Since I originally trained as both a translator and proofreader in a company that was committed to high quality standards in the texts it delivered to clients, quality control has always been an important theme for me in my translation work. Every translated text was checked by another translator and we applied the same exacting rules we used for proofreading to our own texts.
One of the more anxiety-inducing aspects of being a freelancer is that you are largely responsible for your own quality control. There is a good chance that the texts you translate won't be proofread or even checked by a native speaker, meaning that it's important to deliver texts your clients can trust. Furthermore, direct input from other translators tends to be quite rare and so it can be more challenging to maintain a clear sense of the quality of your own work relative to industry norms.
In this post, I want to describe some of my own quality control processes and address some potential factors that can impair translation quality.
One of the more anxiety-inducing aspects of being a freelancer is that you are largely responsible for your own quality control. There is a good chance that the texts you translate won't be proofread or even checked by a native speaker, meaning that it's important to deliver texts your clients can trust. Furthermore, direct input from other translators tends to be quite rare and so it can be more challenging to maintain a clear sense of the quality of your own work relative to industry norms.
In this post, I want to describe some of my own quality control processes and address some potential factors that can impair translation quality.