You're navigating translations with multiple experts. How do you guarantee terminology consistency?

One thing I've found helpful is creating a live, editable glossary on an online platform (such as Google Docs) and granting access to team members, allowing them to add key terms as they proceed with the project. One way to ensure consistency is using a clear color code for different terms. For example, you can used green for approved terms, yellow for terms that need be discussed and approved, and red for certain words and expressions that must be avoided (based on client's specific guidelines or to address certain sensitivities in the target market).

In my experience, creating a glossary is essential. It provides a common focus. However, any glossary is likely to be imperfect, so there should be an opportunity for timely discussion between the linguists involved and the client.

We maintain consistency with several methods, such as glossaries, TMs, TBs, and CAT tools, as well as assigning team leads, who track consistency issues and help resolve them in time. Also, we perform cleanups when necessary and provide team training.

📚 To ensure terminology consistency when navigating translations with multiple experts, develop a comprehensive glossary. This living document should include key terms, definitions, and approved translations in all relevant languages. Regularly update the glossary with new terms and revisions, ensuring it remains a reliable resource. Provide all translators with easy access, preferably through cloud-based tools for real-time updates. Offer training on using the glossary and encourage feedback to refine it. This approach keeps your translation team aligned and ensures high-quality, consistent translations.

Je suis confronté à cette problématique de l’éclairage automobile qui a un langage particulier (boîtier de phare, module Optique, courbe de derating) et de nombreux acronymes (HD, DLP, SRP, DAP, TI, DRL etc ..) Il est très important de maitrise le langage technique. Sans cela aucune crédibilité n’est possible dans l’écosystème éclairage auto. Dans nos articles Toutes les personnes maîtrisent le langage après des années d’expérience. C’est ce qui assure notre crédibilité.

(CAT) tools significantly enhance terminology consistency in translation projects by providing translators with access to unified glossaries and translation memories. These tools automatically suggest approved translations for terms based on previous translations stored in the memory, ensuring uniformity across documents. Those tools facilitate translation process, minimizes errors, and maintains coherence in terminology, ultimately improving the overall quality and efficiency of translations.

🔧 Translation Memory (TM) tools are essential for maintaining consistency in large projects. TMs store previously translated segments—sentences, paragraphs, or similar units—and suggest these translations when the same segments reappear. This ensures that identical phrases are translated consistently throughout the document. Regularly update and maintain your TM to enhance both consistency and efficiency. By leveraging TM tools, you streamline your translation process, reduce redundancy, and maintain high quality across your projects.

The use of Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) programs and maintaining multiple translation memories and glossaries is essential to producing consistent, high-quality documents. These databases should be relevant to the subject matter and the client. They should also be available to all translators working on a project to ensure terminology standardization and clarify client-specific requirements. Terminology standardization is essential when working on technical translations.

incorporating natural language processing (NLP) technologies can help in identifying and handling more complex linguistic nuances, further refining the quality and consistency of translations. This fusion of TM with AI presents an exciting opportunity to revolutionize the translation process and elevate the standards of linguistic accuracy and efficiency to new heights.

📅 Scheduling regular review sessions with your translation team is crucial for maintaining terminology consistency. These sessions allow you to discuss discrepancies, update the glossary, and ensure everyone understands the context and usage of specific terms. This collaborative approach not only preserves consistency but also enhances the overall quality of translations, as translators can learn from each other and resolve confusion in real-time. By fostering open communication and continual learning, you create a more cohesive and effective translation process.

Regular review sessions with your translation team are like fine-tuning a symphony. Just as musicians come together to harmonize their notes and perfect their performance, your team can unite to refine translations, update their linguistic repertoire, and ensure a seamless linguistic composition. Embracing this collective mindset not only fine-tunes consistency but also orchestrates a masterpiece of translation that resonates with precision and clarity.

Wording is crucial. For credibility first. Translation is key. That is why expertise is needed and has a strong value. Our company is gathering more than 25 expert in lighting field. That is why our credibility is strong in the community. Because we speak all the same language

To guarantee terminology consistency when navigating translations with multiple experts: Engage SMEs: Involve subject matter experts (SMEs) in the translation process, especially for specialized content like medical or legal documents. Validate Terminology: Ensure that SMEs validate the use of terminology, confirming accuracy and appropriateness for the field. Translate Complex Terms: Seek SME input for translating new or complex terms that may lack direct equivalents in the target language. Maintain Consistency: Use SMEs' feedback to maintain consistency across translations, ensuring high-quality and reliable results. We prioritize expert validation to achieve enhanced reliability of our multilingual projects.

In the world of translation, subject matter experts are the lighthouses guiding ships through the intricate waters of specialized content. Much like skilled navigators, these experts illuminate the path to linguistic precision, verifying the accuracy of terminology and aligning translations with the nuanced terrain of medical or legal jargon. In their capable hands, foreign concepts find familiar shores in the target language, ensuring a voyage of understanding that transcends linguistic boundaries.

🔍 For translating specialized content like medical or legal documents, involving subject matter experts (SMEs) is essential. SMEs can validate terminology usage, ensuring accuracy and appropriateness for the field. Their expertise is particularly valuable for translating new or complex terms without direct equivalents in the target language. By integrating SMEs into your translation process, you enhance the precision and reliability of your translations, providing confidence that your content meets professional standards and maintains its intended meaning.

Broaden your thinking of expertise to also include experience and consider end-users as subject matter experts. Including an end-user on your team can help keep you on the right track and consulting multiple end-users can help you land on terminology that resonates most. End-users that sit on multiple committees or are involved in associations can bring a broader understanding of other perspectives and may have insights on innovative strategies or trends in language/communication within the desired community. Consider whether the language you are using inspires or makes an end-user cringe, whether the language would be used as a search term, and or whether the language being used could be confused with something else or is too broad.

We have to evoluate with the technology. Always stay at the top of the expertise. For that we participate to biggest event in Europe, US, Asia. We sometimes create the wording like S-Matrix ou M-Matrix or ISD (interactive social display). With following our community you will follow the technological trend and be aware of the correct wording

📘 Encourage your translation team to pursue continuous learning and professional development. Staying updated on language trends, evolving terminology, and advances in translation technology ensures your translators maintain consistency. This can involve attending workshops, webinars, and participating in professional translation communities to share knowledge and best practices. By fostering a culture of learning, you equip your translators with the latest tools and insights, enhancing the overall quality and consistency of your translation projects.

Internal - Assign project leader/ chief editor per project and ensure real time feedback on any issues or questions. Cultivate a corporate culture that facilitate group discussion and adopt recommendations transparently and liberally. External - Mark all queries and issues noted and communicate with the client on a regular basis. Compile a customized list of glossaries and provide to the client at the end of the project for future perusal. This is a great value-adding and also win-win gesture.

I would like to add that using an accredited experienced translator, specialised in the subject matter, is a must .. also, when possible, involve your client to clarify any ambiguous or unusual term used specifically by his company/ industry, to ensure a good understanding, accuracy and consistency.

I've implemented a mix of the mentioned tools on Microsoft and Google based environments. The use a custom dictionaries in my word processor is used over a set of projects that share a topic. For multiple users, I would use a dictionary as well, but this one is based on a glossary everyone has access to via SharePoint, Active Directory or Google Drive. The glossary can be a live document where everyone can add terms, comment and the lead expert will select the final term to be used. In this way, my projects can keep running no need to wait for answers or conventions, the final form will be updated easily with marked words waiting for resolution at some point over the life of the document.