Diving into Technical Language Illustrations

Introduction to Technical Language Illustrations

Your company is looking to expand into a new global marketplace, and you’ll be responsible for developing and executing a plan to get the support material into the target language. If your plan goes well, the translated technical documentation will go a long way in keeping your new customers happy with your product and relieving strain on your new sales and service force. If your plan doesn’t go so well, you can only imagine… What steps can you take to make your part of this expansion successful?

1. Do research on established product terminology.
   

   Has someone within your company (perhaps Marketing or Engineering) already started setting some standards in the target language for your product? Is there an established competitor who has set the pace in your industry? Gather representative documents and set them aside in a reference file.

2. Gather a list of prospective peers.

   Talk to people who have been in your situation — business associates, leaders in your company’s other departments and divisions, friends. Do some legwork on the Internet.

3. Narrow down your options.

   Sort out the professional technical translators. All translators will claim to be proficient in the target language. A professional technical translator needs to be proficient in the subject matter, the source language, and the target language. Some translation companies may have a staff of translators with different languages and industry specialties. The best translators use computer-aided translation memory tools to make use of existing documents, build a translation memory and keep terminology consistent. They should be able to provide you with a translated document, formatted in the target language. Contact your prospects, and weed out those who can’t address these issues.

4. Send out for estimates.

   A good translation company will be happy to estimate your project. Ask them if they will also review something from your reference file and give you feedback. They should be interested in a sample to quote accurately, and in a similar style to your current literature.

5. Make some practical choices.
   

   The low bid is not necessarily a good choice, especially if they request that you send them a Microsoft Word file and propose to return the translation to you in Word, still requiring your staff to do formatting and proofing to match the source document. Formatting in the target language may not be a simple task and the added staff man-hours will negate your savings. Of course, the highest bids may be outside the reach of your budget. Choose wisely for your first project and be sure to send along reference material.

6. Evaluate your results.
   

   You can review the formatting. Ask your new sales and service force to evaluate the translation. If you have found a good professional technical translator that knows how to use computer-aided tools, the established translation memory for your product will make each project thereafter even more cost-efficient with a quicker turnaround and more consistency.

Chris Christie is the chief editor at CPG Documentation, LLC a technical documentation company in southeastern Wisconsin.