Language Quality Assurance

Tailored Quality Assessment

Language Quality Assurance (LQA) entails the review of translated content to ensure it is error-free, on brand, fit for its intended purpose, and consistent across translations. The scope of such an assessment is flexible, ranging from a comprehensive quality review of 100% of the content, to spot checks of random samples. LQA can also include the review and maintenance of glossaries, translation memories (TMs), and style guides, to ensure that the linguistic assets are aligned with the specific needs of the organization and target audience.

Benefits of LQA

• Quality: Ensuring translations meet established quality standards.
• Consistency: Maintaining uniformity across all translated materials.
• Trend Identification: Recognizing areas of success and targets for improvement.
• Data-Driven Improvements: Systematically enhancing quality based on tangible metrics.

Comprehensive Error Detection

Our LQA process identifies and analyzes a wide range of potential issues, including:

• Misspellings, grammatical and syntactic errors
• Wrong terms, omissions, inconsistencies, inappropriate word structure or agreement, and other miscellaneous mistakes
• Incorrectly localized numbers, dates, currency, units of measurement, and other numeric formats
• Inaccuracies or inconsistencies with linguistic assets, such as a glossaries, translation memories, or style guides
• Translation that does not adhere to client guidelines or specifications
• Translated segments that are out of context
• Formatting errors
• Tone of voice that is inconsistent or inappropriate for the intended audience
• Translation that does not adhere to the source material

Analytic Quality Evaluation

Analytic Quality Evaluation in LQA has evolved from merely identifying defects to employing Multidimensional Quality Metrics for a nuanced, customizable error analysis. We minimize subjectivity by first understanding each client’s specific needs and then defining metrics tailored to the content type. For instance, while style may not be an important factor in legal texts, it’s crucial in marketing materials where tone consistency is paramount. Different metrics can be devised for varied content within the same organization, ensuring each piece aligns with business goals and facilitates in-depth root cause analysis.

Wholistic Evaluation

Wholistic Evaluation differs from the Analytic Quality Evaluation in that it does not analyze specific errors but assesses the overall effectiveness of content. A Wholistic Evaluation examines broad criteria such as translation accuracy, layout effectiveness, and style adherence, rating each on a one to five scale. High scores indicate minimal need for attention, while lower scores suggest the necessity for a detailed Analytic Quality Evaluation or even substantial revisions. This method efficiently determines the need for further review, streamlining the process to save time and resources.

Customizing LQA for Your Needs

Some organizations choose to apply LQA to a portion of translated content only. In such cases, there is no hard and fast rule defining the amount of material subject to LQA. New adopters might find it advantageous to assess a more substantial portion of their content initially, before gradually reducing this ratio. In making this determination, it’s important to consider how long spot checks have been performed, as well as the consistency of the results.

Ideal Content Types for LQA

LQA services are particularly beneficial for the following content types:

• Client-facing material
• Highly specialized content
• Text with a high TM leverage
• Content provided to translators in fragments or otherwise out of context

Reach Out for Expert LQA Services

Let’s discuss how our Language Quality Assurance services can elevate the quality of your translations. Contact us to explore a partnership tailored to your specific needs.