Translation is not a commodity because there are many factors to consider beyond just price. Developing a clear set of specifications in collaboration with a translation provider is important to achieving the desired outcome. The key points are: 1. Select translation providers based on their language expertise and subject matter knowledge. 2. Agree on specifications like language, deadline, price, text type before starting the project. 3. Follow the agreed upon specifications at every step to avoid costly mistakes and ensure quality. Standards like the European EN 15038 and American ASTM F 2575 standards provide guidance on developing specifications and managing translation quality.

1. Translation
Buying a non-commodity
How translation standards
can help buyers & sellers

2. Translation: Standards for buying a non-commodity
To the What’s a commodity? Translation is
2 reader ● White granulated cane sugar not a commodity
You may already is a commodity. For all practical This is important, so we’ll say
be familiar with purposes, one package is identical it again: Translation is not
the contents of to another of the same weight. a commodity.
the pamphlet When you send someone to the If it were, it would be enough
Translation: Getting grocery store to pick up a bag of to say: “You need a translation?
It Right. If not, sugar, you typically don’t specify Go out and ask several translation
please take a few the brand, and the person will service providers how much they
minutes to read or simply buy the least expensive one. charge per word and choose the
re-read it. ● Blank CDs have become a lowest figure.” End of story.
[If you don’t have commodity. So long as they hold But it’s not like that. For
a printed version the amount of data you need and example, you’ll obviously
handy, you can have the right format for your need to specify which language
download it free of computer, you’ll probably purchase you want your text translated
charge from www. strictly on price. into (e.g. French or German
atanet.org] But recorded CDs are another or Japanese).
Getting it Right matter entirely. Suddenly there are And just as color and price
is packed with dozens of factors involved—the are not the only factors in buying
useful information genre, the artist, the song, and so a car, you’ll want to consider
for purchasers of on. Q: Would you buy a country other criteria here, too.
translation services, & western CD rather than a jazz For example:
but was never recording if you hate country music ■ The type of document
1
intended to be but the jazz CD was a few cents being translated.
exhaustive. more expensive? Not likely. Is your text a contract, a
This brochure, Likewise, a car is not a user manual, instructions
Buying a Non- commodity unless all you care for taking medicine, a sales
Commodity, is about is whether it has four wheels brochure, a set of Web pages
the next step for and passes safety inspection. Many or a financial report?
translation buyers car buyers look closely at such ■ The subject-matter expertise
2
and translation factors as fuel economy, needed by the person doing
service providers. horsepower, handling, number of the translation.
passenger seats, and styling. Someone who knows all about
medical technology may not be
up on accounting, sustainable
Music CDs are not a commodity. development or plasma fusion.
Cars usually aren’t either.
Nor are translations. ■ The intended readers.
3
Are you targeting teenage

3. Translation: Standards for buying a non-commodity
gamers, genetic researchers, patent It is the huge variety of
agents or simply anyone who possible specifications for a 3
might stumble upon your website? translation project that makes
■ The purpose of the translation.
4 translation—just like music
Sometimes all you want is to get recordings—a non-commodity.
(or give) the general idea of A single source text has dozens,
a document (“for information”); in hundreds, thousands of possible
other cases, a polished text is translations. Which one is right
essential (“for publication”). for you? Listing your priorities—
■ The regional variation of
5 drawing up specifications—will
the target language. help you get what you need.
Are your readers Mexicans
in Monterrey or Spaniards in A universal truth?
Seville? Both speak Spanish The sheer variety of translation
but it’s not the same Spanish. projects is daunting. So daunting,
in fact, that even experts
Taken together, these and sometimes wonder if there is any
other factors make up the single piece of advice that applies
specifications for your translation. to all translation projects.
Tlme, money and image...
Translation is a risky business, as Mead Johnson Nutritionals of Indiana found out a few
years back, when misleading Spanish instructions on bilingual labels forced it to recall 4.6
million cans of Nutramigen Baby Formula. Following the flawed directions could have
caused illness or even death, said company officials.
Feedback from sharp-eyed linguists has served Swedish housewares company Ikea well.
“Svalka” means “refreshing” in Swedish—a fine choice for a line of drinking glasses,
thought management. Unfortunately it means “landfill” in Russian. (The company’s Moscow
team axed the final “a” for glasses sold locally, retaining an exotic flavor while avoiding an
unfortunate association.)
A California manufacturer of medical equipment sold a device in France without a French
translation of the instructions for using it, wrongly assuming that all the operators would be
fluent in English. In France, French language documentation is required by law. Far worse:
patients died from radiation overdoses administered by poorly informed technicians.

4. Translation: Standards for buying a non-commodity
(“Always do X.” “Never do Y.”
4 “Do Z, and you’re home free.”) Examples
● A European lens manufacturer
How about this:
“In every translation project, printed the English version of
the buyer and the translation its annual report in full color
with a typographical error on
service provider (translator or
the front cover: “Optical
translation team) should agree in
Products Worlwide”. The
advance on a set of specifications
company and the translation
to be followed while carrying supplier each thought the other
out the project.” was proofreading. The covers
This statement is more were pulped and reprinted
powerful than it might appear. (at considerable cost).
It provides the basis for a ● An urgent one-page text
universal definition: on innovative rail transport
The quality of a translation was given to a specialized
is the degree to which it follows translator with a note
the agreed-upon specifications. specifying that it was for
Simple but true. railway engineers. But a
If you don’t identify what you reviewer thought it was for a
want up front—or do identify it general audience and dumbed
but those instructions don’t reach the translation down. Most
the person doing the work, or of her “corrections” had to be
aren’t understood by him or un-done (with the clock ticking
her—you are unlikely to get a and the meter running).
good translation. ● In 1917, 10,000 Canadian
Patching up a poor translation soldiers were killed or wounded
costs even more time and money, at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in
since it may also mean patching northern France. In April 2007,
the prime ministers of Canada
up your image and reputation if
and France honored their
you have inadvertently offended
bravery at a local memorial. But
(“I didn’t know X meant that in
journalists revealed that
Colombian Spanish!...”) or left historical panels nearby were
readers grappling with an shot through with grammar and
incomprehensible phrase. spelling errors; they had been
Ask any translation service translated by well-meaning,
provider, and you’ll get a raft of non-professional volunteers.
examples of lost time and budget (Red faces all around.)
due to crossed wires.

5. Translation: Standards for buying a non-commodity
Failed translation projects are as guarantee that someone can
different as frogs and falcons, but translate well between them. 5
they have one thing in common: Note, too, that expertise counts:
time, money and frustration could translators are not
have been saved if both sides had interchangeable.
agreed in advance who did what, ■ Come to an agreement on your
2
when and how. If they had drawn project specifications before
up a set of specifications. translation begins (CEN 3.4 and 4.4;
ASTM 4.3 and 8). The European
Standards to standard requires that a quality
the rescue management system be in place,
By now, you might be thinking: and the American standard
This specifications thing sounds provides a quality management
important but it also sounds like a system based on a standard list of
lot of work. How do I know I have questions (called “parameters”).
a full set of specifications? How Your project-specific answers are
can I get through the specifications your specifications.
phase as quickly as possible? ■ Follow the specifications at
3
This is where translation every step of the project.
standards come in. We will refer
to two standards here: the Don’t reinvent
European translation standard (CEN the wheel
EN 15038) and the American The European and American
translation standard (ASTM F 2575). standards let you draw on
Although they were developed hundreds of hours of input by
independently, they fit together experts distilling their knowledge
very well—much like building of best practices in translation. By
codes and blueprints when you are underscoring the many factors to
building a home. consider besides price, they are
There are three key points in also a reminder that translation is
each of these standards: anything but a commodity.
■ Select your human resources
1
with care (CEN 3.2; ASTM 6)— Q: Who comes up with
translators must of course know the specifications for the
both the source and target translation project?
languages, but (and this comes as A: Everyone involved: the
a surprise to many people) buyer and the translation provider.
knowing two languages does not The buyer starts by identifying

6. Translation: Standards for buying a non-commodity
the one starting point that Deadline ■ 3
6 everyone intuitively agrees is Price ■4
essential: What is the language of Subject area and type of text ■ 5
your text (the source language) Source language and regional
and what language or languages variation ■ 6
do you want your text translated Format (word processing file?
into (the target language)? XML?) ■ 7
The buyer then contacts one or Volume (how many words,
more potential sellers who work characters, etc.) ■
8
in the relevant language(s) about Target language and regional
taking on the project. variation ■ 9
At this point, many buyers just That makes nine.
toss the document to the seller For an even ten, we would add
and cross their fingers, hoping identification of the steps ■ to be
10
that the translation that comes followed during the production
back will meet their needs. Big phase, after analyzing the source
mistake! This is the magic text. These steps are essentially
moment, the time when the same in both the American
specifications should be worked and European standards.
out interactively between buyer Here are the most basic ones:
and seller. If you wait until translation, bilingual checking,
delivery to discover and monolingual checking.
you were not on the same An absolutely critical part of
wave-length, it will cost you this tenth specification is to
time, money, and energy to identify who is responsible for
make things right. each step of the production phase,
But enough about how and to define the specialized
important specifications are. know-how of each person (for
It’s time for another list. example, subject-matter
expertise). If any basic step is
Top Ten going to be skipped, that should
The bare-bones specifications be noted, and a reason given.
from which many others are (In the “optical products”
derived are the audience ■ and
1 example above, if the
purpose ■ of the translation.
2 specifications had indicated who
Besides these, the most was responsible for proofreading,
basic specifications are also the reports would not have had to
the best known: be reprinted.)

7. Translation: Standards for buying a non-commodity
Standards make
translation a manageable How to get 7
non-commodity. the standards
We’re convinced that standards The European standard
will help you get the translation To find out more about the
you need — or, if you are a European standard, see:
translation provider, help you http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/
deliver what your client wants aboutus/index.asp
and needs. To obtain a copy of the
We hope, too, that this brochure European standard, contact
has given you an idea of how the standards body in one of
to get started. the 27 European countries
As we’ve seen, translation is
that belong to CEN:
not a commodity, which means
http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/
that using price as your sole
members/members/index.asp
criterion in selecting a supplier
(search for EN 15038)
is a bad idea (maybe even a very
bad idea). The American standard
Standards will help you get a To find out more about the
grip on quality and get all American standard or
stakeholders — buyers, project to obtain a copy of it, see:
managers and individual http://www.astm.org
translators — speaking the same (search for F 2575)
language.
Delving deeper
If you’ve got this far, you are obviously thinking seriously about trying out a
specifications-based approach. So what comes next?
We suggest as the first option:
- use the “Top Ten” on page six for your next job
- try out the more detailed list of translation parameters found at www.ttt.org/specs
- buy the standards (you can implement them yourself or hire a language consultant
familiar with them to help you).

8. Translation
Buying a non-commodity
How translation standards
can help buyers & sellers
© Durban & Melby 2007 version 1.0