Glossary
This glossary has been compiled in cooperation with Dougan Naio Language Services.
Copy-editing: the work needed to improve the formatting, the style and the accuracy of a text. Copy-editing doesn’t involve changing the substance of a text.
Copywriting: writing material (print, web, blogs, tweets etc) to a client’s brief or instruction. Copywriters (and translators) need to take cultural and linguistic factors into account.
Editing: the preparation of a text for publication. It involves selecting, revising or adapting the material.
Localisation: adapting a document to the culture and business conventions of a foreign market.
Machine translation: translations produced by computer programmes without human intervention. It’s not suitable for complex or creative texts, texts that require background knowledge on the part of the translator or reader, or texts with any degree of subtlety.
Proofreading: the reading of a proof of a text to detect and correct production errors.
Quality of a translation: the degree to which the translated text complies with the required standards of accuracy, consistency, completeness, clarity, readability, register, formatting, deadlines, etc. High-quality translations should take both clients’ and readers’ needs into account.
Review: examining a translated text for its suitability for the agreed purpose and compliance with the conventions and needs of its intended target audience, market or readership. It also includes making any amendments necessary for this purpose.
Revision: the systematic comparison of the original (source) and translated (target) texts before delivery. The aim is to ensure that the target text is an accurate and consistent rendering of the original, that it meets the quality requirements and that any discrepancy between the source and target texts is eliminated. A translation check therefore includes making any amendments necessary for this purpose.
Translation check: see Revision.
Source text or original: the text in the source language to be translated into the target language, and revised, reviewed or amended as necessary.
Sworn translation: a translation of a legal document, with the same validity as the original. The translation must be complete; every part must conform to the original document and must be accompanied by a sworn statement.
Sworn translator: a translator approved and sworn in by the competent court and, in the Netherlands, on the Ministry of Justice quality register.
Target text or translated text: the result of the translation, review and/or amendment process in the target language.
Terminology: the relevant terms that describe the concepts specific to a given subject.
Translate or translation: rendering a text from the specified source language into the specified target language. Whenever we use the word “translation” to describe a “product”, we mean a revised and reviewed translation of a source text or original.
Web content: text, images, animation or multimedia (video or audio) content that is included in web sites.
Web-proofing: writing a text, typically for print, in such a way that it will adapt easily to the web. For example: eliminating footnotes; inserting section summaries; and using short sentences and paragraphs, headings and sub-headings, and bullet points instead of long lists.
Web-writing: writing (or adapting existing) content so that it’s suitable for the web and for the way users read web content. For example, web content will typically have shorter sentences and paragraphs, and more headings, than printed content.