A good brief sets the best translations apart

Most clients who order a translation simply submit the text that needs to be worked on. You may be wondering what other materials could be important, after all, a translation is all about one specific text, isn't it? However, a good brief from the client, with examples, can guarantee translation success!

A good translation depends on many factors

The main quality criterion for a successful translation is, of course, the talent of the translator. They must have perfect knowledge of the language requested by the client, in terms of grammar and spelling as well as style. For this, they need to have extensive education and a good feel for the language.

The second factor that determines the success of the text is the brief provided by the client. Imagine you were given the instruction to build a house, but with no further information regarding size, shape, materials, details or special requests. It would be hard to produce a result that fully satisfied the client and lived up to their expectations. The translation of a text is a similar situation – does the client want the translation to stick closely to the wording of the original (while of course being grammatically correct) or is it more important for the overall meaning to be conveyed? Will it form the basis for the creation of other texts, for example marketing materials? Where will the translated text be used?

In addition, it is useful for translators to be able to look over texts that have already been translated into the target language. Clients sometimes change to another translation agency because they are not satisfied with how their orders have been handled or the end results. They have been provided with "poor texts" that do not match their profile. In order for the translator to assess what the client views as "poor" and what they are really after, it is sensible to discuss this together before translation begins, using existing texts as examples.

It is also important that the terminology used is consistent – if a specialist term is translated differently in every text, the company that ordered the translations will lose authenticity and their reputation will suffer. What is more, there is a high risk that the client's own customers will no longer understand the texts correctly, which could be highly detrimental, especially when dealing with delicate topics. The client should therefore also brief the translator on various specialist terms.

Translatus: your translation partner for South-Eastern European languages

Do you have customers in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia or the Czech Republic? Our specially trained and experienced employees can translate your presentations, product catalogues, manuals, advertising materials, contracts, legal texts, etc. into the South-Eastern European languages.

All we need is a good brief!  

We guarantee that you will be satisfied with our service.