Quality is the key to satisfy the customer’s requirements. We translators also have been committed to improving the quality of the delivery files. How to make the results more desirable, I think the translation process is very important. Here are five ways I usually adopted to smooth the translation process.

First, keep the right attitude. Never pursue the speed at the expense of quality. Always keep in mind that, translate the source text as best as I can. Try my best ensure high quality translation the first time to reduce rework and set aside more time for later refinement of sentence structures.

Second, write down the confusing synonyms and difficult vocabulary, phrase and sentences. Such as “图像” and “图象”, the “象” is not a wrong word but a mismatch with “图” here, it may be caused by typing errors, besides, it cannot be identified by the spell-checking tools as this is not a spelling mistake.

The only way to avoid such mistake is to write down these words and be careful during translation. We also may encounter some words or phrases which are difficult to understand. In order not to influence the whole process negatively, we can write them down or mark them for later consideration.

Third, check the silly mistakes, such as typing errors, space errors, punctuation errors, numeric errors etc. These errors will greatly influence the overall quality of the translation and give customers the impression of carelessness and being not professional.

How to avoid such mistakes? We can use the convenient CAT tools to identify these small errors. Such as X-bench, it can identify numeric, space, inconsistency errors, etc.

Fourth, read the whole translated text without reading the source text after finishing the translation. A through reading without constraints of source text will allow you to deal with improper words and sentences, modify blunt expressions and pay attention to sentence connection, thus ensuring the expression more appropriate, fluent and natural, the translation will fit the expression habit of the target language better.

Fifth, ask others to read through your translated text. By doing this, you may be inspired and receive unexpected results. As you may not notice the stiff or unnatural expressions due to your own habits. Others can point out these inappropriate translations.

Their opinions and comments can help you to polish the translations, constantly perfecting the whole quality. Besides, you can learn others’ good expression directly and further make up the shortage.

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