{"id":249,"date":"2016-01-29T11:27:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T05:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ulatus.com\/blog\/?p=249"},"modified":"2024-12-06T10:45:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T05:15:14","slug":"translation-roi-calculating-the-return-on-your-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ulatus.com\/translation-blog\/translation-roi-calculating-the-return-on-your-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation ROI: Calculating the Return on Your Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a number of reasons that people have their documents translated, and each translation requires a slightly different level of time and expertise. Time and expertise that you pay for. Take a moment to think about the reasons you are having your documents translated before you select a translation style and service.<\/p>\n

What Goes into a Translation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When it comes to translating a document, you need to consider many different skill sets and options. In a world where anyone can type words into Google translate and almost instantly receive a general translation into hundreds of different languages, we often lose sight of the specialized skills required to professionally translate documents.<\/p>\n

The first step in translation is determining the purpose of the document. It is almost impossible to choose the correct translation service without knowing the purpose of the translation and the target audience…unless you are not concerned with the accuracy of the translation<\/a> or the cost associated with perfection.<\/p>\n

If you are translating a children’s book with simple vocabulary and basic sentence structure, it is likely that a machine translation will be able to accurately translate your work into hundreds of language pairs. You would only need a light post-edit to ensure nothing embarrassing slipped through during the translation process.<\/p>\n

If that book is a technical manual for cardiologists, however, a simple machine translation<\/a> may not be your best choice. The computers may not have all of your field-specific language in the termbase, you may use technical phrases that need to be updated in the language memory prior to translation, or you may have co-authored the book with somebody from a country who, due to cultural honorifics, has very specific ways they need to be addressed by.<\/p>\n

Further, if your document is of the legal nature, there may be specific formatting, spacing, and language components that are essential to the acceptance of the documents.<\/p>\n

In short, you need to have an idea of just how accurate your document needs to be and what sort of service can get it to this level.<\/p>\n

A Look at Some Specifics<\/strong><\/h2>\n