The Importance of Mechanical Quality Assurance in the Translation Process

The final quality of a translated document depends on many important factors. Two of these happen before the translation process starts:

Before any translation is performed, you first need to start with an error free source document. Errors and discrepancies in the source material will propagate throughout the target languages into which you need to translate.

Also, you have to select the best linguistic team for your document translation. Matching linguists who have specific experience with the types of products you produce or the specific area of the medical industry into which you sell will help to ensure the highest quality for your translation projects.

One factor that affects the final quality of a translated document that often gets overlooked is Mechanical Quality Assurance (Mechanical QA). The Mechanical QA step is the final step of the process which entails checking the translated text after all formatting and linguistic proofreading is finished. The intent of this stage of the process is to verify that the translated document follows the client’s specifications and matches the elements of the source document.

The Mechanical QA does not have to be done by the target language linguists; however, you certainly need to select a qualified QA vendor who is very detail oriented.

Some of the key items of the Mechanical QA process are as follows:

• Does the translated document have the same number of paragraphs as the source document?
• Are all the product names spelled correctly and do they match the source document?
• Are all the numbers within the translated document correct?
• Do the numbers within the translated document match the source document?
• Do all of the trademark, copyright and registered marks within the translated document match the source document?
• In a multilingual file, are items, such as measurements, consistent across all of the languages?

One thing to remember when performing the Mechanical QA step is to be sure to allow extra time for the linguists to answers questions plus the implementation of the changes, if necessary.