Quality in

Professional
Translation

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 BLOOMSBURY ADVANCES IN TRANSLATION
Series Editor: Jeremy Munday, Centre for Translation Studies, University
of Leeds, UK

Bloomsbury Advances in Translation publishes cutting-edge research in

the fields of translation studies. This field has grown in importance in
the modern, globalized world, with international translation between
languages a daily occurrence. Research into the practices, processes and
theory of translation is essential and this series aims to showcase the best
in international academic and professional output.

Other Titles in the Series:

Corpus-Based Translation Studies, Edited by Alet Kruger, Kim Wallach, and
Jeremy Munday
Global Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training, Edited by Séverine
Hubscher-Davidson and Michał Borodo
Music, Text and Translation, Edited by Helen Julia Minors
The Pragmatic Translator, Massimiliano Morini
Retranslation, Sharon Deane-Cox
Translating the Poetry of the Holocaust, Jean Boase-Beier
Translation, Adaptation and Transformation, Edited by Laurence Raw
Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context, Edited by
Nana Sato-Rossberg and Judy Wakabayashi
Translation as Cognitive Activity, Fabio Alves and Amparo Hurtado Albir
Translation, Humour and Literature: Translation and Humour Volume 1,
Edited by Delia Chiaro
Translation, Humour and the Media: Translation and Humour Volume 2,
Edited by Delia Chiaro

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 BLOOMSBURY ADVANCES IN TRANSLATION

Quality in
Professional
Translation
Assessment and Improvement

JOANNA DRUGAN

L ON DON • N E W DE L H I • N E W Y OR K • SY DN EY

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 Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square 175 Fifth Avenue

London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10010
UK USA

[Link]

First published 2013

© Joanna Drugan, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Joanna Drugan has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization

acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this
publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

EISBN: 978-1-4411-6210-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Drugan, Joanna.
Quality in Professional Translation : Assessment and Improvement / Joanna Drugan.
pages cm. – (Bloomsbury Advances in Translation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-7664-6 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4411-4954-1 (pbk.) –
ISBN (invalid) 978-1-4411-9451-0 (ebook (epub)) – ISBN (invalid) 978-1-4411-6210-6 (ebook
(pdf)) 1. Translating services. 2. Translating and interpreting. 3. Translating services–
Evaluation. 4. Translating and interpreting–Evaluation. I. Title.
P306.94.D78 2013
418’.02023–dc23
2012041378

Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India

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 CONTENTS

Series editor’s preface vi

Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
Glossary of acronyms ix

Introduction 1
1 Today’s translation profession 5
2 Translation quality: Importance and definitions 35

3 Tools, workflow and quality 81

4 Top-down translation quality models 125
5 Bottom-up translation quality models 159
6 Conclusion: Lessons from industry 183

Notes 193
Bibliography 201
Index 213

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 SERIES EDITOR’S
PREFACE

The aim of this new series is to provide an outlet for advanced research
in the broad interdisciplinary field of translation studies. Consisting of
monographs and edited themed collections of the latest works, it should be
of particular interest to academics and postgraduate students researching
in translation studies and related fields, and also to advanced students
studying translation and interpreting modules.
Translation studies has enjoyed huge international growth over recent
decades in tandem with the expansion in both the practice of translation
globally and in related academic programmes. The understanding of the
concept of translation itself has broadened to include not only interlingual
but also various forms of intralingual translation. Specialized branches or
sub-disciplines have developed for the study of interpretation, audiovisual
translation and sign language, among others. Translation studies has
also come to embrace a wide range of types of intercultural encounter
and transfer, interfacing with disciplines as varied as applied linguistics,
comparative literature, computational linguistics, creative writing, cultural
studies, gender studies, philosophy, postcolonial studies, sociology, etc.
Each provides a different and valid perspective on translation, and each has
its place in this series.
This is an exciting time for translation studies, and the new Advances in
Translation series promises to be an important new plank in the development
of the discipline. As General Editor, I look forward to overseeing the
publication of this important new work that will provide insights into all
aspects of the field.
Jeremy Munday
General Editor
University of Leeds, UK

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 PREFACE

Translation quality has long been the focus of academic and industry attention
but there are still no ‘generally accepted objective criteria for evaluating the
quality of translations’ (Williams, 2009: 3). Yet every day, translation quality
is evaluated. Clients expect quality guarantees. Agencies and organizations
require that translators work to agreed standards. Professional translators
have to demonstrate their work is superior to that of inexperienced bilinguals
or machine translation (MT). Editors and revisers must justify judgements.
By describing how translation quality is managed in the real world, this book
offers a new, practical way of considering the issue.
For a sector whose entire raison d’être is communication, there is
a surprising lack of awareness across the piece as to how other parts of
the industry operate. This is explained in part by its nature and scale.
Large, diverse and geographically dispersed, it encompasses the individual
freelance working from a spare bedroom and multinational bodies
employing thousands of specialists to work on translation and a host of
related activities. Research for this book thus involved visiting the full
range of language service providers (LSPs), from the smallest to the largest.
Interviewees invariably wanted to know how peers, rivals, suppliers and
clients were addressing the issues and challenges we discussed.
The fi rst aim of this book is to provide a broad account of approaches to
measuring and improving quality. Theorists’ and professional assumptions
about quality are identified and explained. Approaches to quality observed
during research visits are outlined in order to identify patterns and group
common methodologies together. Although the range of approaches is wide,
I argue that they belong to two underlying ways of thinking: top-down and
bottom-up. The second aim of the book is to examine these underlying
assumptions critically and consider how fitting they are, given significant
changes in the industry.
Who will benefit from this book? Translators will gain a broader
understanding of what employers expect (and reward). Translation
companies and organizations can learn how peers manage this sensitive
area. Clients will discover what quality levels they can expect and common
pitfalls they might avoid. Students and academics are given an insight into
how the profession manages quality.
Writing about translation quality is dangerous: typos and other mistakes
are inevitable, but doubly frustrating and embarrassing when discussing
quality in others’ work. Apologies in advance.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This overview of today’s translation industry involved the participation of

hundreds of translators, localizers, revisers, editors, managers, unit heads,
tools developers, software engineers, terminologists, trainers, helpdesk and
agency staff. Thanks to all, particularly Emma Wagner and Tim Martin
of the European Commission, who arranged the fi rst fruitful research
placement. Translator communities and organizations provided concrete
examples and informed feedback, including members of the ITI, CIoL,
LinkedIn and Facebook groups and [Link]. The insider view supplied
by Aslib, Common Sense Advisory, LISA, Localization World and TAUS
helped in making sure the picture presented here was accurate and up-to-
date. For their backing and patience, sincere thanks to Colleen Coalter,
Gurdeep Mattu, Jeremy Munday and Laura Murray at Bloomsbury.
I am grateful to Leeds University alumni and students for stimulating
discussion and feedback. Generous colleagues took on extra responsibilities
to give me time to write, especially Terry Bradford, Svetlana Carsten,
Debbie Elliot, Serge Sharoff and Daming Wu. Most of all, Bob Clark, Andy
Rothwell and Mark Shuttleworth fi rst encouraged my interest in the field
and were superb role models with their boundless enthusiasm and inspired
workarounds, all the more important in the dark days before Unicode when
we carried our IBM Translation Manager fi les on floppy disks.

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 GLOSSARY OF
ACRONYMS

ARTRAQ Argumentation-Centred Translation Quality Approach

ATA American Translators Association
CAT Computer-Assisted Translation
CEN European Committee for Standardization
CIoL Chartered Institute of Linguists (United Kingdom)
CMS Content Management System
CPD Continuing Professional Development
CSA Common Sense Advisory
DGT European Commission Directorate-General for
Translation
EBMT Example-Based Machine Translation
FOSS Free and Open Source Software
FTP File Transfer Protocol
GIGO Garbage In, Garbage Out
HMT Hybrid Machine Translation
IATE Inter-Active Terminology for Europe
ICR In-Country Review
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ITI Institute of Translation and Interpreting
(United Kingdom)
L10n Localization
LISA Localization Industry Standards Association
LSP Language Service Provider
MLV Multiple Language Vendor
MMOs, MMOGs Massively Multiplayer Online Games
MOC Massive Online Collaboration
MT Machine Translation
NDA Non-Disclosure Agreements
OS Open Source
PM Project Manager, Project Management
QA Quality Assurance
QC Quality Control
QE Quality Evaluation
RBMT Rule-Based Machine Translation

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 x GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS

RFQ Request For Quotation

ROI Return On Investment
SaaS Software as a Service
SEO Search Engine Optimization
SICAL Système canadien d’appréciation de la qualité linguistique;
Canadian Language Quality Measurement System
SL Source Language
SLV Single Language Vendor
SMT Statistical Machine Translation
ST Source Text
TAPs Think-Aloud Protocols
TAUS Translation Automation User Society
TB TermBase
TBX TermBase eXchange format
TEP Translate-Edit-Proofread
TL Target Language
TM Translation Memory
TMS Terminology Management System
TMX Translation Memory eXchange format
TQA Translation Quality Assessment
TT Target Text
VLTM Wordfast’s Very Large Translation Memory
WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get
XLIFF XML Localization Interchange File Format

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 Introduction

Concern for quality has been evident as long as translation has taken place,
but the industry’s focus on quality has intensified recently. This introduction
considers why this is so and why there is little material on the professional
context, as distinct from academic theories. Research methods and chapter
content are outlined.
The context in which translations are produced has changed in significant
ways since the 1990s. First, demand for translations and the capacity of the
tools which help produce them have soared since the advent of the Internet
and globalization. These two developments are linked. Increasing translation
demand could not be met without electronic tools which have been created
or drastically refi ned recently. Nor would the tools have developed as they
did without the surge in demand caused by the increasing production
of information, and expectation that it be available in users’ languages
quickly and at low or no cost. These linked developments are changing the
industry immeasurably and have helped build an unprecedented awareness
of translation among new users who would previously have had little such
awareness – even themselves joining in crowdsourcing1 initiatives such as
the translation of Facebook. All this has meant increasing attention to
different levels of translation quality.
Another factor in the recent focus on quality is the general drive to
establish industry-wide standards. Like many other industries, translation is
increasingly bound by internationally agreed standards for service provision,
through bodies like the CEN (European Committee for Standardization)
and ISO (International Organization for Standardization). Establishing
objective quality criteria has traditionally been seen as contentious, if not
impossible, in translation studies; but in the real world, such criteria have
indeed been defi ned and are increasingly applied to LSPs’ work.
There is a sense across the industry that it is hard to know what is happening
elsewhere. There are good reasons for this beyond the pace of change alone.
LSPs can be wary of discussing problems and potential solutions because of
concerns about confidentiality, competition or client objections. They are
also focused on core activities of translating and winning new business so
have neither time nor resources to research beyond their immediate rivals.

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 2 QUALITY IN PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION

Large-scale providers like Lionbridge may know what direct competitors

are concentrating on, and individual translators network with one another,
but the big and the small often operate in mutual ignorance. Gouadec
has argued that the sector’s diversity makes it appropriate to refer to
‘translation professions’ (2007: xiv), concluding somewhat pessimistically
that ‘those who know the least about the profession are often the translators
themselves’ (ibid.).
There is a lack of information on real-world contexts in translation
studies, and hence in translator training. Various factors account for this
gap. Researchers have found gaining access to the industry challenging. 2
Funding bodies have been slow to support applied studies. Private sources
(e.g. Google) support research of direct benefit to the funder, but not surveys
of the entire industry. Most academics are not users of standard industry
technical tools, and are hence ill-equipped to study their use. Time presents
further challenges: industry pace of change is swift, so research findings
quickly lose relevance. Researchers cannot easily spend sustained periods
observing long-term, large-scale multilingual translation projects.
Such research has nonetheless long been recognized as necessary. Holmes’
1970s ‘map’ of the new discipline of translation studies3 identified the need
for descriptive translation studies, that is, the branch which ‘constantly
maintains the closest contact with the empirical phenomena under study’
(2000: 184). Holmes identifies three sub-fields for descriptive empirical
studies: ‘product-oriented’, ‘function-oriented’ and ‘process-oriented’ (ibid.:
184–5). His map has since been criticized and expanded,4 but its call for
studies of translation processes remains significant, particularly since those
processes are now vastly more complex, and no longer locked inside the
‘little black box’ of the translator’s ‘mind’ (ibid.: 185).
This book is based on such empirical research. It examines how quality
is managed by those commissioning, producing and reviewing translations
then describes and groups these approaches, rather than starting from
abstract theoretical models. It aims to be the ‘kind of study, with respect
to translation or anything, that goes out into the world to see what is
happening’ (Pym, 2010b: 1). Pym holds that this approach is ‘against an
alternative kind of study that sees the world through the authoritative
insights of others, mostly as recycled certitudes of theory’. This either/or
position can perhaps be mitigated: starting from empirical study of the
profession, insights from translation theorists can help interpret fi ndings,
then categorize and critique approaches observed ‘in the world’. Williams
and Chesterman further argue that ‘while technology has become an
integral part of the translation profession, there has been little, if any,
research into many aspects of the technology itself’ (2002: 14). They identify
significant gaps in research including workflows, the translation process and
‘mechanisms of quality control’ (ibid.: 15), all of which are taken up here.
They pinpoint appropriate research methods to explore these gaps which

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 INTRODUCTION 3

were indeed adopted, to whit ‘a combination of observation, interviews and

questionnaires’ (ibid.: 23–4). How this was done is outlined next.
Conclusions presented here are based first on hundreds of interviews and
questionnaires, completed during research visits to a representative range of
LSPs, clients and support services since 2004. All those involved in managing
or measuring translation quality in the industry were included: translators,
of course, but also CEOs, clients, developers of national standards for
translation quality, editors, end-users, heads of unit/section, project
managers (PMs), revisers, sales and marketing staff, software engineers,
terminologists, tools developers, trainers, webmasters and dedicated quality
managers employed by some of the larger LSPs. The bedrock of the industry
is the freelance translator. It was important to study a wide sample of these
individuals, often neglected in research. Moving up the supply chain, the
study includes over 100 agencies, companies and organizations offering
one or multiple language pairs (SLVs – single language vendors and MLVs –
multiple language vendors). In-house translators in the public and private
sectors also contributed, from companies with only a few members of staff
up to sizeable translation divisions and international organizations.
Research also entailed the use of work shadowing, that is ‘accompany[ing]
(a worker) in their daily activities for experience of or insight into a
job’ (Concise OED, 2009: 1320). This meant spending time observing
individuals performing a variety of roles, often returning at intervals at
different points in the workflow, particularly when they were concentrating
on tasks related to translation quality. Think-aloud protocols (TAPs) were
sometimes used to elucidate the reasons behind subjects’ decisions (e.g.
specific translation or revision choices), 5 along with prompting, questioning
and retrospective interviews. Where possible, I attended training courses
and inductions provided for new members of staff to learn how employers
expected them to translate, use tools and meet quality expectations.
It was important to examine practice in translation sectors with an
enhanced reputation for quality (fi nancial, legal, medical, pharmaceutical,
software and other technical domains). The research covered dozens of
language pairs and locales, again targeting those with a reputation for quality
(e.g. Nordic languages), and those facing special challenges for translation
quality (e.g. Chinese)6. Emerging providers of ‘community’ translation are
included, including pro bono, crowdsourced and voluntary translation.
Professionals have expressed concern regarding quality levels among such
providers, stressing their lack of training and experience.
One advantage of such a broad picture of the industry is that overall
patterns emerge. Notably, approaches fall into two broad philosophical
camps, described here as top-down and bottom-up. In summarizing the
benefits and drawbacks of translation quality models for each, I aim to
address an important issue identified by Chesterman and Wagner in
their discussion of the gap between theory and translation practice.
That is, theory usually only ‘describe[s] and explain[s] the practice; but

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 4 QUALITY IN PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION

practitioners seem also to look to the theory for guidance’ (2000: vii). It
is hoped that practitioners will fi nd a true reflection of their experience,
placed in the context of the broader industry, and critical evaluation of
different approaches.
The following outline of content is to help readers select the sections
of most interest or use. Chapter One, Today’s translation profession,
summarizes industry changes since the 1990s, focusing on their relevance
for quality. Chapter Two, Translation quality: Importance and definitions,
contrasts academic approaches to quality with professional ones, arguing
that more applied models are needed for industry purposes. It examines
industry assumptions about quality and outlines why these issues are
significant. Chapter Three, Tools, workflow and quality, evaluates
the impact of electronic tools and new approaches to workflow on how
translations are produced, and on quality. Real-world translation quality
models are then described and critically assessed in two groups: traditional
Top-down models (Chapter Four) and established and emerging Bottom-up
models (Chapter Five). The conclusion presents some Lessons from industry
and identifies further challenges facing the profession, implications for
translator training, quality-related ethical issues and suggestions for future
research. Throughout, real-world examples illustrate particular claims or
scenarios. These are anonymized to respect confidentiality agreements
but general information regarding size, sector and so on is included where
this does not identify the company or individual concerned, so readers can
assess how relevant a case is for their own situation.

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 CHAPTER ONE

Today’s translation profession

1.0 Introduction: A revolution in

communication
In 1991, only 2 per cent of those living in developing countries had
any telephone access at all, fi xed or mobile. A decade later, 31 per cent
of the same population had such access.1 By 2007, the International
Telecommunication Union estimated that 45 per cent of people in developing
countries had a mobile. 2 The story of phone access encapsulates how the
world has changed dramatically in a very short period. A highly technical
product, with no place in the lives of most people in recent memory, has
become commonplace. User demand has soared in existing markets and in
new ones with little prior experience of easy communication. The phones
themselves are significantly more complex and powerful; new features and
frequent upgrades are expected; yet their cost has plummeted: early ‘bricks’
cost several thousand US dollars. They are used in unanticipated ways (e.g.
spawning new industries such as money transfer by phone and roadside
charging stalls, transforming lives in regions with no banking infrastructure
and restricted access to electricity). Such changes can naturally reinforce
disadvantage or discrimination as well as improving lives. Even if far more
inhabitants of developing countries have mobiles, overall figures disguise
the patchy nature of access across different regions and groups due to
corruption, war, monopolies, import tariffs, state control, poverty and
gender inequalities. The story looks very different to an urban Egyptian
male and a rural Zimbabwean female.
There are strong parallels between what has happened in telecoms and
translation in recent decades. Accessing translation is now commonplace,
not the preserve of specialist sectors or relatively wealthy clients. Use of
online MT engines and multilingual websites means more people than ever

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 6 QUALITY IN PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION

before are aware of translation. The corollary is increasing awareness of

the lack of translated material (e.g. when users click on links and fi nd their
language is not supported). Demand has thus soared for translation as for
phones: much of the traffic on MT user groups consists of calls for the
service to be provided in hitherto neglected yet widely spoken languages. 3
Just as phones have become more complex and powerful, translation
tasks are now more technically complicated and the impact of translation
more extensive, with huge increases in content. Rapid spikes in demand for
a service would normally lead to prices going up, yet client pressure, new
ways of working and translation technologies have instead led to downward
pressure on rates. Translations are therefore being commissioned, produced
and used in new ways, with resulting uncertainty and shockwaves across the
industry. As Vashee sympathetically notes, the ‘poor translator’ is caught in
major shifts, yet has little influence on their development.4
The story of mobile phone access illuminates how translation has changed
because of parallel developments in the two industries, but the telecoms
revolution has also had a direct impact on translation. Global demand for
such fast-changing products and services means that the need for translation
has rocketed. Translation is now required throughout the phone production
cycle. In the past, companies producing fi xed-line telephones rarely sold their
products in multiple regions or languages and users kept the same model for
decades. Today, R&D, engineering, manufacturing, staff training, sales and
marketing, user information and after-sales support all involve translation,
across more languages and for new users who face particular challenges
(e.g. low literacy levels or the need to understand material not in their native
tongue). Translation jobs could traditionally be considered complete (‘signed
off’) when returned to the client, but telecoms products and services are
continuously updated, necessitating new kinds of rolling translation service
and collaborative working. Time-to-market and simship5 pressures in
competitive commercial sectors like telecoms mean that translation deadlines
have been forced down. Outsourcing to low-cost countries, usually China
and India, has had an impact on translation like other industries.
This changed – and still-changing – paradigm has implications for
translation quality. This chapter looks in more depth at how economic,
social and technological changes are transforming the translation industry,
and why it has increasingly focused on quality.

1.0.1 Translation: Industry or profession?

Industry: a particular branch of economic or commercial activity.
Profession: a paid occupation, especially one involving training and a
formal qualification.
(CONCISE OED, 11TH EDN, 2009)

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 TODAY’S TRANSLATION PROFESSION 7

The terms translation industry and profession are used interchangeably

in this book; this requires explanation. Even discounting the view of
translation as an art or craft, there is debate over which term to use. A
prominent topic of discussion since the 1950s, one established defi nition
of a profession is that of a ‘vocation whose practice is founded upon an
understanding of the theoretical structure of some department of learning
or science, and upon the abilities accompanying such understanding’
(Cogan, 1953: 33). Some translators demonstrated a marked preference for
the term profession. Others favoured industry, perhaps recognizing skilled
translators who learned ‘on the job’ rather than studying for qualifications.
Most, however, accepted both terms.
Translation clearly fulfi ls certain criteria of dictionary defi nitions for
industry and profession. Both terms are used in most written accounts.
Chriss (2006) switches without ado between the two, for instance, though
his work is specifi cally directed at Translation as a Profession. Where
the term profession is preferred, it can indicate regret regarding recent
developments in translation, seen as a shift from a high-quality ‘artisanal’
tradition to one of mass production. Gouadec deems that ‘translation
now bears all the hallmarks of an industrial activity’ (2007: 297) and
later analyses the effects of this ‘industrialization’ (2009: 217–32),
comparing translators’ current fate to the earlier ruinous mechanization
of French lace-making. Like Chriss, Gouadec refers to both industry
and profession, but where Chriss uses them interchangeably, Gouadec
often implies criticism, differentiating between two distinct approaches
to translation.
Those who favour the term profession often allude to translation
quality issues. They typically want to regulate the sector, believing
that increasing profession alization is needed to improve quality. While
entry to professions such as law, medicine or engineering is controlled,
translation is unregulated in most countries, notwithstanding the
explosion in training programmes (Caminade and Pym, 1995; Drugan
and Rothwell, 2011), intermittent attempts to establish certifi cation
(sworn translators, chartered linguists), and calls for ‘kitemarks’ or
periodic re-examination (Picken, 1994: 197). 6 Daunting accounts of
professional translators’ qualities are provided to indicate who might
qualify. For example, in addition to the merely desirable ‘good grounding
in marketing, management and accountancy’, Gouadec’s professional
paragon demonstrates:

absolute linguistic proficiency, [. . .] perfect knowledge of the

relevant cultural, technical, legal, commercial backgrounds, [. . .] full
understanding of the subject matter involved, a gift for writing, an
insatiable thirst for knowledge, [. . .] the stamina, thoroughness and
sense of initiative needed to fi nd any information (or informant) that

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 8 QUALITY IN PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION

might be required to fully understand that subject matter, [. . .] the

ability to relate both effectively and smoothly – both professionally and
personally – with numerous partners. (2007: xiii)

Some who favour the term profession are crusading to raise the sector’s
status, visibility or remuneration levels. Venuti’s ‘call to action’ on the
translator’s invisibility increased awareness of these issues (1995/2008:
265–77). Robinson uses the term faithfully, stating his aim as ‘raising
the status of the profession’ (1997: 39). Cronin recognizes that ‘the
professional and the political are inextricably linked’, calling for a
‘more engaged, activist notion’ of translators’ responsibilities, both to
defend professional interests and ‘[get] societies and cultures to realize
how important translation is to comparative self-understanding and
future development’ (2003: 134). A few dislike either term, with Pym
arguing (2006: 8) that, in the era of localization, ‘there is no such thing
as a “translation industry”, in the singular’. What, though, do we then
refer to? Pym himself notes that acronyms like GILT (Globalization,
Internationalization, Localization, Translation) have failed to catch on.
Despite its limits, he reverts to the convenient shorthand of ‘industry’
(singular) then to the ‘translation and interpreting professions’ a few
lines later.
Both terms are used in the present book. They help distinguish between
student translation, translation studies/theory and the kind of translation
under discussion here: (usually) paid, for a client, to a deadline, with an
intended end use and some sort of translation specification. As noted,
most industry discussions use both terms. Finally, recent developments,
particularly increasing integration of the ‘gifted amateur or keen bilingual
subject specialist’, may herald dramatic change for the industry, even the
‘closure of the cycle which began when translation became an “independent”
profession’ (García, 2009a: 199). Some of these developments are considered
in relation to translation quality in this book, so it is helpful to be able to
distinguish between the profession and newer approaches.

1.1 Changes affecting the translation industry

Strong growth has been accompanied by other significant changes: a huge
increase in demand (volume) into a wider range of languages (reach),
and a corresponding increase in awareness of translation. Translation is
needed more quickly and to different kinds of deadline. Source content
is more complex. The tools used to translate are more efficient, reliable
and accessible, and cheaper than in the 1990s. These economic, societal
and technological changes affecting translation in recent decades, and their
implications for translation quality, are now examined in more depth.

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 TODAY’S TRANSLATION PROFESSION 9

1.1.1 Market growth

In the course of the 50 years between 1950 and 2004, international

trade enjoyed average annual growth of 4%, whereas the translation
industry grew by a minimum of 5% each year. Clearly, the development
in international trade generated a need for translation and will continue
to ensure the almost parallel growth of the translation sector. (Boucau,
2006: 3)

Industry growth figures are difficult to establish and compare, given

the sector’s diversity, global spread, shifting exchange rates, varying
conceptions of what should be measured and the fact that leading
companies are privately held and not obliged to share data on performance.
All surveys in the past two decades have nonetheless identified growth
outstripping that of trade in general. Specialist industry research provider,
Common Sense Advisory (CSA), made the staggering estimate that, from
US $9 billion in 2006, the market for ‘outsourced language services’ grew
by one-third in a single year, reaching US $12 billion by 2007, and further
predicted a compound annual growth rate of 14.6 per cent between
2008 and 2012 (Beninatto and De Palma, 2008: 1). The largest recent
European study estimated annual compound growth rate at 10 per cent
minimum from 2009–15, giving a European language industry valued at
a ‘conservative’ 16.5 billion € by 2015, with the ‘real value’ likely to be
above 20 billion € (Rinsche and Portera-Zanotti, 2009: ii). These large-
scale studies concur that economic downturns do not stop growth:

The language industry seems to be less affected by the fi nancial crisis

than other industry sectors. Where turnovers from multilingual business
activities have been negatively impacted, this has been mainly in the case
of individuals and micro-companies dependant on a small number of
clients, a quick recovery and continued steady growth of the market is
forecasted. (ibid.)

The fi rst survey following the global downturn supports this analysis,
claiming a 2009 growth rate of 13.15 per cent for translation and
interpreting and estimating the global market at US $26 billion in 2010
(Kelly and Stewart, 2010: 3).
Why should the translation market have grown more than international
trade in recent decades and continue to flourish even in troubled times?
In short, globalization.7 The recent penetration of free- or mixed-market
economies across the globe has driven more translation, particularly since
the opening of huge new markets in Eastern Europe and China from the
early 1990s. The scale of this change is striking: ‘10–15 per cent of the

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 10 QUALITY IN PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION

world’s population were part of a market system at the beginning of the

twentieth century, 40 per cent in 1970 and approximately 90 per cent at
the century’s end’ (Mulgan, 1998: 54–5, cited in Cronin, 2003: 47). Huge
new demand, particularly in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India,
China), means that even in recession, companies need more translation, as
they seek to drive sales beyond traditional declining markets. ‘Producing a
localized version of a product means that new markets are opened up for
an existing or potential product. While a domestic market may be stagnant
or in decline, international markets may be buoyant and may also support
a higher price level’ (Cronin, 2003: 14). Newer market economies also need
translation to reach outwards. Translation has thus benefited not only from
lowered trade barriers but also from factors such as the increasing ease of
marketing to new regions online, and growing disposable incomes to access
translated products and services.
Another feature of globalization explaining translation market growth
in the last two decades is the ‘Internet Age’ – the digital and ICT revolutions
(Lallana and Uy, 2003: 4–7). ‘The Internet Age has led to insatiable demand
for translation services that cannot be met with existing proprietary business
models and the capacity of around 300,000 professional translators
worldwide’.8 Key features of these revolutions (personal computers, mobiles,
the Internet) have meant both new products (software, games, apps)
and growing need for internationalization,9 localization and translation.
Sprung points out that, as early as 1998, Microsoft gained over 60 per cent
of revenues outside the United States of America and earned more than
US $5 billion from translated products (2000b: ix). Wider availability of
complex products has meant an increase in technical documentation, which
is estimated to comprise 90 per cent of total translation output (Kingscott,
cited in Byrne, 2006: 2). Translation volumes have also grown due to the
way international business is conducted (e.g. securities and exchange traders
must stay informed of developments in global markets so require translated
information quickly round the clock).
Even this is only a partial picture. The market reflects growth in demand,
but there is further demand that currently goes unmet. Increased demand
for translation can be considered under two headings: volume (the amount
required) and reach (range of languages/locales).

1.1.2 Growth in demand – volume

Globalization has led to increasing volumes of translation. A rise in migratory
flows of people and growing number of international organizations10 in recent
decades has influenced demand. Increasing international cooperation (e.g.
on peacekeeping, immigration, drug or people trafficking) is information-
heavy and depends on translation. In particular, the growth of international
organizations has created demand for translation, because ‘it is discursively

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 TODAY’S TRANSLATION PROFESSION 11

that most organizations of this nature have an effect on the world’ (Cronin,
2003: 110):

The vast majority of international organizations are heavily dependent

on information both to inform and to give effect to their decisions.
Any decisions which are taken that lead to the signing of international
agreements and/or to the incorporation of appropriate measures into
national law require the preliminary information-intensive activities of
meetings, conferences, discussion documents, reports, media handling
and so on. In addition, information in the form of data on the operations
and decisions of the organizations must be provided to members, and
as these supra-national entities function in a multilingual world of
increasing complexity, they must perforce manage projects and activities
across many different languages and cultures.

International organizations stimulate demand in other ways. For example,

the flow of data is not only from organizations to members; those
members also send huge volumes of data inwards, to be translated for
discussion, comparison and dissemination, often into multiple languages.
A case in point is the EU, where the Commission’s Directorate-General
for Translation (DGT) has for some time been the biggest single provider
of human translation in the world (Brace, 2000: 219). By 2004, continual
increases in content sent for translation led to a mounting backlog and the
DGT adopted a ‘Demand Management Strategy’ (Drugan, 2007a: 136),
limiting the number of source pages accepted for translation.
Increasingly, there is a legal obligation to translate certain materials
(e.g. since 2010, EU citizens facing criminal proceedings in another
member state are entitled to translation into their mother tongue11).
Around the world, laws, directives and regulations ‘require the provision
of comprehensive, accurate and effective technical documentation in a
variety of languages’ (Byrne, 2006: 2). The legal imperative has driven
growth in translation volume for materials such as contracts, copyright,
patents and trademarks, required in ever more languages in the globalized
context. In many countries, legal rights for migrants and minority language
communities to use their own language in some domains (e.g. healthcare,
justice) have driven growth. Since 2000, for instance, US institutions
must provide services in users’ mother tongues to qualify for federal aid;
the American Translators Association (ATA) believes that this has had a
significant effect on demand.12 Finally, recognition of co-existing language
communities have imposed translation obligations in some regions. For
example, Section 21 of the Welsh Language Act 199313 enshrined the
principle that ‘in the conduct of public business in Wales, the English and
Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality’, driving local
growth.

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 12 QUALITY IN PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION

1.1.3 Growth in demand – reach and

range of languages
Translation from and into a wider range of languages and for additional
locales14 means that overall demand rises. This section outlines why
translation is increasingly commissioned across more language pairs.
LSPs visited in research for this book commonly handled projects into
between ten and 30 languages, something which helps explain the recent
mushrooming of MLVs. Individuals or small groups of translators cannot
deliver the expected range of languages or project content needed today.
For clients, translation is not usually their core business, so they prefer a
‘one-stop shop’ than having to deal messily with multiple suppliers.
Why are translations needed in more languages? This change comes
in part from users, driven particularly by the Internet. Web users often
express frustration when material is not available in their mother tongue
or set up their own equivalents where a service is not provided. Bey et
al. (ibid.: 52–3) identify two types of motivation here: ‘mission-oriented’
communities who volunteer to translate clearly defi ned sets of documents,
such as the technical documentation for Open Source (OS) software; and
‘subject-oriented’ networks who choose to translate material because of
shared interests or values (e.g. humanitarian translation). More significant
in explaining the rising number of language pairs, however, (and of most
relevance for professional translators) is that clients want to reach more
customers. Research has consistently demonstrated that web users are
more likely to visit a site, spend longer there and, crucially, buy products
when a site is available in their own language. For example, a large-scale
global survey concluded that, ‘four out of five (79.6%) told us they want
communications in their mother tongue. [For buyers with low English
proficiency], the number of those thinking that language is important or
very important jumped to 85.1%’ (DePalma et al., 2006: 10). Such research
has challenged earlier assumptions that providing websites in English alone
was sufficient. To reach and compete in new markets, companies have
realized they must localize:

Today, most exporters face local competitors – consumers in Taipei

or Moscow will gravitate toward the product in their own language,
not the one in the strange packaging. Companies are fi nding that the
cost of not translating poses too great a risk to international sales.
(Sprung, 2000: x)

Clients are likely to seek translation across further language pairs in

future. Internet usage statistics indicate that continued growth depends
on adding users in additional languages. Despite the emphasis on
globalization, the 1990s were in fact dominated by a few regions and

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 TODAY’S TRANSLATION PROFESSION 13

relatively few language pairs: ‘The world economy is far from being
genuinely “global”. Rather, trade, investment and fi nancial flows are
concentrated in the Triad of Europe, Japan and North America’ (Hirst
and Thompson, 1996/2000: 2). As Table 1.1 shows, there is little scope
for further penetration among web users in these established markets.
Online expansion is most likely in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the
Middle East, where many languages are used and increasing numbers of
translations will be needed. These regions are also where the majority
of the world’s population is concentrated and growing faster, and hence
where increasing numbers of potential consumers will be found.
The non-commercial sector also requires translation in an increasing
range of languages. As the number of supranational bodies and international
organizations has grown, and membership extended, the combinations of
languages needed have soared. The original European Economic Community
had six founding members and recognized four official languages (Dutch,
French, German, Italian) in 1958.15 By 2007, there were 27 member states
and 23 ‘official and working’ languages.16 This caused decided problems for
translation. Recruiting qualified translators for certain language pairs, and
the plethora of potential language combinations, posed challenges. There
may not be much demand for Latvian texts to be translated into Maltese,
even inside the EU institutions, but the service must be available if the need
arises. The institutions had to adapt working methods (e.g. increasing
use of ‘pivot’ languages), with potential effects for quality. If translation
from Language A to Language B has to go via Language C, further scope
for errors is introduced (one EU translator described this as the ‘Chinese
Whispers’ effect17).

TABLE 1.1 World Internet usage and population statistics, 2009

World Region Population (2009 Internet Users, Internet Penetration Users % of
Est.) 31/12/2000 Users, (% Table
31/12/2009 Population)

Africa 991,002,342 4,514,400 86,217,900 8.7 4.8

Asia 3,808,070,503 114,304,000 764,435,900 20.1 42.4

Europe 803,850,858 105,096,093 425,773,571 53 23.6

Middle East 202,687,005 3,284,800 58,309,546 28.8 3.2

North America 340,831,831 108,096,800 259,561,000 76.2 14.4

Latin America/ 586,662,468 18,068,919 186,922,050 31.9 10.4

Caribbean

(Source: Internet World Stats, 2010, [Link]/[Link])

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