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.

How do LSPs maintain consistent writing style?

Assuming the LSP is using professionally trained translators, LSPs standardize writing style using a tool called a Translation Style Guide – or simply a style guide. If you read our article on glossaries, then you know that glossaries are meant to standardize terms. What if you can’t write out every word or phrase you want to standardize? What if you just want to explain the ideas behind the writing style? That’s exactly what a translation style guide does for translators.

What is a Translation Style Guide?

Most people know of style guides as documents that formally define style and formatting – they are meant for multiple authors to maintain uniformity across multiple documents. A translation style guide is the same, but different. Authors need to know what to write in order to be consistent, but translators can see the style and other information in the source files they translate.

So what more do translators need to know?

Whatever else is not explicitly in the source text but is nonetheless required information to be able to translate properly. One example is abbreviations. The source text may have an abbreviation in it. Should the author keep the abbreviation, translate the abbreviation, translate the abbreviation but keep the original source in parenthesis, keep the abbreviation in the source language but translate it in parenthesis? Other examples might be related to whether or not measurements should be converted to metric, currencies converted into local currencies, how to deal with place names, etc. Some of this stuff is extremely subjective, so if translators don’t get guidance, they go by their preference rather than yours. The style guide is your opportunity to control for this.

Here is a glimpse of a section of a style guide:

Conversions	Default and examples
Currency	Keep source currency in translation.
Dates, time	Localize as applicable, (mm/dd/yy to dd/mm/yy)
Measurement units	Localize all measures (English to metric, Fahrenheit to Celsius)

Translation style guides are typically doc files and tend to have several sections in them. The section above only covers what to do when faced with currencies, time and measurements. There can be any number of sections in a style guide, but you want to keep style guides brief in general. Here are the details for how to create a translation style guide.

How does a Translation Style Guide work?

First and foremost, a translation style guide is a document that accompanies the source files meant for translation. When the translator receives the source files, they will also receive the style guide and read it in order to understand how to go about translating the source files. There is no accompanying technology to help the translator. They are stuck reading the style guide, understanding it, memorizing whatever they can, and applying it, without the aid of any technology. This is because, almost by definition, the style guide contains information that cannot be perfectly defined by specific translated words. This means that the main role a translation style guide has is to give instructions to the translator. These instructions can be structured, like defining what to do when encountering different kinds of numbers, conversions, abbreviations, etc. or it can be unstructured, and be a message to the translator describing who the target audience is and voice, or personality, you were going for in the original authoring.

How important is a Translation Style Guide?

It depends, on how important is the articulation of the translation to you. It’s not always important. If accuracy is all you care about, then there is no need to bother with a style guide. If how that accuracy is conveyed matters, then a style guide is the tool that will get you what you need. For example, clients who need a document translated into English, for the purpose of simply understanding what a document says, don’t care about style guides – they just want to know what it says. On the other hand, Marketing will care a lot about whether or not a style guide is applied to translation projects.

If you’d like to learn more about how BURG Translations helps you ensure high-quality translations, contact us today.