Read Before You Send: 7 QA Habits Every Translator Should Adopt

Have you ever hit “send” moments before realizing that the perfect article you just submitted to a client was perhaps not meant to be titled “Eating for a Healthy Brian”? It’s never too late to double-check your work and start practicing other good pre-send-button habits.

Run through this list to ensure your next job reflects nothing less than your highest quality standards.

1. Did you follow instructions?

Review the original assignment and make sure you haven’t spent time answering a question that wasn’t asked. Clients sometimes have very specific expectations – and might withhold payment if they feel they aren’t met.

2. Did you look words up?

Whether in doubt about a specific word or just double-checking all the content-specific ones, doing thorough terminology research (and sometimes a glossary) is essential to a good translation. 

3. Did you run a spell check?

You can’t mistrust yourself enough when it comes to editing. Ideally, you should check your translation against the original sentence by painstaking sentence. While you’re at it, review your punctuation and syntax too. 

4. How does it sound?

Run an ear test on a hard copy of the translation to see if it reads well, sounds natural, and is consistent within itself and with any other work of the same project (if applicable).

5. Does the formatting make sense?

Structural editing makes your final product look professional and ready for use. Check that its layout is consistent with the original, that tables and charts have been adjusted appropriately, and that paragraphing and headers are styled appropriately. 

6. Do you have the right facts?

Make sure you’ve converted currencies, measurements, and temperatures correctly, and that all numbers and dates are both accurate and in their culturally appropriate format.

7. Did you miss the due date?

Hopefully you’ll never have to answer “yes” to this one! Always ensure you schedule and send your fully edited project on time. And make sure you get credit for being responsible: Request a confirmation of receipt from your client to avoid later confusion. 

Which step are you most prone to ignoring? Learning to implement every aspect of editing, no matter how laborious, will ensure that all your projects are up to your own Quality Assurance standards.