The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2020 - 23

instructions for everyone involved.
The goal is to ensure each team
member can complete their task
correctly and in a timely manner to
make it easier for everyone else down
the quality assurance workflow.
■	

Research problems and provide
suggestions/solutions to any issues.

■	

Have excellent communications skills.
When questions and problems arise,
the prepper must be able to discuss
these in a polite and effective manner
with the client or team.

■	

Measurements: Are conversions to
another system of measurement needed?

■	

Formatting: Should source formatting
be followed?

■	

Target-language mechanics:
Languages have different rules when
it comes to capitalization, spaces
after punctuation, certain symbols,
numbers, accents, syllable division,
abbreviations, acronyms, etc.2

■	

Alphabetized lists or indices.

■	

Modifier strings: This is one of
the most common problems when
translating from English into another
language and can trip up even the
best of translators.

HOW DO YOU PREPARE A DOCUMENT
FOR TRANSLATION?
Follow these steps when preparing a
document for translation:
Gather the approved
specifications, documents, and
reference material. It's important
to work with the final versions of
documents. Making changes during
the translation process may impact cost
and/or turnaround time. If changes
are ongoing, a process to track and
document them must be implemented.
Clients don't always understand what
type of reference material to provide, so
the prepper must be specific about what
could be helpful. Reference material
might include information on previous
jobs, translation memories, customized
machine translation engines, brochures,
videos, podcasts, webinars, photographs,
glossaries, specialized dictionaries, or a
list of relevant databases.

1

Ideally, each person on the team
should solve the problems they
encounter during their phase in
the production workflow.
■	

What is the quality required? Is it
for internal use only, for publication,
FYI, etc.?

■	

What is the intended target audience?
Is it for customers, specialists, or
suppliers? What is the desired tone
(informal or formal)?

Read and "survey" as much of
the document(s) as possible and
mark the sections where the prepper
has questions.1 The prepper should ask
themselves the following:

■	

What is the target language? If necessary,
specify region or "language variant."

■	

What are the deliverables? For
example: hard copy, file format, other
media, certified, notarized, etc.

What type of document is it and
what is it for? For example, is it for
informational or marketing purposes?
Is it a manual, marketing material, a
script, software strings, a materials
safety data sheet, or a website?

■	

What is the turnaround time and is it
feasible given the specifications?

2

■	

■	

Who wrote the document? Was it
written by a lay person, a specialist,
or a manufacturer?

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Research potential problems
and find solutions. Ideally, each
person on the team should solve the
problems they encounter during their
phase in the production workflow.
The reality is that oftentimes issues are
simply ignored. There are many reasons
for this, including tight turnaround,
lack of a timely response from the client
or project manager, or simply that the
team member assumes somebody else
down the line will fix the problem.
Therefore, it's the responsibility of the
prepper to spot potential issues and
solve as many of them ahead of time
as possible so as not to disrupt the
workflow or budget.
Once they've identified what they
don't understand, the prepper must
determine if they can research the
problem themselves or need clarification
from the client. How?
Start by checking the reference
material (especially if this is a repeat
client). If the reference material doesn't
provide the answers, the prepper must
begin their research. We're extremely
fortunate to live in an age where
information is readily available.

4

Identify potential problems.
Every language poses different
problems, but the prepper must be on
the lookout for issues in areas such as:

3

■	

Terminology: Is there a lexicon/
glossary? Should some terms be left in
the source language?

■	

Become an expert at refining searches.

■	

Set up a preliminary online
resources list.

If clarification is still necessary,
the prepper should set up a meeting
(in person, telephone conversation,
videoconference, etc.) with the client
and prepare ahead of time.
American Translators Association

23
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The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2020

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