Technical Documents: How to Ensure Accurate Translations

When it comes to translating technical documents, ensuring accuracy can feel like chasing a runaway train. Whether you're translating user manuals, specification sheets, patents, or scientific, healthcare, or engineering articles, selecting the right technical translation service is crucial to achieving a smooth and effective translation.

Before diving into the translation process, let’s first define what technical translation is and how it differs from more common business translation.

What is Technical Translation?

Technical translation refers to the specialized translation of scientific or technical materials. The translator must have a deep understanding of the subject matter and be proficient in both the source and target languages, including knowledge of technical terms.

Unlike business translation, technical translation often involves more complex and specialized vocabulary. As such, it typically requires more time and a higher budget. The more specialized the content, the more you should account for both in terms of budget and time.

For example, translating an instruction manual for an inkjet printer from English to German usually costs less than translating a patent from English to Japanese. This is because patent translation requires deep expertise, along with strict legal and practical knowledge. There are fewer translators with this level of expertise, and specialized patent translators are even rarer.

When Technical Translation Goes Wrong

Choosing the wrong translation service can seriously damage your company’s reputation. At best, it might make your company appear unprofessional. At worst, it could lead to catastrophic errors. A minor grammatical mistake may be acceptable, but miscommunicating critical instructions, such as those in a naval ship's technical manual for crane operations or safety procedures, could have dire consequences.

Four Key Problem Areas in Technical Translation

1. Choosing the Right Translation Service
Choosing a technical translation service based solely on cost is a mistake. You should focus on the quality and expertise required to meet your specific needs. Without a clear understanding of your requirements, you may waste time and money. Here’s how to avoid pitfalls:

• Be clear about your goals.
• Know your target audience and set realistic timelines.
• Consider whether you need additional services, such as desktop publishing or coding support (for website translation).
• Ensure the agency has experience handling specific cultural and linguistic nuances.

2. Supplying Your Translation Agency with a Clear Brief
A precise and well-structured brief leads to better outcomes. At a minimum, your brief should include the following:

• The project scope
• Deadlines to be met
• Target languages
• Source files (when possible)
• Reference materials

A clear brief helps improve efficiency and ensures all parties are aligned on expectations from the outset.

3. Managing the Process – Your Involvement
Maintaining proper communication is essential, so make sure to discuss your level of involvement with the translation agency upfront. If flexibility is needed to meet deadlines, communicate that as well. Some agencies may not offer much flexibility, so it’s important to address this issue early on.

Define the project timeline and responsibilities from the beginning to avoid any confusion. Be clear about who’s responsible for what, including the final sign-off process.

4. Providing Feedback
Feedback is crucial in two key areas:

• During the translation process, providing feedback helps the translator update your organization’s translation memory system. This makes future projects faster and cheaper, as recurring terms and phrases can be automatically translated.
• After the project, take the time to review what worked well and what didn’t, helping both you and the agency improve for future translations.

How to Prepare Your Technical Documents for Translation

Before sending your technical documents to the translation agency, make sure you’ve completed the following steps:

1. Identify Target Markets and Readers:
   Clearly define your target markets and audience to help the agency identify linguistic or cultural nuances that might affect translation.

2. Ensure Documents are Finalized:
   Submit finalized versions of your documents. Last-minute changes can cause confusion and delays during the translation process.

3. Determine Suitable File Formats:
   Check with your translation agency to determine which file formats they support.

4. Create a Glossary of Technical Terms:
   Provide a glossary that includes specialized technical terminology to ensure consistency and accuracy across the document.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your technical translations are accurate, effective, and meet the needs of your target audience.

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