What is a Translation Style Guide? Why is it Important?

When most people think of a style guide, they picture it as a tool for maintaining a uniform content style. Some multinational companies may be unaware that a translation style guide can be created. This version of a style guide can help a translator improve the quality and speed of their work while also ensuring consistency. A translation style guide has a variety of uses and can assist both businesses and translators.
Marketing experts may be familiar with branding and marketing style guides; a translation style guide is quite similar to these. Items as minor as font type and color palette and more significant issues like reading level are carefully considered and debated to ensure that translations adhere to any central corporate publication regulations while also satisfying the demands of the translated material's intended users.

So, what's a translation style guide?

When you need to translate text into different languages, a style guide provides a consistent template. Cultural variations, linguistic issues, and required formats or procedures are all addressed in these guides. Every language, and often even each variety, has its difficulties. For instance, different Spanish dialects may be used in various Spanish-speaking countries. When translating from American English to American Spanish, the date format remains the same (mm-dd-yyyy), but when translating into Argentinean or LATAM Spanish, the date format should be altered to dd-mm-yyyy. Note that an expert language services provider would always consider who the intended audience is. As a result, each language or language variety into which a work must be translated usually has its style guide.
This style guide can also govern word choice, which is especially useful when terminology has many translations. The use of consistent vocabulary across a book reduces the likelihood of reader confusion. The same is true for any text that can be formatted in various ways, such as dates and times.

What is included in a style guide?

A translation style guide will resemble a regular directory in many ways, but with a strong emphasis on terminology. In a style guide intended to aid translation, you can expect to see the following items:
General Linguistic Considerations: A style guide might specify desired syntax and semantics to ensure consistency in grammar usage. Grammar rules like verb forms, tenses, and capitalization can all be included. Oxford commas, spaces, quote marks, and other punctuation-based regulations all have a place in the guide.
Formatting: If your translators are required to make certain words bold, use a specific font, or follow other formatting guidelines, those instructions should be explicitly stated.
Bulleted Lists & Tables: The format of bulleted lists and tables can be specified. Instructions for formatting a table of contents, for example, whether it should be in alphabetical order, can also be found here.
Tone: It's time to find your voice. Do you require a translator to write in the present tense? Do you want to deliver content in a specific style? Any tone preferences should be recorded in the style guide to ensure that content is localized with maximum efficacy. For example, whether formal or informal pronouns of address are preferred should be specified in style guides for Spanish and French.
Localization: Discuss how you'd like symbols and units of measurement to be formatted by a translator. Money, time, abbreviations, and dates, for example, as well as how URLs should be localized.
Branding: Create a set of brand guidelines.

Importance of translation style guides

It can be tedious trying to keep everyone on the same page and maintain your brand image when working with many translators.

No matter who works on the translation, a translation guide can help you improve the consistency and accuracy of the localized information. As a result, you'll be able to gain credibility and your audience's confidence while also growing brand visibility in a crowded market.

A translation style guide will naturally improve translation quality and avoid faults in tone, grammar, and style in the following ways:

Increase engagement: Utilizing a translation guide guarantees that you're using appropriate terminology for the audience and context in the target country. This will aid in establishing your brand's reputation and the development of trust among prospects and customers.

Reduce time to market: A translation guide simplifies the translation process by decreasing the number of rounds of changes and back-and-forths on basic rules. With less monitoring, your team can work faster and more effectively.

Delivering a consistent customer experience: Assets conveying the same brand message across markets help you maintain a consistent customer experience, laying the groundwork for global awareness.

Reduce costs: A style guide and translation glossaries provide a standard reference for your marketing and translation teams, reducing misunderstanding and the need for revisions caused by inconsistent terminology, which can account for up to 15% of the total cost of a translation project.

How to Make a Style Guide for Translation

When drafting a style guide, it's essential to establish whether you currently have any branding or marketing guides or glossaries in place that control the dissemination of non-translated documents. It's also better to provide feedback to translations you've received so as to discuss what's worked and what hasn't in the past. It is always advisable to employ the expertise of professional translation services to simplify the process. Your translation service provider should ask various questions and lead a discussion about the style, tone, and format required for translated papers, media, or other multilingual published projects. It would help if you collaborated to create the style guide, taking into account any regional or language-specific adjustments or standards that must be followed to ensure that your translated content is accurate for the target audience.

It's also worth noting that a translation style guide isn't a one-time endeavor. Working closely with a professional translation company you trust is essential since it is a collaborative team effort. Fonts, templates, date formats, addresses, images, and reading levels are crucial to include in your translation style guide.

To conclude, working with a translation services company can eliminate the guesswork regarding the creation of a style guide. They will be able to provide expert advice on which stylistic areas to include guidance for as well as which terminology is necessary to include in the glossaries, thereby ensuring that your translations are of the highest quality.

Lingual Consultancy Services provide the best translation services using the collaboration between human translators, Computer-Aided translators, and Translation Memory Management Tools with best glossaries. With a pool of more than 16000 translators/interpreters/ voice artists/transcribers across the globe, we provide localization services in the industry in more than 250 languages.

For any translation requirement/queries, drop an e-mail at [email protected] or give us a call.