Diving into Technical Language Illustrations

Diving into Technical Language
Illustrations

Introduction

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?

CPG Documents LLC

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.

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