Translation, unfortunately, for many is an afterthought. Content is written for a magazine, advert, website or marketing campaign and then translated – the translation part being seen as something separate and disconnected to the original authoring.
Where content is being written and translation of the text into one or different languages is defintely going to happen – paying attention to how you write your content and making it translation-friendly can not only help produce better translations, but also save time, money and generally improve efficiencies.
If you are writing content for translation, here are some things to help you get it right from the start:
1. Write for your audience(s)
You have to write content specifically for the audience you have in mind. What is it that you want to achieve with your content? To inform? To inspire? What language will best achieve this goal? Consider education levels, language skills, cultural differences and the medium or channels you will be using to communicate with the audience. The language you use in a product manual is going to be very different from that of a marketing pamphlet.
2. Do you research
Prior to writing content make sure you create a style guide of sorts which will cover areas such as terminology used, grammatical structures, standardized measurements and the like. Creating consistency in your content helps translators deal with the text directly as opposed to having to start & stop to check on inconsistencies. Your layout, character count, SEO-keywords and images should also be addressed at this stage.
3. Keep it simple
The easiest way to avoid getting lost in translation is to keep things simple. Use simple English, with short sentence structures and vocabulary that does not have people reaching for the dictionary. Avoid jargon, jokes, abbreviations, metaphors and anything else that may not translate well into foreign languages.
4. Prep your translation company
Provide clear guidance to your translation company about your expectations and provide lots of context, especially at the start of any commercial relationship. Work with the translation company to ensure aligned understanding on how to deal with things like certain terms, keywords, tone, language, etc. The more you work with the translators, the more they can do for you.
In short, be clear about who you are writing content for and why. Keep it clean, clear and simple and then work with the translation agency to ensure the process meets the needs of the content.
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