Style guides make for better, more consistent and more effective translation. We can create a unique style guide for your target language and target market, or we can recommend an existing style guide that will best meet your needs.
It doesn’t matter if you are building a house or translating important documents, each project depends on having the right tools. When it comes to translation, those tools should include both a glossary and a style guide. We’ve talked about glossaries here on the blog before, but today I’d like to discuss the importance of style guides and how they improve the quality of translation.
What’s in a Style Guide?
A style guide is a set of written guidelines that establish clear expectations for your translation. Some of the most common elements include:
Target audience. Who will be reading the translation? Are they new moms in Sweden, marine biologists in Chile, hospital patients in Japan, 10-year-old boys in Quebec or factory owners in Brazil?
Tone. What kind of tone should the translation have? More formal or informal? Inspiring or instructional? With an active or passive voice?
Branding guidelines. How should your organization’s name, products and services be referenced in translation?
Localization. How should locale-specific formats be expressed? This includes dates, times, numbers, currencies, units of measure, mailing addresses and phone numbers.
Spelling. What are the correct spellings for words that may be frequently misspelled or debated? For example, is it email or e-mail?
Punctuation. What punctuation standards should your translation adhere to?
For example, should it use the Oxford comma or leave it out?
Reference or supplemental materials. This may include relevant examples, successful past translations and existing style guides, such as The Associated Press Stylebook for American English or Libro de estilo El País for Castilian Spanish.
The Advantages of a Translation Style Guide
Style guides offer clear benefits to everyone involved with a translation. Not only does a style guide improve translation quality and provide a better experience for the target audience, but a style guide saves organizations both time and money when they commission a translation.
Style guides ensure that translations are consistent and unified within the same document and across all of the translated documents, as well as appropriate for the target audience. As a result, translations are easier to understand and more effective with the target audience.
Laying out clear expectations, style guides make sure that everyone is on the same page. Translators, editors, reviewers and other team members know what is expected of them, which saves time and allows them to meet deadlines faster. This also avoids potentially expensive post-translation change requests.
With a style guide, translations should be completed the right way the first time.
Translation Done Right
For more than 20 years, Responsive Translation has been providing effective, accurate translation to clients in high-stakes industries like education, health care and law. As part of our ISO 9001 certification and our dedication to customer service and satisfaction, we ensure that all of our team members have the right tools to do the best work possible. We can create a unique style guide for your target language and target market, or we can recommend an existing style guide that will best meet your needs.
To learn more about services and how we can help your organization, please get in touch at 646-847-3309 or [email protected].
Image credit: Godisable Jacob