How we work

Top quality translations in 70 languages

Discover our translation quality control process

TDR Translation Company is able to provide top quality translations because it follows documented procedures for the management of its translation and interpreting services to guarantee maximum control over every stage of the process, as well as a quality assurance system, used to verify that it is providing a correct, complete service.

There are two main phases in our translation system: planning and production.

Planning

All TDR Translation Company clients can count on continuous one-to-one assistance from a dedicated Project Manager who manages the project at every stage, from receipt of the document to final delivery, in compliance with our in-house procedures and contract terms. This direct interaction with the client helps the Project Manager learn all about the company and identify its real needs, sourcing and clarifying any specific technical terminology and verifying the product characteristics.

After carefully analysing the project requisites, the Project Manager, if necessary, pre-translates the documents and prepares them for translation and finally checks the availability of suitable translators. Technical pre-translation may include:

Preparing a document and/or segmenting the text for CAT (Computer Aided Translation)
Text format or font conversion
Document alignment for CAT
Creation and use of style sheets
Sourcing any fonts required
Collecting and preparing reference material to improve qualitative compliance with the project specifications

At this point, the Project Manager draws up a quote, including costs, times and technical specifications.

Production

Based on the information gathered during the planning stage, once written confirmation is received from the client, the Project Manager is ready to put the translation into production, from this point on following the various stages of development: supervision, client/translator interface, final revision and delivery.

During the translation stage, the assigned translator, in collaboration with the Project Manager, will draw up a list of recurring terms to be sent to the client for approval in order to create a complete glossary of terms.
Once the translation is finished, the revision and quality control process begins. This is carried out by a different translator with a view to guaranteeing consistency of terminology, lexical coherence and perfect compliance with the client’s requests.

Once the quality of the translation project has been confirmed, it is sent to the client.

QUALITY CONTROL

Checking
At the very least, our translators are required to revise their own translations before submission, checking for and correcting any semantic, grammatical and spelling issues, and omissions or other errors.
Revision
All our translations are revised by a third party competent in both the source and target languages.
The reviser examines the target language content, comparing it with the source language content to detect any errors and other issues, and verify its suitability.
Review
If the project specifications include a review, TDR Translation Company uses a skilled reviewer to assess whether the target language content is suitable for the purpose and domain initially specified by the client and make any corrections required.
Proofreading
If the project specifications include proofreading, TDR Translation Company meticulously checks that the text is correctly typeset before approving it for publication.

CRITERIA FOR ASSIGNING WORK

A project is assigned to an external or in-house translator based on a set of selection criteria defined by the Project Manager during the planning stage. To do so, the Project Manager makes a series of evaluations, supported by the work flow management system. The criteria are:

Target language
Sector-specific competences
Technical resources
Previous experience with the client in question, etc.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Selection criteria

TDR Translation Company selects its in-house staff and freelance translators and interpreters with maximum care and attention. We only use professional translators qualified within specific industry sectors. All our specialised translators translate and interpret exclusively into their native language: that's why we can offer quality chinese translations, quality spanish translations and in 70 other languages, from all over the world.

translation competence
linguistic and textual competence in the source and target languages
competence in research, information acquisition and processing
cultural competence
technical competence
domain competence

The above competences must have been acquired in one or more of the following ways:

for translators:

a recognised graduate qualification in translation from an institution of higher education
a recognised graduate qualification in any other field from an institution of higher education plus two years of full-time experience as a professional translator
five years of full-time experience as a professional translator

for interpreters:

a degree or diploma in translation or interpreting
at least five years of experience as a professional interpreter

The Project Managers who work in-house at TDR Translation Company are selected according to the same criteria. They know more than one foreign language and are specialised in at least one specific industry sector.