Why style guide and terminology glossary are necessary for translation.

 

Occasionally, when viewing a translated website, small errors are noticeable. These are common errors when translating only text without reviewing the original website design before or during the translation process. Charts are displayed in the original text, menus and buttons are sometimes too long for the page layout, translated text is not related to the image displayed in the background, certain terms are used in untranslated text, etc. These are common translation mistakes found on websites.

Translators may not have been informed or asked about the purpose of the website, information about customers visiting the website, or the content. Basic errors could have been avoided if there were style guide or terminology glossary for a good translation. You can improve the quality of translations by providing various information about the purpose of your website, such as words that do not require translation, display standards for your target market, and abbreviations that require explanation.

For the need for a translation style guide and terminology glossary, you may think it’s too professional but for effective translation, they are valuable reference for translators. Combining a translation style guide with a glossary and reference material make good quality translations. Translations via style guides and terminology glossary can also improve the quality of the content, like the original document, increase target audience engagement, and reduce costs by reducing the process of fixing various errors.

Translation style guides and terminology glossary help improve the consistency of the content and convey the right message based on your company's brand. From a business perspective, it increases the speed and efficiency of business processes and reduces costs because there are fewer duplicated tasks or fewer revisions. Most importantly, by using the right language and optimizing localization, you can improve the quality and effectiveness of the message of what your business is trying to convey. From a translator's point of view, terminology, procedures, standardization, consistency, etc. can speed up work, and reviewers can save time because they only need to review the content.

What is included in the translation style guide? It's the standard for creating the business documents your business needs. A brief description and goals of the products and services offered by the brand, such as: 

● Purpose of the content of the translation – sales materials, press releases, websites, contract documents, etc. 

● Target market – target country’s industry, competitors, B2B / B2C, etc. 

● Target customers – institutional and individual investors, academia, consumers, and government offices 

● Design guide – logo usage, color, layout, etc.

The translation style guide and terminology glossary also need a guide to the standards in which the text and word are used. 

● Sentence Style (Long or Short Sentence) – Write descriptive or concise depending on the content 

● Prohibited words (words to avoid) – words not used by the 

● Abbreviations and names (words that do not require translation) – title, government agency, brand name, etc.  

● Currencies and Measures – Localized to standards used by local countries and target companies 

● Design Layout – any formatting rule, typographical rule, or web design

The translation guide may also include videos, images, photos, and uses of reference documents to be posted along with other text.

 Businesses requesting translation services may not realize the importance of these guidelines, but they need both style guide and terminology glossary which are important to provide consistent reference material and explanations. Professional translation companies like I’M Translation and ISiS Korea always update style guides and terminology glossary as we run into issues that are constantly being corrected while managing projects along with translation memory management.

In translation, the quality of translation and cost reduction are important issues, and the structure of the translation style guide is important. The point is that an efficient guide that contains only the necessary information along with the organization of the content should be used.

Need a translation? I’M Translation and ISIS Korea provides professional translation and interpretation services.

How might I’MTranslation and ISiS Korea aid translation?

At I’M Translation and ISiS Korea, we can connect you with a professional translators and interpreters. We have over 30+ languages available on our platform and we are flexible and available regardless of the language pair, topic, and time zone. Please visit us at www.imtranslation.com and www.isiskorea.com/eng to request a free translation and interpretation quote. Thank you!