Why measure translation quality?
Everybody talks about quality: Oh, we deliver great quality! We don't sacrifice on quality. We're all about quality. The problem with these statements is that they're impossible to verify and thus are meaningless.
Some of that cannot be avoided; language is inherently subjective. What may be a perfect translation to one person may be incorrect for the next person.
The subjectivity comes into play when we use words like "perfect" or "wrong". How often have you been in situations where somebody tells you "this is a bad translation – it reads as if it was done by a machine"?
Usually, when you dig deeper, it comes down to a particular turn of phrase or a word that should have been used differently. So, now you are arguing about whether the text should use "car" or "automobile", or maybe the active voice or the passive voice. In the absence of clear guidelines, it is very difficult to resolve these kinds of arguments.
It is easy to see where these disagreements come from. Each of us is a product of our unique background. Inevitably, we evaluate the world around us in the context of our experiences and beliefs regarding culture, society, and language.
Translation, at its core, aims to achieve equivalence between the source and target texts, yet that equivalence is difficult to achieve.
WHAT IS QUALITY?
I know, I know - we all think that we can spot poor translations. But are we as adept at recognizing a good translation?
In order to answer "yes" with any kind of conviction, we need to overcome the subjectivity mentioned earlier and form a common understanding of what quality actually is.
ISO 8402 defined quality, in part, as "The characteristics of a product that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs".
Translation quality really is the fulfillment of the requirements that have been defined and agreed upon with the client.
Quality exists at every level of the clinical translation process:
- The quality of a price proposal is the prime criterion for a client to award a project.
- The quality of processes determine how well projects are executed and complex tasks managed.
- Etc.
QC ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH
Every once in a while, I hear people say "We don't need quality measurements – we already perform thorough quality-control steps".
In fact, most translation processes include multiple QC steps. The same is true for medical writing, printing, design work, and so on. So, why do we still have quality problems? And why is there no firm sense of how good the quality is?
The same is true for quality metrics. In and of themselves, they don't improve quality. However, when used as part of a quality-improvement system, they play an important role in:
- Increasing productivity
- Reducing costs
- Enhancing customer satisfaction
- Improving communications
- Increasing product safety
So, if you are tired of arguments about "car" vs. "automobile", track objective quality metrics!
Source Information: http://blog.fxtrans.com/
« Back to the list of articles