ProZ.com videos » 2010 Virtual Conference On-demand videos » Is it worth investing in QA Processes? Tips to offer a high quality translation product by Lorena Baudo & Susana Vivas

In this session, we will develop the following aspects of Quality Assurance implementation to a translation product, and in this order: Linguistic knowledge of both source and target languages will be taken for granted; however, we, as reviewers, have detected two kinds of mistakes in translation projects completed by “high quality” translators: human-translation related mistakes and CAT-tool related mistakes. The former are only detectable by and dependent upon the vision and competence of the translator, and the latter are easily spotted if using the whole variety of QA automatic features available through current CAT tools. To avoid human-translation related mistakes, we propose a switch in the approach translations usually take: we should start looking at the translation product - not only the text- from the editor's / reviewer's point of view. Here, we will analyze the following concepts: Micro vs. macro perspective: The global vision of the reviewer compared to the micro linguistic approach. How to see the text as the client does. Damage avoidance: Minor, major & critical mistakes Mistakes related to language, formatting and processes Besides, we will provide specific examples as to how a reviewer scores a translation. Feedback. As to CAT-tool related aspects, we will analyze the most significant QA features available through some paid and free software. Among these features, we will go through: Spell checker Grammar Punctuation Number mismatch Terminology: glossary and forbidden terms Regular expressions Inconsistencies Placeholder check Formatting. We will finish by summarizing in a useful checklist all aspects that should never be overlooked before delivering a translation product, in relevance order.