Many companies guarantee that they can carry out urgent and quality translations. The truth is that quality translations take time, and the longer the translations, the more time it takes. The only way to quickly translate long texts is to assign different parts to different translators, but with the side effect of having styles and tones that are often very different from each other.
The highest profile translation agencies adopt quality procedures such as the overall and final revision by a proofreader, an expert in the specific sector of the document, who reviews it and harmonises its style and tone; but it is a highly professional service that has a cost, which therefore impacts the final price of the translations.
Quality translations
Respecting deadlines, even the most stringent ones, is the priority objective of any translation agency. However, what distinguishes a good agency from a superlative agency is the latter’s ability to respect deadlines without skimping on the quality of the translations.
A professional translation agency invests a large part of its resources in researching and refining quality control procedures, starting from the first contact it establishes with the client, up to the last phase, that of the final revision of the text .
The client, therefore, has a central role in the process, because he is called to take on an active role in the preliminary phase of the translation. In fact, his involvement allows the agency to plan an accurate work plan and eliminate any obstacles it may encounter along the way. Let’s see how.
Bases of terms
Top-tier agencies provide their translators with a glossary of the most relevant terms in the specific industry the translation is aimed at. The glossary has a threefold function: first, it reduces research times for the translator; second, it includes the customer’s preferred terms; third, it helps maintain formal coherence and speeds up the task of those responsible for editing and revising the document. This last aspect is of fundamental importance for the success of a translation.
Bear in mind that any project, in order to be delivered quickly, is generally divided into different parts and assigned to as many translators. However, when a reference glossary is missing or when common rules for all translators are not established a priori, the final result risks being unsatisfactory, because each part is too different from the others both in style and in lexical choice. Having a basic terminology of reference, however, makes this division imperceptible.
Reference material
Collecting and distributing reference materials and support for translators is therefore essential to increase the quality of translation work and respect delivery times. However, this is not as easy a task as appearances suggest. The reference material, in fact, is the leaflet to be given to professionals, therefore it must be planned, studied and well-measured in all its parts so as to give the translators all the information and a complete stylistic guide to complete the task without getting lost in questions that could slow down the progress of the work. At the same time, it should contain only what is strictly necessary. The risk, otherwise, is that translators are overloaded with superfluous information which causes them to lose focus from the objective.
Subsequent updates
Sending a document to the translator is often delayed because the material needs a small update or revision by the client. Sometimes days of linguistic work are lost for an update that does not exceed 500 words. Any translator using an assisted translation tool (like most) should have no problem starting with the translation and then implementing the changes. It must therefore be kept in mind that there is no need to postpone the start of a project due to a possible update. Of course, the price needs to be adjusted based on the new word count, but an extra day or two can make a big difference when evaluating the work in its entirety.
LingoYou, the translation agency that puts urgency at the service of quality
Hurry, quality and price. Compromise does not exist. However, there are quality professional agencies, such as LingoYou.
LingoYou offers a professional translation service that follows rigorous quality procedures, which allow us to achieve the best result in the shortest possible time. We put our translators in the conditions to work at their best, offering them guides, support material, glossaries and all the most advanced technological supports to fully satisfy even translations that require the utmost urgency.
Marketing Team LingoYou
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