Translation Quality Audit
I did the following quality control work for corporate clients: Example In 2019, I audited the quality of translation in a project office of Cryogenmash (Russian company making equipment for production, transportation and storage of industrial gases) which included spot checking of translations from English into Russian and from Russia into English. Recommendations on improving productivity were also provided. Evaluation criteria:
1. Checking test translations done by other translators. The client received recommendations on selecting translators.
2. Quality audit of a working team of translators. This type of audit is described below.
When the audit is completed, the client receives a detailed report with an analysis of mistakes found in audited translations. An explanation and correct translation with substantiation (references to technical literature).
The report can be used not only for quality assessment but also for its improvement, i.e. improvement of the translators’ competence.
As the report is not just an “expert opinion” (“I did not like it”, “bad style”, etc.) but includes substantiation for each comment, this approach is more objective because the translator has an opportunity to argue their choice of words.
Of course, this type of audit will require a lot more effort on the auditor’s part but will provide better opportunity for quality improvement. On the other hand, audit scope does not have to be very large as the main purpose is to identify repetitive mistakes and provide recommendations to remedy them.
1. Faithfulness of translation (whether the meaning is rendered correctly and clearly).
2. Correctness of technical term translation.
3. Style, general literacy.
A few examples of comments can be found in this PDF file.
© D.V. Kazakov.