BURG Translations Blog
How to create a translation style guide
If you’ve already read our article on how to get a document correctly translated, how to create a glossary, or pretty much any article on how to get benefit from a language service provider (LSP), you may have noticed that collaboration is the key. You can create a translation style guide on your own. In fact, your company may have already created one for internal purposes. However, a translation style guide is for translating, not for writing original content. This means that a lot of the work has already been done of you and the translator, because much of the style and what the translators needs to know is already in the content itself. The purpose of the translation style guide is to address anything that the content cannot address directly.
The importance of writing style in document translations
The Glossary and the translation Style Guide are the two main tools (after translation memory) that translators use to optimize the quality of their translations by taking into account client preferred terms and style. The glossary revolves around words that are explicitly determined (exactly what source terms and target terms should be used), while the translation style guide revolves around words that are abstractly defined (eg: whether to write formally or informally).
This article will explain how language service providers (LSPs) standardize writing style, what tool they use, and how it works. We will also cover when it makes sense to bother with this tool.
FAQ: Translation Glossary
A Translation glossary is one of the most powerful tools you can use to maximize the quality of a translation. This document answers your frequently asked questions (FAQs) about translation glossaries. Read more
How to create a glossary for document translations
Professional services, such as accounting and medicine, require collaboration with the client. Whether it’s tax information, patient records, or a consultation, the client has a role to play. Translations, as a professional service, is no different. On the other hand, creating a glossary is a straight-forward activity, but in our experience, the glossary a client creates always improves when they incorporate input from our team. A glossary that incorporates both knowledge of the client as well as knowledge of the translation process offers maximum value to all parties involved. Read more
Term consistency in document translations – how important is it?
Just as there is more than one way of saying something in English, there is more than one way of saying something in other languages. The meanings are the same, but the style, character length and other features may vary. Sometimes, when it comes to corporate branding or general client preferences, there is a need to standardize terms used in foreign languages. The most common example is the need to have consistency between product manual terms and marketing material. It might not be possible to standardize every word, but “key words” can certainly be taken into account in translations. Read more
