TABLE OF CONTENTS
Step 1: Choose Your Translation ServiceStep 2: Organise Your Materials
- Decide on the service needed
- Choose the right translation provider
Step 3: Define Your Needs
- Gather all documents needed
- Do a final quality review
- Prepare the final versions for submission
Step 4: Communicate
- Prepare your questions/instructions
- Pre-translation: Ask for a quotation
- Mid-translation: Be responsive
- Post-translation: Review, feed back, revise
Welcome to your comprehensive guide to placing a perfect translation order! This is the post for you if you’re about to get a translation service but are feeling a little clueless. It all boils down to just 4 big steps: choose your translation service, organise your materials, define how you want your documents to be done, and communicate with your translation provider before, during, and after the service.
*Best Practice Tip:
Have your document translated early, but only after it is finalised. Always reserve time for potential revision needed.
Step 1: Choose Your Translation Service
Before worrying about where to get the service and how much it costs, ensure you’re crystal clear about what you are working with and what you want to do. You are sometimes required to get the translation notarised, get a certification, or get an apostille that comes with it.
*Best Practice Tip:
If you need additional services, find a translation agency that provides them. Save yourself from the hassle of finding different service providers and paying for the service separately.
Ask yourself these questions: Do you need a certified translation? Do you need the translation copy to be sent directly to authorities such as the government departments, immigration bureaus, courts, schools, or colleges? Are you required to obtain any extra certification or seal for this translation copy? If your answer to any of the questions above is yes, your option will be limited to translation agencies.
If that isn’t your case, are you required to get translations from translators with certain credentials or qualifications? That widens your options to translation agencies and certified freelance translators.
But if you do not need any of those, you are free to choose to get your translation from either a translation agency, a certified freelance translator, or a regular freelance translator. It depends on your budget. This works for you if you, for example, are only trying to get your marketing copy translated or website localised.
Quick Decision Tree:
Need any extra certification or seal? -> Translation agency
Need a translator with certain qualifications? -> Translation agency / Certified freelance translator
Need a translator? -> Translation agency / Certified freelance translator / Regular freelance translator
Step 2: Organise your materials
After finding the translation provider that matches all your requirements above, we have come to a decisive step to prepare our materials.
*Best Practice Tip:
If you have translated similar content before and wish to stay consistent with the translation, send the translated files to your translation provider.
2.1 Gather All Documents Needed
Reference materials - If you are requesting marketing content translation for your business or company, it is ideal to prepare a sample of the desired final results, guidelines, glossary, and previously translated documents. That would help the translation stay consistent with your previous translations in terms of vocabulary, voice, tone, style, formatting, and more.
2.2 Do a final quality review
Accuracy - If you’re able to edit the document, it is always a good idea to check the grammar, spelling, and formatting to ensure the best translation results. Some translation agencies have a policy to translate every mistake as it is to reflect the source text faithfully and ensure translation integrity. Free Grammarly and the Spelling & Grammar Checker feature in Microsoft Word would be sufficient to eliminate the basic errors.
Image clarity - Ensure the clarity or resolution of images. If the original document is a physical copy and you need to submit it as an e-copy, scan your document using a trustworthy scanning app instead of taking photos. You don’t want to take the risk for your translation results to have blurry, dark, or incomplete images after spending the bucks on it.
Text readability - Remember that readability is key. You wouldn’t want to fit 8 full-range screenshots in a single Word page. That would get you a translation with font size as small as 4 pt, which would be painful for anyone to read.
Completeness and finality - Make sure you are submitting all of the documents in their final version. This can save you from extra charges for asking for amendments after translation is in progress. Additional costs may be incurred for any additional editing or amendments to the original text.
2.3 Prepare the Final Versions for Submission
File format - If the original document is already an e-copy, it is recommended to submit an editable version and a PDF version. This is so the translator can work on the file immediately, and they will know how the file originally looked. But if you only have a PDF file and it turns into a mess when you convert it into a Word file, it is fine to submit it without the editable file.
File naming format - If you’re sending your document online, renaming the file logically helps the translator who has to work with many files every day. For example, “John Doe’s Driving License” makes more sense for a file name than “File” or some random autogenerated ID file name such as “DHU1KL5J8PNL2B0M3VLFDU”.
Checklist for Document(s) to be translated:
- Have I checked the grammar, spelling, and formatting?
- Is this the complete and final version?
- Is the image clear?
- Is the text readable?
- Have I included the editable file?
- Have I renamed the file logically?
Checklist for Document(s) for reference:
- Do I have a sample of the desired final results?
- Do I have guidelines?
- Do I have a glossary?
- Do I have any previously translated files that would be helpful?
Step 3: Define Your Needs
Whether this will be a walk-in consultation or online inquiry, preparing your message to the translation provider is a quintessential step.
*Best Practice Tip:
Communicate as if this is your only chance to reach your translation provider.
Provide all information at a go. You don’t want your translation provider to miss any instructions or information that is important to you. If you save them the trouble of double-checking details with you, you are giving them more time to invest in delivering a better quality for your order.
List out:
What - What do you want to translate?
- What is the language pair (which language should be translated into which language)
- What document needs to be translated? Are there any reference files?
- Do you need additional services?
- Do you need all of the pages or just some of them? Should graphics be translated?
When - When would you need it?
- When is your preferred delivery date?
Who - Who is this for?
- Who is your target audience (nationality, occupation, interest)?
How - How do you want it done and delivered to you?
- What is the quality level you expect?
- What is your preferred tone or formatting?
- Do you want the e-copy or the physical copy? Where do you want it to be sent to you?
Ask questions:
Free revision
- How many free revisions are available?
- When will the free revision expire?
Quotation
- How much is your per-page and per-word rate?
- How much will my translation order cost me?
Checklist:
What
- Which & how many documents need to be translated
- Which & how many documents are reference files
- Additional service (certification, seal, specialised translator, etc.)
How
- Quality
- Language pair (from which language to which language)
- Final format desired
- Final format of the translation
- Final length
- Preferred font, layout
Who
- Target audience
When
- Delivery date
- Printed & Delivered to home / or e-copy (& format)
- Ask: Free revision - number of times, effective time
Checklist:
- Have I listed out all of my requirements?
- Is my message clear, grammar and spelling error-free?
- Is my message contradictory or ambiguous?
STEP 4: COMMUNICATE
4.1 Pre-Translation: Ask for a Quotation
A lot of information might be required from you. Even when it is not mandatory, it is recommended to provide the information to your translation provider, especially when the information is relevant to your translation order. Always frame it in short paragraphs or bullet points so they don’t miss anything.
*Best Practice Tip:
Request a quote for your specific project. Every order price differs based on multiple factors, including speed, quality required, complexity of the document, the field, and the language pair.
Information that translation agencies might request from you:
(1) Personal information:
- Full name
- Email (that you check regularly) + Phone number (if you would pick up an unknown dialler’s call)
- Company name + Job title (if this is for your company or business)
(2) Materials:
- Document
Reference file (optional)
(3) Language pair:
- Source language (specify regional variation) + Target language (specify regional variation)
(4) Service needed:
- Primary type of services (translation, interpreting, subtitling, dubbing, transcription, proofreading, polishing, editing, copywriting, localisation, etc.)
- Additional services (certification, notarisation, apostille, etc.)
(5) Delivery:
- Quality level
- Delivery date/Speed
- Printed/Not printed
(6) Message:
- Special instructions or requirements
(7) Quotation:
- Per word vs. Per page - A page can contain a varying number of words depending on the language
Information that freelance translators might request from you:
It differs from person to person, but some freelance translators have a fixed per-word rate or per-page rate. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended to at least include these:
(1) Contact information:
- Email (that you check regularly) / Phone number (if you would pick up an unknown dialler’s call) / Social media/Platform ID (where you contact them)
(2) Materials:
- Document
- Reference file (optional)
(3) Language pair:
- Source language (specify regional variation) + Target language (specify regional variation)
(4) Service needed:
- Translation, interpreting, subtitling, dubbing, transcription, proofreading, polishing, editing, copywriting, localisation, etc.
(5) Delivery:
- Delivery date/Speed
(6) Message:
- Special instructions or requirements
(7) Quotation:
- Per word vs. Per page - A page can contain a varying number of words depending on the language
Decision Checklist to decide if I want this translation provider
I can choose the translation provider if they are able to match my:
- requirement for additional service needed / qualifications of translator (optional)
- special instructions
- budget
- timeline
- required quality
4.2 Mid-Translation: Be responsive
Expect contact from your translation provider. Technical issues are more common than you thought. Sometimes, things could go wrong with the documents in the process of transmission. They might look just fine on your end, but completely a mess on your translation provider’s end for various reasons.
*Best Practice Tip:
Check your email inbox/social media account/phone every few hours. Be ready to respond to the inquiries to smooth the translation process.
Some documents might need access permission. Your translation provider might also need to reach you during the production of the translation because the translator has doubts regarding your document(s) or requirements. But if you follow our guide thoroughly, you have already saved yourself from the need to carry out this back-and-forth communication!
4.3 Post-Translation: Review, feed back & revise
If you ever catch any mistakes in the translation copy you receive, or have any doubt about why things are done the way it has been done, this is the time to ask the question or to request the revision that was promised to you.
*Best Practice Tip:
Free revision expires. Check early if your translation copy is up to your standard.
Just like when we shop online, we check if the product we receive is in good shape. You can also leave your translation provider feedback, so they know what you like or dislike about their service.
TAKEAWAY
To have a great translation service experience, it’s essential to define what you want, communicate your requirements to your translation provider, and clarify all your doubts early on, so you and your translation provider are on the same page. The key is to bridge the expectation gap. Here is a downloadable checklist to make sure you're well prepared to place a translation order. Now you’re good to go!
If you need a regular freelance translator, feel free to drop me an email in this form down below! I’ll get back to you within a day.
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