How to Ensure Quality Assurance in Translation

Understanding translation quality assurance (TQA)

Investing in professional translation quality assurance is necessary for businesses operating in multilingual environments. Here are some things you should know

What is TQA?

Translation Quality Assurance (TQA) is a structured process that ensures translated content meets the highest standards of accuracy, cultural appropriateness, and industry compliance. It goes beyond simple proofreading by implementing multistage checks, from pre-translation planning to post-project evaluation. During the different stages, the translator or translation company will

• Verify grammar, syntax, and spelling errors.
• Ensure specialised terms are used uniformly.
• Adapt content to the target audience's cultural and regional expectations.
• Follow client-specific guidelines for tone and voice.
• Check formatting, numerical data, and placeholders in technical documents.

Unlike standard proofreading, which primarily focuses on grammar and spelling, TQA involves multiple steps to preserve the original text's meaning, tone, and purpose without distortion. Failing to implement a thorough translation quality assurance can have severe consequences, affecting businesses, legal matters, and even public safety. 

Why is TQA important?

Translation Quality Assurance (TQA) ensures that content is accurate, culturally appropriate, and aligned with brand messaging. Here's some reason why it's important 

• Accuracy: Engaging in a thorough translation quality check process ensures the original message is preserved with correct grammar, syntax, and terminology. This way, you receive and distribute accurate material, whether it's a birth certificate for immigration, a user manual translation, or a CV while applying for a job abroad.
• Fluency: TQA ensures the text reads naturally in the target language, without awkward phrasing or literal translations.
• Consistency: You can easily align translations with cultural or brand voice, terminology, and industry standards.
• Compliant: Different translations require maintaining a format or structure. TQA ensures you meet regulatory requirements in specialised fields like medical, legal, and technical translations.

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Key components of translation quality assurance

Key components of translation quality assurance (TQA) include;

Adherence to international standards

An essential component of translation quality is that it aligns with unique use case requirements. For example, if you translate a document for USCIS, it must maintain the original document's format and other elements like stamps.  Beyond adhering to those requirements, the quality assurance process must also follow global standards. 

Some of the notable industry standards include the ISO 17100 and SAE J2450. These international standards define best practices, establish quality benchmarks, and provide a framework for consistent, error-free translations. For example, the ISO 17100 requires:

• The translator must have a certificate of competence in translation awarded by an appropriate government body
• A second person must review the translation.
• Standardised workflows to ensure consistency and traceability in every project.

Pro Tip: Companies requiring ISO 17100-certified translations or SAE J2450 compliance can request certification proof from translation companies confirming adherence to quality standards. You can also use independent linguistic evaluators to ensure that translations meet the highest accuracy and compliance levels.

Qualified translators and subject-matter experts

A high-quality translation begins with highly skilled translators. While translation software and AI tools can assist, only human experts can accurately interpret complex terminology, industry-specific nuances, and cultural context.

Employing unqualified translators or relying solely on AI-driven translations can lead to expensive rework, legal risks, and brand damage. For example, if a translator translates the Spanish word "intoxicado" as "intoxicated" instead of "poisoned," it can delay critical treatment or lead to misdiagnosis. These mistakes can cause permanent damages for the patients and millions in lawsuit settlements for the hospital.

Translayte works with translators who are native language speakers and have extensive training and expertise in specialised fields, which reduces the risk of costly errors.

Automated vs. human QA processes

Translation Quality Assurance (TQA) relies on automated and human-driven processes to ensure accuracy, consistency, and cultural relevance. While AI-powered translation quality assurance tools like memoQ and Smartling can efficiently detect issues, their scope is limited. With a combination of AI and human expertise, you can achieve contextual accuracy and cultural adaptation.

Automated translation QA tools help translation companies streamline the quality control process by identifying technical inconsistencies in translations. Human linguistic quality assurance (LQA) ensures that translations go beyond technical accuracy and are clear, natural, and culturally relevant. 

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Translayte adopts a hybrid model, leveraging AI-powered tools to enhance operational processes plus human translators and reviewers to ensure quality delivery. This dual-layer process ensures that translations are:

• Efficiently pre-checked for errors
• Manually refined by experienced linguists
• Checked for brand consistency and cultural relevance before final delivery.

Proofreading, editing, and final review

A high-quality translation undergoes a rigorous multistage quality assurance process. Each stage plays a distinct role in refining the final output, ensuring clarity, consistency, and compliance with client expectations. This often involves proofreading, editing, revision, and the final QA check before delivery. Here's what happens in each stage 

• Proofreading: The translation is compared against the source text to correct grammar, syntax, and terminology mismatches.
• Editing & revision: A second linguist reviews sentence structure, readability, and flow, ensuring natural expression.
• Final QA check: The translation is evaluated for formatting, localisation accuracy, and compliance with style guides before delivery.

Comparison: proofreading vs. revision in QA

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Common challenges in translation quality assurance

Even with the best Translation Quality Assurance (TQA) frameworks, challenges such as subjectivity, inconsistency, and large-scale project management can impact the final output.

Subjectivity

One of the biggest challenges in translation quality assurance is subjectivity. Unlike technical translations, where accuracy can be quantified (e.g., software strings, legal contracts), marketing or literary translations require interpretation and creativity, leading to differences in translation styles.

To ensure objective evaluation, QA specialists can use standardised scoring systems and quality frameworks, such as the LISA QA Model, the SAE J2450 Standard, or Custom QA Scoring. Custom QA requires the translation company to develop internal rating systems to assess readability, clarity, and adherence to brand voice.

Maintaining consistency in large-scale translations

Consistency is critical for businesses managing global content in multiple languages. A minor inconsistency in brand messaging, product descriptions, or legal documents can lead to reputational damage. 

However, companies can ensure consistency with translation memory, that use approved transitions for similar phrases and templates to maintain structural accuracy. Additionally, implementing a multistep quality assurance process ensures the translation meets all requirements while maintaining accuracy. 

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Why choose Translayte for high-quality translations?

Translayte implements a multistep quality control process that includes human translators, proofreaders, linguists, and machine translation tools. Here's why you should choose us to get quality translations 

Industry-specialised translators and editors

Translation requires deep industry knowledge to accurately convey technical terminology, industry jargon, and legal requirements. Translayte ensures that every translation is handled by translators with subject matter expertise in fields such as legal, medical, technical, and marketing translations. This industry-specific knowledge ensures that translators avoid costly mistranslations, which can lead to lawsuits, compliance violations, or misinterpretations of critical information.

Advanced AI + human QA

Translayte implements a hybrid model that combines AI-powered quality assurance with human linguistic expertise. AI-driven tools are used for initial quality checks, detecting grammatical errors, formatting inconsistencies, and terminology mismatches before human reviewers refine the translation. This hybrid translation quality assurance approach allows you to benefit from faster turnaround times without sacrificing quality.

Multiple revision stages 

Translayte follows a multistage quality assurance process to refine, verify, and perfect translations before final delivery. Every project undergoes a systematic review cycle, which includes initial translation, bilingual proofreading, editing, and a final quality check.

Subjecting every translation to multiple levels of scrutiny helps us eliminate any possibility of errors, mistranslations, or inconsistencies. This also ensures that the translated document is compliant with industry standards and accepted by authorities.

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