Any respectable service provision agency will not seek to simply exponentially increase production, they will also do everything in their power to ensure that the services they provide are of the highest quality, and objectively record this. In the translation industry, this desire is a real need since, in a sector with so many kinds of competition and proposals, it is essential to provide clients with a product that meets their needs and that is also of the quality underpinned by meticulous evaluation processes. Of course, a language service provider’s translation production chain already includes a number of tasks intended to check the accuracy of translated material (e.g. error search, format revision). In some blog articles, such as this one, this one and this other one, we have already explored some of the resources that language professionals can use to reduce the risk of errors before, during or after the translation, self-correction and revision stage. However, it has been common-practice for some time now to use quality control systems to record in writing the quality aspects that affect each specific project. This entails a series of advantages for statistical and improvement purposes. These are referred to as scorecards or “quality reports”, “evaluations”, or “results” depending on the preferred terminology.
Quality reports are essentially documents that provide an objective, overall assessment of a specific translation, taking into account a set of common parameters. Given that the aim is standardisation, these documents are usually provided as blank models or templates that the professional responsible for the evaluation must fill in with the corresponding information. This allows a translation agency to build a statistical quality record: it can find out the success of the linguistic tasks performed for a specific client, study the most common errors, monitor the development of teams, and analyse the progress of the company as a whole in terms of quality service provision. Clearly, these goals are highly attractive for the purpose of reinforcing corporate positioning in the market; but, what are the characteristics of these quality reports?
Most translation companies currently use the LISA method to perform translation quality control. This method was originally exclusively used in the software and hardware translation industry. It consisted of a mechanism to assign points depending on the severity of the error and a weighting (multipliers corresponding to these severity points). Currently, the use of this method is widespread throughout the industry and it now has a simpler quality control structure using only points. These points can be applied to two parameters: severity (the translation receives points each time a specific type of error is detected, which can be more or less serious) or criterion (translations start at 0 and they are assigned points depending on whether they meet a series of indicators). In any case, this method takes into account the number of words in the analysed project since 3 errors in a 300-word translation is more serious than in a 30,000-word translation. However, it seems that the “severity” model is much more widespread in practice. Below, we present the most interesting aspects of the analysis.
To begin with, any quality report must include identifying information. In other words, if we want a detailed record, the project name or number, language combination, field of specialty, word count, and if applicable, completion time, linguist and date must be included. However, the fundamental part of these documents is the breakdown of errors by type or severity.
That is, the errors can be minor, major or critical, depending on how they affect the translated material. Does the meaning change? Does it affect readability? Does it hinder comprehension? Is it easy for the reader to detect the error and correct it automatically? These are some of the many questions that agencies must ask themselves when delimiting the severity thresholds.
Furthermore, there are different types of errors. One of the most common is language (spelling errors, grammatical discrepancies, typos, etc.), but accuracy errors (omissions, additions, inconsistencies, mistranslations, ambiguous translations, etc.) are also prevalent. Although making these mistakes is understandable, they can negatively affect the quality of a translation and their subsequent use. In this regard, we recommend the translation of this article. In addition to these relevant categories, additional points may be considered depending on adherence to client instructions and glossaries, to the style (tone and register) of the translation and even the applicable regulations in each country. Each company usually designs its own quality report depending on its needs. Lastly, and as a support resource, they usually prepare a section schematically and clearly explaining how this resource works and how to fill it in. This allows the linguists to correctly complete it, taking into account the specific instructions of each company.
The result is an objective report detailing the quality of the translation and whether it receives a PASS or FAIL. Unfortunately, these methods do not reflect external factors that may affect quality, such as the stress levels of a translator, the limited time available to complete the task, the selection of a profile that does not meet the requirements of the assignment, etc. Nonetheless, it is a tool that is very useful for monitoring the development of a company with respect to its commitment to its clients.
Ref. de la imagen: https://blog.teeducate.com/2021/06/23/bad-grades-help-your-children-overcome-school-troubles/
