Generally, there are three steps involved in the translation process, and these are translation, editing, and proofreading processes. We say generally, because it’s often wise with high word volume translation projects to add an additional step just to ensure that the final product is of the highest quality. This final step is known in the translation industry as QA or Quality Assessment.
Explaining the Quality Assessment Process
In the Quality Assessment step, computer tools are used to detect inconsistencies, to ensure that the correct terms have been used, to check spelling and punctuation, and to check for multiple spaces, formatting errors, and repeated words. The majority of inconsistencies occur when more than one linguist is involved in a large translation project which includes segments that have been repeated throughout the text. As we know, one single word (and of course a whole sentence) can have several different translations, so when you’ve got two editors working together on a project, it’s highly likely that each editor will use a different version.
Quality Assessment –The Final Step!
The person responsible for Quality Assessment will be the person who decides on the option that’s most accurate when it comes to that particular text: it’s this person who’s responsible for ensuring consistency throughout all segments of the project. This final step of the translation process will ensure that the end client receives a consistent final product.
Staying True to the Term Base
Vitally important, also, is ensuring that the correct terminology has been used, and this is usually done utilising Quality Assessment tools. These tools assist in verifying that the terms as according to the term base of the project were properly used. It’s true that translators have easy access to the term base while working on atranslation, but there’s always the possibility that, while attempting to determine the complexities of the text, they could well overlook some terms. So, during the Quality Assessment process, a final inspection is made to ensure that there’s been proper usage of the term base.
Completing a Spelling and Grammar Check
Obviously, a vitally important part of the quality assessment process of any project is to perform a spelling and grammar check. Possibly the easiest way to perform this check is to open the text in an MS Word file and run the grammar and spelling check there. This check is almost unnecessary because the text has already been reviewed and passed through various linguistic steps; however, it’s imperative that the final translated document be 100% accurate when delivered to the end client.
Producing High-Quality, Accurate Translations
Performing a Quality Assessment of the translated document ensures that the final product is consistent, coherent, and that there are no formatting or spelling areas. Any text that’s passed all these rigid tests will be easy to read and understand, and isn’t that ultimately what we’re all striving for with our translated documents? Consistent, accurate, translated documents ultimately means happy, loyal end-clients!
