How to order translation services
In recent years, translation services have evolved significantly. The integration of technology and human expertise has made translations faster and more affordable. In this blog post, we will provide an overview of the various translation services, describe their nature and characteristics, and offer suggestions on choosing the right translation service to ensure your satisfaction with the final result.
You will find answers to the following questions:
- What’s the difference between an edited and an unedited translation?
- What aspects does the translation editor review?
- When should you prefer an edited translation?
- When should you order a localised translation?
- What distinguishes a marketing text from other types of text?
- Which translation service is best for marketing texts?
- What is transcreation?
- Should you opt for transcreation or copywriting?
- When should you choose an edited machine translation?
- Which texts can be machine translated?
- Which translation service offers the highest quality?
- How do you choose the right translation agency?
What is translation?
In written translation, the meaning of the source text is conveyed in another language, taking into account the original text’s style and intended use. Translation services can be categorised in several ways. Firstly, they can be classified based on the field of the text to be translated, such as technical translation, legal translation, marketing translation, business translation, medical translation and scientific translation. Secondly, translation services can be classified based on the type of service provided, such as edited translation, localised translation, transcreation, and machine translation.
What’s the difference between an edited and an unedited translation?
An edited translation is more accurate, fluent and refined compared to an unedited translation. The translator’s goal is to convey the content of the text as accurately as possible in another language. The editor reviews the translator’s work and makes necessary corrections to ensure both terminological and linguistic accuracy.
What aspects does the translation editor review?
The translation editor reviews the terminology, style, and fluency of the text; checks the sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, and formatting; looks out for typos; ensures that the text is understandable to the reader; checks that the translation is visually consistent with the original text; verifies the appropriateness of abbreviations, acronyms, capitalisation, and tenses. For web texts, the editor also ensures the functionality of links.
When should you prefer an edited translation?
Transly Translation Agency’s translation services comply with the quality requirements of the international standard ISO 17100:2015, which means that our translation services generally include editing.
Opt for an edited translation when working with critical texts, such as:
- a user manual;
- a contract or an official document;
- a medical text;
- a press release or a text to be published in press;
- a marketing text, such as the text of a website.
When translating marketing texts, it is advisable to opt for an edited and localised translation or transcreation.
When should you order a localised translation?
Localisation involves adapting the text to the target market. The target market is the region where the translation will be used. In addition to translation, localisation involves adapting the text to the linguistic, cultural and other practices of the target market. Localisation is necessary if the source text contains elements that have different meanings in the cultural context of the target market. These may include:
- formatting of numbers, dates and times;
- currency units;
- units of measurement and size;
- idioms and metaphors;
- examples that people from other cultures might misunderstand;
- content related to legalities and other standards that differ from those of the target market.
What distinguishes a marketing text from other types of text?
Marketing and sales texts are fundamentally different from all other types of texts. For instance, contracts, user manuals, technical specifications, official documents, pharmaceutical leaflets, meeting reports, or any other professional texts are generally read with a specific purpose and need in mind, regardless of whether the text is engaging or not.
In contrast, marketing texts must captivate, intrigue, and motivate the reader from the very first glance. They should inspire the reader to engage and lead them through a compelling, brand-focused journey, ultimately prompting actions such as clicking a button, making a purchase, staying on the website or seeking additional information.
Which translation service is best for marketing texts?
Occasionally, clients approach us after having ordered the translation of a marketing text from a translation agency or a freelance translator but are not satisfied with the service. They often describe the translation as clumsy, unnatural, awkward or like something generated by Google Translate. When we review these translations, we usually find that, although technically accurate, they are overly literal. This creates a significant gap between the client’s expectations and the final product. The translator has translated the text word-for-word, whereas transcreation would have provided a more effective and engaging result.
What is transcreation?
Transcreation is the most suitable service for translating strategic sales and marketing materials. With transcreation, the translator creates a new text inspired by the source material, carefully considering the text’s purpose, your business strategy, and brand values. By working with the source text and company materials, the translator will craft a new text that aligns with your strategic business objectives in the foreign market far more effectively than a straightforward translation. This ensures all essential facts, sales promises, and messages are accurately conveyed.
In most cases, the target text in transcreation does not conform to the wording of the source text. Often, the resulting text has a different style, rhythm, or vocabulary. Sentence fragments or entire sentences may be rewritten, condensed, rearranged, or omitted. The aim is to create a marketing text in the foreign language that resonates with the target audience and prompts them to take the desired action.
Should you opt for transcreation or copywriting?
Instead of transcreation, you can hire a copywriter from the target market to create an entirely new text tailored for the foreign market. Transcreation is the best choice when it is crucial to maintain the essence of the source text without deviating significantly from it. In transcreation, the translator extracts the key nuances and messages from the source text and crafts a new, comprehensive text tailored to the target market. Read more about copywriting.
When should you choose an edited machine translation?
Machine translation is often used for translation projects that are large in volume, but where tight deadlines or limited budgets do not allow for traditional translation services. Machine translation is typically suited for texts with simple wording and systematically structured sentences. Machine translation works best for language pairs with abundant translation data (e.g., English-French) or similar languages (e.g., Spanish-Portuguese).
When an experienced editor prepares the source text for machine translation and reviews the machine-translated text afterward, the outcome is a clear and accurate translation that is both quick and cost-effective.
Which texts can be machine translated?
Machine translation is well-suited for the following types of text:
- Technical texts
Machine translation can be a very effective choice for translating technical texts. We prepare the source text for machine translation, create a terminology base, and post-edit the translated text.
- E-commerce product descriptions
Edited machine translation is suitable for translating product names and descriptions, ingredient lists, e-commerce labels, categories, and other related content. This is particularly helpful when the source text is generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
- Economic texts
In the field of economics, machine translation can be advantageous for translating various documents such as invoices, balance sheets, statements and charts of accounts, and similar materials. This type of machine translation is edited by an experienced translator of economic texts.
- Legal texts
Edited machine translation is appropriate for large-volume contracts where the primary goal is to grasp the contract’s meaning. These machine translations are reviewed by post-editors with specialised legal training.
- IT and software translation
Machine translation is suitable for software localisation tasks in case the text comprises numerous individual words and phrases. These translations are reviewed by experienced IT post-editors.
Transly Translation Agency’s machine translation post-editing service adheres to the ISO 18587:2017 quality requirements.
Which translation service offers the highest quality?
The first step in obtaining a high-quality translation is selecting the right service. Translation services should be chosen based on the text type and its purpose. For some texts, a traditional edited translation delivers excellent results. However, for strategic marketing texts, transcreation is generally the best choice, while for invoices and account statements, an edited machine translation often provides the optimal outcome. However, if you select machine translation for a marketing text or request a transcreation for translating a contract, it is quite likely that the translation will not meet your expectations.
How do you choose the right translation agency?
When choosing a translation agency and comparing quotes, be sure to clarify which translation service the quote covers. Determine whether the price of translation service refers to a text translated by a professional translator or if it is a machine translation. Then decide whether the offered service is suitable for the type of text that needs to be translated.
If you want to order an edited translation, choose an agency with ISO 17100:2015 quality certification. This ensures you receive a translation done by a professional translator and subsequently edited.
If you need machine translation services, choose an agency with ISO 18587:2017 certification. This demonstrates that the agency has the necessary expertise to prepare and post-edit a machine-translated text.
If you need to translate a marketing text to achieve your business goals in foreign markets and engage clients worldwide, choose an agency that offers transcreation.
Need help with choosing the right translation service? Contact us – we are happy to provide free advice!
