27 steps to translation (or 'just' translate this)
Everyone these days talks about translation process, translation technologies, translation automation and so on. However, have we thought what happens specifically during the actual translation phase? From the moment someone contacts a translator until the translator returns their work to them?
What process do translators follow to translate?
Translation for most of my clients is only a tiny piece of the jigsaw.
Someone has to write the content first. Then, somebody has to edit it, someone may have to design it. Someone may need to produce it on a web page or print it, or bind it.
Amongst diagrams, workflows and process charts, translation owns its own little, but important workflow. This could be news to those who often think ‘let’s just translate this’. However, it is not news to professional translators who know what they do from the moment a client contacts them with a job, until they return their work back to their client. Admittedly, there isn’t one best practise, as each project is unique, but roughly, here are the steps I can’t imagine missing out during a translation project:
Pick up the phone!
Assess the data (what field, what language, how many words, what’s the deadline?)
Accept project or not (in case of the latter that is a short-lived translation flow diagram)
Set up a project folder
Log project
Read through the source file
Identify terms
Research terms and find equivalents in target language
Import source file in translation software
Apply translation memories and term bases
Start translation (11 steps later…yes!)
Finish first draft (sleep on it (sometimes literally))
Proofread and correct work (what was I thinking?)
Check terms consistency
Run a QA check
Export translated file
Format the translation to match the original
Print out translated document
Proofread on paper
Go back to translation tool and amend translation if needed
Re-export
Re-proof
Am I happy with it? (No, I am not happy with it. Repeat steps 20 – 22)
Am I happy with it? Yes, I am!
Return translated document to client
Invoice
Close project and go have a cuppa!
Do I follow these 27 steps for all my projects? Probably not; that would be inefficient and not very business-minded. (Yes, translation is a business and not something that you do because you want to work from home). Do I do this for most of my projects? Yes, but if my client has just asked me to translate one sentence, then it won’t take 27 steps to do that.
It’s fair to say that the above checklist applies to longer and more technical projects. It is also fair to say that no translation project ever involves ‘just’ translation.
How do you go about translating? Do you have a checklist you follow?
Please share.
