September 2007 - Global View Newsletter
TRANSLATION: A CONSTANT WORK IN PROGRESS
After toiling over the tenth draft of a press release, Mark has completed all the revisions outlined by the editor and manager of Public Relations. After saving it and emailing it to his manager, he crosses his fingers in hopes of approval. The last time he did this, he was sure that his article would be approved and published, but instead he received a PDF full of highlights and red marks. An hour ticks by and Mark breaks into a nervous sweat. Finally, he hears the sweet sound of “You’ve got mail,” and wonders why it took so long for his manager to reply. He takes a deep breath reads, “Upon review by the Editor, PR Manager, QA Supervisor, Customer Relations Board, CEO, President of the Company… your press release has been approved for publication.” Mark exhales a sigh of relief and briefly basks in the satisfaction of a job well done before he begins work on the next month’s company news article.
Granted, you may not need ten drafts or want to have that many staff members reviewing a press release before the final documents is ready. But face it, before it’s published and released to the general public, you put a lot of work into any article, no matter how large or small it is. After receiving an assignment, a writer conceives an idea and organizes his thoughts in an outline. When his thoughts are all on paper, he creates his first draft and sends it for review. The editor looks over the first draft, points out corrections or changes that need to be made and gives it back to the writer. The process then repeats for all the changes requested by the editor. Sometimes it takes several drafts before a pamphlet, manual, or article is approved for publication. However, virtually no documents are perfect after the first draft.
Similarly, a translated work may not be 100% perfect after it comes back from the translator. After all, once an expert translator in the subject matter is found, and assigned a project, he or she may not have extensive knowledge of a given company and usually isn’t given an extensive company vocabulary to work with. At U.S. Translation Company, once a document is translated, proofread, taken through QA here, and returned to the client, the process has just begun. Even though the translation cycle is very meticulous, revisions should be expected due to possible stylistic preferences, word choice, or missing company vocabulary. If no evaluation is done and a problem isn’t noticed until six months and 50,000 copies later, you have an elephant sized logistical mess to clean up.
Alleviation of possible problems boils down to preparation, time, review and revision. More vocabulary, sample documents, and company terminology prepared for the translator equates to less room for error, less need for revision, and faster translation time. More time allocated for the translation process allows more time for necessary review and revision. More review and revision done on a translated document ensures that the final draft is up to your standards before it is given to your distributors, customers, and clients.
Remember, it took multiple drafts, several man-hours, and extensive evaluation before your original English manual, pamphlet, or article was ready for the presses. The translation of your documents should be given the same attention and care that you gave to the originals to avoid anything deemed below your company standards. The best way to ensure that you receive the quality you want is to have the translated document reviewed and given back to the translator for revision until you can look at it and say, “Perfect!”
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