The process of T-E-P (Translation-Editing- Proofreading) of the translation is a good way to make sue the quality; But sometimes it turns out that translators are always doing the same things. So here I will outline some suggestions to make the good quality:
Avoid Rework
Let’s begin with trying to do things right the first time. Editing and revising are tricky, treacherous and time-consuming tasks. So, try to translate each phrase as if the translation were to be published on real time. The fewer points go into the “later” box, the smaller the chance they will pass unnoticed during editing and proofreading.
Keep a List of Dangerous Words
What are the easily confusable of your target language? Principle and principal? What words can be mistyped? We don’t mean words that do not exist and thus will be rejected by the spell checker, we mean legitimate words, such as where and were, both of which are correct, but have different meanings. Keep a list of your “favorite mistakes” and use the search command to see if and when you used them.
Read Also: Translation Samples
Run the Spell and Grammar Checker
Always run the spell and grammar checker before editing a text. Before checking spelling and grammar, however, select the entire document, set the language to your target language and make sure the checker is fully active. The information should be somewhere in a tools menu.
Spell and grammar checkers are often ridiculed, because they fail to detect real problems and suggest ludicrous solutions to non-existing problems, but they do find a large number of points that deserve attention and many of the solutions offered are perfectly correct. They do not solve all problems, but save a lot of work.
Comply with Target-Language Typography and Punctuation Rules
Different languages have different typographical and punctuation conventions and your translation should comply with target language usage. Far too many of us forget this and impose source-language rules on our target-language text. For instance, we often see Brazilian Portuguese translations where words are capitalized following English rules.
In addition, many of us are simply careless typists or never bothered to learn how to enter text using a computer. For instance, we often find translations…
…where words are separated by more than one space, there are spaces before commas ,but none after( and similar problems with brackets )tabs are used incorrectly and so forth.
This type of text makes life unnecessarily difficult for editors, typesetters, and proofreaders alike. In addition, it leaves an impression of carelessness that does not contribute much to our image.
Don’t tell us this is none of your business: you should try to make your translations so good that editor and proofreader do not have to touch them. You cannot, but you should try all the same.
The above should not be construed to mean that you are to become a typesetter. In fact, to paraphrase a well-known dictum, we have an agreement with typesetters: they do not translate, we do not do typesetting. It means that our work should conform to a few basic rules of “typographical hygiene.”
Never use the “Replace All” Command
This is the most deadly and fatal of all commands. We know it can be undone. But we also know that, as a rule, you only notice you have done something horrible half an hour after applying it and introducing another 100 improvements in the text, and then it is too late for control-zeeing it.
Don’t Let the Tug of War Spoil your Translation
During translation, source and target language play a game of tug of war, creating an unceasing tension that may enrich our work-or not, depending on how well we can handle it.