How to Get Better Translation Today

Responsive Translation’s Guide to the Terminology Glossary

If translation is important to your organization, then it’s important to get translation right. It’s the only way to ensure that translation produces real results for your stakeholders and your organization’s bottom line.

Yet, have you ever commissioned a translation that really missed the mark? Word choice (often undetected) is the number one problem in translation. Fixing it adds to expense and makes for missed deadlines.

The good news, however, is that it doesn’t have to be like that ever again. In this white paper, we will examine what a terminology glossary is, discuss some of the advantages it offers your organization and then detail one common process you can use to create your own terminology glossary.

First, What Is a Terminology Glossary?

A terminology glossary is a document or database of important words and phrases, their definitions and approved translations. It contains all of your organization’s preferences and expectations for your content.

A terminology glossary aids translators, editors and others during the translation process and quality assurance steps, ensuring that words and phrases are used correctly and in their proper context throughout the translation.

A terminology glossary should be the foundation of any translation project your organization undertakes. It sets the standard for a translation and removes the need for expensive post-translation change requests.

The Main Benefits of a Terminology Glossary for Your Organization

Before we delve into the details of creating a terminology glossary, let’s take a moment to review three of the benefits that a terminology glossary can bring to your organization.

1. Cost Savings

A terminology glossary can save your organization a not insignificant amount of money in the long run. Inconsistent and incorrect terminology are typically the culprits for rework and change requests. This can inadvertently balloon the cost for any translation project. But by using and maintaining a good terminology glossary, organizations can often save around 15% off their total translation costs. Needless to say, that’s a substantial budget savings that can be put to better use elsewhere!

2. Translations in Less Time

The world is speeding up; sometimes you’ll need a translation yesterday. Whether you decide to translate in-house or use a professional language services provider, how will the translation team know exactly what your organization needs from a translation?

Having a terminology glossary in place will quickly convey all of your expectations over word choice to the translators, editors and others on the team, eliminating confusion and cutting out the need for time-consuming consultations and constant requests for guidance. A terminology glossary allows the translation team to swiftly learn what you want and then provide it you.

3. Better Consistency, Better Results

Perhaps most importantly, a terminology glossary helps get your message across the way it was intended. A terminology glossary provides consistency and a unified voice within and across all of your organization’s translated documents for the target language. It aids your readers’ understanding and really boosts the results you enjoy from translating in the first place.

To be adequately informed and persuaded, your translation readers need easy access to your information. But if readers must pause to wonder what you’re talking about, then your document is failing.

As an example, consider the words “fans,” “followers,” “devotees” and “aficionados.” In some cases, these words are synonyms, but in other cases, there can be only one right choice. A terminology glossary easily solves the question of exactly which word to use. As a result, the translation will immediately get your message across.

Is your organization ready to start enjoying the benefits a terminology glossary can bring?

How to Create a Terminology Glossary

A terminology glossary doesn’t need to take very long to create; yet in terms of improved translation quality and cost efficiency, it can make a big difference in all of your organization’s subsequent translations.

You should plan on creating one terminology glossary per target language. Here’s how:

#1. Determine who will create the terminology glossary and be involved in the process. You have options.

Your organization can create a terminology glossary internally if you have the right foreign-language resources. Or you can have your language services provider create one for you. What we typically recommend, however, is that your organization create a terminology glossary in conjunction with your language services provider.

Whichever way you decide to go though, creating, adopting and maintaining a terminology glossary will instantly improve your translation projects from now on–for your organization and your stakeholders alike.

Tip! A terminology glossary can grow over time as your organization and its messages evolve. A good rule of thumb is to review and update it every six to twelve months to ensure that it remains relevant and useful to your organization.

#2. Compile any applicable reference materials available. This may include documents that will need to be translated in the future; your organization’s marketing collateral, product manuals, style guides, etc.; and any previous translations in the target language that met your organization’s expectations.

#3. Keep your organization’s target audience in mind. Your terminology glossary should also specify what language variant it is designed for. For example, “Spanish” isn’t specific enough. Will you need Spanish for Spain, Argentina, Latin America, etc.?

#4. Draft a list of source-language terms.

Every industry and every company are unique, and your terminology glossary will be too, but here are some items you should consider including in your draft list:

• What NOT to translate. Your organization may not want to translate certain words, such as the name of your company, the name of a product, registered trademarks, etc. Knowing this at the outset will save translators time, save you money and ensure that you get the translation your organization wants the first time around.
• Terms that are specific to your organization. Every organization has its own vocabulary. This may include words the organization invented, or words your organization adopted for specific contexts, to describe your products, your product’s features and even your customers themselves. Including these terms is key for translation consistency and better stakeholder engagement.
• Acronyms and abbreviations. There are many acronyms and abbreviations in use today but they may not be immediately understood by someone outside of your organization, or even your department. Spell out any acronyms and abbreviations your organization uses.

#5. Review the draft list of source language terms. Make sure everyone on your team is on the same page. Eliminate any terms that aren’t needed after all.

#6. Gain approval for the final list of source language terms.

#7. What are these terms all about? Research and define all of the source language terms on the list.

#8. It’s the foreign language’s turn to get involved now. Have the terms translated into the target language.

#9. Very thoroughly review the target language translations. You’ll be setting your organization’s expectations for translations to come.

#10. Gain your team’s approval.

#11. The terminology glossary is now ready to be distributed to interested parties and uploaded to your translation team’s translation tools.

Your organization is prepared to start enjoying all the advantages a terminology glossary can bring.

The Key to Quality Translation

Better translation is not created by accident. It takes know-how and a thorough approach to ensuring quality outcomes.

We hope that you have enjoyed this white paper and will soon be able to experience the benefits of having your own terminology glossary.

To discuss some of the different ways to get better quality, more cost-efficient translation, we invite you to contact Ken Clark at 646-847-3309 or [email protected].