Are you considering working with freelance Latin to English translators? Or perhaps you already work with translators and need help solving issues with your translators.
The best professional translators need to learn how to use new tools and pick up new techniques to provide high-quality translators. Translators who have spent some time at translation agencies and have familiarized themselves with the processes needed to have a more professional approach tend to deliver the best translation, so make sure to ask your freelance translators for their background before hiring them.
There is undoubtedly more to translation than just typing in a foreign language and using translation tools. Professional translators need to revise and proofread the documents, in addition to translating them, so make sure to ask your translators what their process is when hiring them. Here are some of our best tips for making sure your translators are delivering a high-quality translation service:
1. Translators should review documents and files before starting a translation. Make sure your translators review all the documents before beginning the translation, including all instructions that come with the job.
2. Translators should be comfortable with the subject and language style. Make sure that you hire translators who are familiar and comfortable with both the subject and the language style. Just because the translators know the language well doesn’t mean that they know the subject matter or even the language style well.
3. Translators should be familiar with the file format. You should send over the files that need to be translated to your translators in a translation-friendly format and with a translation memory. And make sure to specify a specific computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool and make it clear to your translators that you expect to receive the file back in the correct format. When hiring your translators, we recommend asking and making sure that they know how to use the file format that you tend to use the most often.
4. Translators should use all reference materials, style guides, glossaries and terminology databases. Translators should never ignore a glossary that you have sent to them. If you have created a database for your translators to use, then you should make sure that your translators are incorporating it into their translation process. Translators need to use consistent terminology used in previous translation jobs.
5. Translators should contact you immediately if they run into issues. Make it clear to any translators that you hire that they should contact you as soon as possible if they come across or foresee any problems with the document, the word count, the delivery time or the format.
6. Translators should identify relevant reference sources for the subject they’re translating. Make sure that the translators you are working with find relevant reference sources on the Internet for the issue they are about to translate. For example, if they are translating technical documentation for a product, they should identify the competitors’ websites to find useful terminology and style to work with. They should identify these sources before they begin translating. Make these expectations clear before your translators start the project.
7. Translators should run the spell checker and correct any misspellings and typos after they have finished the translation. It would help if you also made it clear that your translators need to update any misspellings and typos after they finish translating the document. They should also read through the document without looking at the source text to make sure that the new document makes sense and reads well. The target audience will not have access to the source material, so the original document must read well on its own.
8. Translators should check the translation against the source document for any missing text or formatting issues. Most CAT tools include quality assurance features within the software. While each tool provides different features, they are all good at detecting untranslated segments and missing or wrong numbers. We recommend asking your translators which devices they are using to check the translation against the source document and make sure that this is an integral part of their translation process.
9. The best translators do not use literal translations. Make sure that your translators are not using literal translations since it will likely not read well to your target audience. Unless they are translating technical material, the expressions and idioms will probably not translate well literally from one language to another. Therefore, it is essential to make it clear to the translators that they should be more creative and translate using idioms and expressions in the target language.
Translators should include notes or comments for you in the delivery file. Make it clear to your translators that you want them to have notes or comments in the delivery file, even if the translation work went smoothly. They should include any issues that came up, thank you and say that the job went smoothly if that is the case.
