification may be needed. This is a good thing! It will give you the opportunity to improve your original document. The kind of translator you want (the good ones) take your sentences apart entirely before they create new ones in the target language. Expect them to ask questions along the way.
Your translator should:
• Read and understand the entire body of the text before starting the translation.
• Make a list of terms or phrases that they do not understand in order to obtain clarifications.
• Use a spell-check program, if available.
• Check for text enhancements: italics, underlined text or bolded text.
• Check for capitalization, punctuation, and typographical errors.
• Verify the new format they created against the original version you provided. They need to account for every paragraph, bullet, box and format feature that was contained in the original version.
• Foresee adequate time to have the materials reviewed by the proofreader.
• Once the proofreader has made recommendation and suggested changes, the translator must evaluate if appropriate.
•Provide one final review of the translation one more time before publishing.
Word count can change when translating into other languages from English. This is known as the ‘expansion factor’ or ‘contraction factor’. For example, when translating from English to Russian, you can be certain that the word count will increase. Conversely, many Asian languages use scripts that require less space than English.
This means that when you are having a brochure, website or any other material translated into a new language, be prepared for the fact that it may become considerably longer or significantly shorter. Therefore, be sure to check how your translator charges for their service and whether they base their fees on the source or target language as this can make a difference in your final costs.
Consider that typography varies from one language to another — many printers and office staff may be tempted to ‘adjust’ foreign language texts to bring them into line with their own standards. This should be verified and avoided. French has a space between a word and the colon that follows and uses « » for quotation marks. In German, all nouns take capital letters. In Spanish and French, neither months nor days of the week take an initial capital. Not to mention, it’s not alright to type just an “n” when Spanish requires an “ñ”. This may seem like minor things, but the cumulative effect is off-putting for foreign-language readers. Make sure your translator respects the typographical conventions of the language you need working into.
Language translation: pas de problème! Just pop your text into an automatic machine or software translation, right? Not quite! With budgets being tightened, it may seem fitting to use this type of translation to save money and time, but it will most always offer a translation filled with mistakes. This could potentially do you more harm than you think. Automatic translations don’t think for themselves and can’t grasp the important nuances of a language; they most often get it wrong. You will have no way of verifying if this translation is appropriate before it is too late.
By offering a less than perfect translation to your customers, it gives the impression that they are not worthy of you taking the time and making the effort to have proper text for them understand. This could mean a negative effect on your organisation’s reputation.
If you must use machine translation — use it when you need to get just an idea of some-thing for your own use. Machine Translation (MT) can be useful in these circumstances since it is free and quick.
While machine translation (MT) such as Google Translate and Babelfish have come a long way over the years, use it sparingly. It should not be used for your business communication. Machine translation (MT) should not be confused with computer aided translation since it basically substitutes words from one language to another without considering nuance.
Some of the negative results of using machine translation include:
• The tool generates one meaning of a word in the target language, but the translated word can be out of context.
• Sentence structures are no longer recognisable in the target language.
• Grammar is generally overlooked; a sentence in the past tense might end up in the simple past form.
Areas where machine translation can be useful:
• Translation of emails to understand the basic communication.
• Quick translation of text from a website.
• To get an overall meaning of a letter received.
Areas where machine translation should never be used:
• Printing or publishing of documents
• Court cases
• Corporate marketing
• Patent applications
• Submitting tenders
• Contracts/agreements
• Medical documents
What about translation software? As I mentioned earlier, if you’re pressed for time and want to get the essence of something for your own use, than translation software may be helpful. It is certainly quick, and you can’t get much cheaper than free. But as a general rule of thumb, raw computer output should never be used by your translator for anything out-bound, especially without your express agreement beforehand. There are simply too many associated risks. Careful editing of machine output by skilled human translators could be an option, however, many translators will not accept such assignments as they believe that it’s faster to start from scratch.
Finally, keeping up to date in current events and current slang needs to be considered by both the translator and your company. These can vary from one language to another and must be translated in the right context. We often provide our translators with texts containing new expressions that are trendy or have just crept into the language from everyday occurrences (social media). We need to ensure that our translators get the essence of our intended use.
In the next blog we will look at the next step – Review Translation.
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
The preparation of the specification discussed in the previous section is the starting point for briefing your service provider. Key things for the service provider are an understanding of the target country, language and dialect(s), the audience, the timelines, the formats and key instructions that you want followed. This is all part of your specification.
Keep your service provider up to date with your project and any potential changes that might happen. This allows them to prepare and be more responsive.
To ensure the most effective use of your service provider, don’t just send through all of the materials you may have. Make sure that you have organised your materials to help them. Include all the relevant files in a logical order and don’t include any materials that you don’t want translated. This saves the translator time and effort by not having to sift through mate-rials looking for relevant content or translating material that you don’t need. If the translator has to sort your documentation it will likely delay your project.
Also provide files in a suitable format. Whilst most translation service providers can handle many formats it takes longer to translate from hard copy.
Different types of documents need different styles of translations. A technical article is not a travel brochure, and a press release requires a different style from a legal contract. It is therefore essential to be clear to your translation provider what the translation is for and your expectations for tone, word choice, sentence length, phrasing and degree of formality.
You also need to inform your translation provider about your target audience. Different age groups and education backgrounds in your target audiences will require different approaches and tone.
If your translation is a technical subject, it is important that your translation provider under-stands that subject. They need to articulate the subject accurately in a way that is clear and readable to the audience, and people familiar with the subject are likely to produce better text.
An experienced translator is likely to ask for such information and the different requirements in quality have a direct effect on the cost and completion times. For many translations the successful expression of the meaning is more important than an exact translation of the source text, so the translation provider has to make difficult decisions on the style and meaning. As your translation provider gains understanding of your business strategy, products, audiences and preferences, the better their translations will be. If you translation provider is not comfortable with your subjects and audiences, it is time to change your suppliers. You need your foreign language text to have the maximum impact and a provider that can deliver that.
The more informed your translation provider is, the better prepared they can be and the better service you will receive. The greater the clarity the translation provider has, the more chance there is of choosing a translator who has the appropriate experience in the area.
We have discussed already ensuring the translation provider knows the intended audience, use, style, etc. of your translation, but you also need to think about the quality criteria that have to be met. Some of the questions you need to consider are:
Will a second translator be involved in the editing or proofreading? Is it client’s responsibility, or will a separate reviewer be assigned? The quality of the translated text will be much better if it is reviewed and enhanced by a second translator and in some cases this quality control is a must. However, it may cost extra or have an effect on deadlines so this must be agreed upfront with your translation provider.
Is the overseas representative for your company going to have a look at it as well? If yes, at what stage of the process would this take place? Who is responsible for managing this, the translation provider or yourself?
What will be the format of the final file (PDF, etc), and how will the translation company deliver the file? Who will ensure that all corrections are incorporated and how many revision cycles are included in the price? How do you want to communicate revision requirements to the translation provider?
Finally, it is worth considering what happens to the text after it has been translated. If post-translation work, such as typesetting, is required for the project, it is possible for some translation companies to undertake this as well. Similarly, if the translation is required for recorded speech, the translation company may have services to provide this.
In the next blog we will look at preparing your translation.
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
Translation standards
Two notable standards for translations are: the European translation standard (CEN EN 15038) and the American translation standard (ASTM F 2575). Although these were developed independently, they fit together well. They both provide a set of rules and guidelines for how to approach and build your translation. The standards provide a wealth of valuable information drawn from numerous experts with significant experience of the topic. They cover such areas as:
• The selection of people involved and how to assure the professional competency of translators and reviewers
• The requirements of quality management systems
• The need for effective project management
• How to manage the relationship with your translation service provider
• Processes and procedures you should implement for translating, checking, revision and review to ensure effective translations
• And the technical and linguistic aspects you should consider.
CEN EN 15038 also includes a series of annexes providing further information on many of the detailed requirements.
The content of a specification
As discussed already in this document, preparation is critical if you wish to receive an accurate translation. When purchasing any product or service it is essential that you have clear requirements defined that can be easily communicated to your chosen supplier. Typically, this would be called a specification. In the haste to deliver a translation quickly there is often a desire to cut corners at this stage and start translating before your requirements are fully thought out. This can be imprudent as this risks a greater degree of rework at the back of the process to sort out issues that weren’t considered properly in the first place. This often leads to greater time being required for the project. The adage ‘garbage in = garbage out’ is applicable here.
The annexes in CEN EN 15038 list the typical contents of a specification and include:
• Source content and language
• Purpose of the translation
• Project registration/identification details and contacts
• Deadline
• Price and contractual terms
• Subject area and type of text
• Format (word processing file? XML?)
• Volume (how many words, characters, etc)
• Target language and regional variation
• Key process steps to be followed and associated responsibilities
• Reference materials and style guides to be used
• Measures
Once you have defined your specification, it is then important to share with key stakeholders, reviewers and your service provider to ensure they all understand and agree on the content. This will help reduce the number of queries or changes you get as the document goes through review cycles. Your target should be right first time.
In the next blog we will look at the next step – Brief translation provider.
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
As we continue in this series of blogs covering the basics on Ensuring Effective Translations, the next set of tips are to help ensure that the translation provider you propose to use is fit for purpose.
Choose professional language translation services carefully
For most organisations who want to ensure the quality of their translations, the use of a language translation agency is the best option. However, there are many agencies out there, so how do you know you are choosing the right one? It is important to understand that translation is a skill and not a commodity. Hence, it is not as simple as just going to the marketplace and choosing the cheapest provider. You need to know the type of work you want the translation agency to do and the criteria you will judge their performance against.
Some of the criteria to consider include:
The type(s) of document(s) being translated
Is your text a contract, a user manual, instructions for taking medicine, a sales brochure, a set of web pages or a financial report?
The technical expertise needed by the person doing the translation
Someone who knows all about medical technology may not be up on accounting, sustainable development or plasma fusion. Make sure that the translator you use is an industry expert.
The intended readers for your document
Are you targeting teenage gamers, genetic researchers, patent agents or simply anyone who might stumble upon your website?
The purpose of the translation
Is the text for internal use or publication?
The regional variation of the target language
Do your readers speak French in Montreal or Paris? It is not the same French.
A selection checklist should include:
- Translator has a knowledge of formal aspects of the target language at a native level, including grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, and syntax
- Translator has native-language knowledge of the source language, the language from which he or she is translating. Generally, the translation should be into the language the translator knows at an educated level
- Translator has knowledge of the cultural aspects of both language groups
- Translator is a native speaker or has native speaker knowledge of the language
- Translator knows the audience
- Translator conveys meaning rather than word-for-word translations
- Translator is trained or experienced in the colloquial lexicon
- Translator is skilled in proofreading or secures a proofreader for all work
- Translator is certified if the material to be translated is a legal document
Consider Language
A basic rule of translation is that translators work in their native language. That is to say that a translator will translate from another language into their native tongue. So a native English speaking translator would translate from another foreign language into English and not the other way around.
You therefore need to make sure you choose translators that translate into their mother tongue and still have close connections with their birth country, so that they understand and can use current and colloquial language.
If you end up in a situation where you need special subject-matter expertise for your translation and have to use a translator who is not translating into their mother tongue, you need to ensure such translations are carefully reviewed by a native speaker before use.
Ensure the correct specialisations
There are many different types of documents and many different translation providers. It is important that you match your choice of provider with the types of materials you want translated. If you want highly accurate medical information translated, what experience does the translation agency have with this material?
Ensure you do thorough due diligence by asking for samples of work done and references from those for who they have already completed this kind of work for. Do not shy away from placing calls to these referenced customers. Share the samples with people in your network who speak these languages and that you trust to validate the effectiveness of the translation.
Ask for the latest translation memory tools
Translation memory software lets you build inventories of standard phrases and their translations. It captures source language phrases and pairs them with the approved translations. Therefore, when you want to update content or re-use that content elsewhere, these tools make it easier to manage the updates and recycling. This helps ensure all impacted translations are addressed and drives greater consistency.
Look for translation service providers who use appropriate translation memory tools. They save time and money.
Insist on quality assurance (QA)
Accuracy and repeatability are crucial in translations. You’ll likely put great effort into assuring that your source text is accurate and correct and you need to ensure that your translations are as well.
You therefore need to assess the quality assurance processes in the translation service. Translation providers should follow existing quality standards (e.g. EN 15038:2006) but also adapt them to each area of specialisation (e.g. medical translation) in order to manage projects, resources, communication and data in the most efficient way. Do not hesitate to ask about their QA process and their compliance with existing standards.
Also, look for membership of professional organisations. Although this is voluntary, membership of the Association of Translation Companies (ATC) or the Institute of Translating and Interpreting (ITI) brings a set of membership criteria and a professional code of conduct that must be adhered to.
Make sure that translations are proofread by native, target language editors (ideally a second person) before they are submitted back to you. Mistakes tend to be more common in translated documents.
As well, note that some translation agencies will insist on signing off on the final proofs to protect themselves from any further edits in your operation.
Don’t rush for the cheapest
Like any service industry, the provision of translation services is very competitive with many suppliers vying for business. Capabilities, standards, skills and specialisms vary across providers. You therefore need to think of a balanced assessment across all of your requirements rather than just focusing on getting the cheapest cost.
As with any service offering, there will be a minimum price threshold where suppliers below that level cannot meet your other requirements, whatever they may be. You need to consider the impact of not meeting these other requirements (be they service, quality etc.) on the reputation and image of your business. You need to be realistic with your expectations and really understand which matter, versus which are nice to have. Also, appreciate that choosing the cheapest provider may actually end up costing you more in the long term.
When comparing providers ensure you have comparable measurement of costs, ideally through standard and consistent rate cards that allow you to model the total expected cost against your expected workload. Don’t forget to factor the level of revision you expect to see from your organisation.
Also, don’t forget that there are numerous ways of reducing your costs. Getting your translation right the first time eliminates costly rework, review and approval. Long term relationships can lead to volume discounts and increased effectiveness through use of translation memory. Translation providers can also offer additional services like file presentations, desktop publishing and layouts, which may save costs for other parts of your organisation.
Therefore when you are choosing your provider, there are a few questions to consider:
- How will I be charged? Will it be by the line, per page or per 1,000 words? Will it be on the word count of the source language or the target language?
- Are there any additional costs such as ‘urgency’ charges or ‘same day delivery’ charges?
- Is project management included in the price?
- Will there be a single point of contact for me in the company?
- Who is involved in the checking process and will there be any extra fees charged?
- Are other services such as typesetting, interpreting, voice-overs and copy-writing available?
- Does the translation company carry professional indemnity insurance?
- What kind of turnaround promise and guarantees do the company offer?
- Is the company a member of the ATC or ITI?
In the next blog we will look at the fifth step – Translation Specifications; how to establish a set of standards for working with your translation provider.
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
Prepare before you start
Prior to commencing, you need to prepare the text needing translation. The source document needs to be clear, concise and jargon free. The sections to be translated need to be clearly highlighted (or better still, remove the sections that are not to be translated). Glossaries, style guides and technical terminology all need to be provided. In taking the time to prepare up front, you will ensure a successful execution of the rest of the project.
Finalise your text before starting the translation
It is often the mindset that doing translations takes a long time and therefore, it is essential to start as soon as possible. This can create pressure to commence translation before the source text is finalised.
This creates two issues:
- By starting translation before finalising the source text, you are guaranteeing that you will not be able to carry out a correct translation the first time around, and hence, will have to edit the translation a number of times as the remaining information is provided. This results in wasteful extra review cycles and subsequently extends the project timelines.
- Adding extra content requires careful version control of the documents to make sure that all additional comments are captured and added to the right previous versions. Missing such edits is a classic cause of error.
It is therefore always preferable to only begin translation once all information is available. In many cases this can actually be faster, but it requires a mindset change to wait until ready to execute.
In some cases, deadlines make this unfeasible and it is necessary to start the translation whilst finalising the source text. In such cases, version control and time and date stamping must be rigorously applied.
An often-overlooked part of creating the source text is the use of previously translated material. Firstly, in large organisations, is there the chance that someone else in the company could have created this translation? Secondly, are there parts of the source document that have been previously translated and could be incorporated into the document? Re-use of previous translations not only saves time and money, it can increase your brand consistency. To facilitate this, many companies use translation memory tools to store standard translation fragments. Translation memory (TM) is not to be confused with machine translation. A translation memory system stores the source text and the corresponding translation in segments. This could be in either an electronic tool or paper format, depending upon the complexity of the organisation.
Pay special attention to your source documents
As with many other processes, the phrase ‘garbage in – garbage out’ is applicable to your translation process. There are a number of things you can do to the source text document to minimise this effect.
- The first is to think about the translation requirements during the writing process. This can provide opportunities to re-use sections of already translated content and to be concise to avoid unnecessary content requiring translation. Also, aim to avoid local colloquialisms that will be difficult to translate.
- Secondly, stick to standard technical terms from your company glossary. This allows translation providers to have pre-translated phrases in their library for these terms.
- Thirdly, thoroughly review the source document to make sure that any errors are eliminated in the source text before you translate.
- Finally, make sure that the format and layout of the source document makes it easy for the translation provider to produce the translation.
Follow technical writing best practices
There are some recognised best practices that should be followed to ensure effective translations:
- Write short, clear sentences.
- Limit dependent clauses. One thought per sentence helps translators and increases savings from translation memory matches.
- Avoid idiomatic expressions. These are easily misinterpreted.
- Avoid cultural references like sports metaphors or quotations from literary or pop icons, as these often do not work across cultures.
- Make sure symbols are internationally recognised. Don’t assume that a symbol (i.e. a stop sign) has the same meaning in other countries.
Be concise
Consider writing less, as fewer words will mean lighter translation costs. Also if the text is concise, it should be clear and easier for the translator to render for the intended language.
Think international from the start
When developing your source text, it is important to be thinking about the international impact of the text from the start.
The first thing to consider, is to make sure you are using plain English in your document. This means using simple and clear statements that minimise the risk of being misunderstood either by the translator or by the audience after translation. Avoid using jargon or culturally biased language – references to the human body and any anecdotes should also be avoided. Similarly, local sayings and colloquial terms can cause confusion and may be gibberish when translated. The objective should be to keep the text simple, concise and clear.
Secondly, consider what language your readers will be reading your document in. Languages are not consistent between countries, for example British English or American English, French from France or Canadian French. Many countries require multi-lingual documentation due to the variety of languages spoken by their citizens. Therefore, translation requirements between different countries can vary even if it appears to be the same language, and this should influence your choice of translation provider – translators who understand the local subtleties of language are key.
Thirdly, the type of audience you are aiming for will influence the writing style you may want. The style would be different if you are writing to consumers versus skilled technical people. Their requirements and expectations will differ. You therefore need to put yourself in their shoes and prepare your text from their perspective.
Finally, but importantly, you must take into account legal, regulatory and cultural requirements to avoid illegal or offensive text unwittingly. Translation providers who understand the local requirements and customs will guide you with such issues.
Use automation
Modern word-processing tools have many useful features that can help with the preparation of your source text. Use automation in your documents for table of contents, indices, cross-references, variables and internal/external links. Also, make sure to use style sheets so that any updates or resizing can be automatically applied.
Also, avoid using hard and soft returns in sentences as broken sentences cause problems for the translation teams and their tools.
Prepare for text expansion
If English is the language in your source document, remember that it is a relatively concise language and most languages are 20% longer. Therefore remember to account for text expansion when designing the layouts you propose to use. Also consider what size of document you want to use (A4, US letter etc.) to make sure that the translated text will fit as you would want.
Carefully prepare your graphics
Graphics are essential to enhance documents and make them easier to understand. There are a few things you should consider to improve how you work with graphics:
Whenever possible, try to link graphics in a document rather than embed them. This simplifies replacement in localised versions and future updates. Linking graphics also reduces file size, which is friendlier to use with translation tools.
Keep text out of graphic images, as the graphic will have to be recreated to incorporate translated text.
Use screenshots sparingly as they will be in a specific language and would need to be edited for your translated document.
Remember that, depending on language, text may expand when translated. Allow for expansion of the text associated with an image.
To ensure you are only translating what needs to be translated, store localisable images separately from non-localisable images.
Provide editable source files
Re-creating files takes time and adds to cost, so always try to provide editable source files to your translation provider. As discussed above, this should include editable images.
Also consider compressing files if they are extremely large to help protect corruption-prone fonts and speed transmission during very tight schedules.
In the next blog, we will look at the choosing your translation provider; offering our tips to ensure that the translation provider you propose to use is fit for purpose.
We hope you find this information useful. We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]