Practical guide for a large and urgent translation project

That big pile of documents that need translation arrived, and as usual, the deadline is urgent.

Assess the workload, preferably by doing a word count.
To check how many translators you will need, consider the daily productivity of 2000 words/translator, for proofreading consider 6000 words/reviewer.
Build your team according to your needs – especially, choose experts on the subject to be translated.
If the material is in electronic and editable format (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc), make an analysis using a translation memory tool, if you have access to one.
This type of analysis does not work correctly on documents converted from image to text without adjustments in desktop publishing (scanned PDF + OCR, for example).

If in this analysis the number of repeated segments is relevant, export the repetitions and start the translation for that exported material.

This will ensure consistency in the translation done by a team with several translators.

Create a glossary with the most relevant terms, translate these terms and validate with the client.
During this process some preferences can be set to be adopted by the entire team.
The better defined the glossary and customer preferences, the less headaches in the translation process.
Prepare spreadsheet to control files, word counts, translators/reviewers, due dates so you can follow the process.
Always add a buffer to your planning so that you can absorb unexpected delays or problems.
Upon receiving the files from the translation/review team, carry out a quality control with an appropriate tool (Verifika and XBench are examples).
This way you guarantee consistency in your deliveries to your customer.
If you don’t have the time to dedicate yourself or don’t feel comfortable managing a project of this nature, consider hiring a translation company.

2tr can help you in this process, talk to us, we’ll be happy to assist you.