Style guide for translation: How it can help you

Style guide for translationsAlong with a glossary, a style guide can be one of your best friends when it comes to professional translations.

A style guide is essentially a list of instructions that can be used during a translation project by the linguists. It can refer to everything from certain terminology usage, to orthography, to target audience and tone of voice.

It’s generally used as a measure to improve consistency of the translations, readability, branding within the translations, as well as to ensure the tone of voice and presentation of the translated content is on point.

A style guide can contain:

  • Branding insights
  • Tone of voice required
  • Further information on the target audience and region
  • Writing style goals
  • Writing insights when talking to certain groups of people
  • Terminology and language use
  • Punctuation
  • Grammar
  • Syntax and punctuation guidelines
  • Abbreviations and acronyms
  • Capitalisation
  • Preferred orthography
  • Emphasis
  • Lists and numbers
  • Treatment of Date and time
  • Examples and references for linguists

Style guides can also greatly affect the required turnaround time of a project. Linguists save time on their translations when there are pre-approved linguistic decisions concerning the above. Together with a glossary, they can greatly improve consistency of terminology translations and ultimately offer a better translation of the content at hand.

Until next time,

Jim

For more information, get in touch with Web-Lingo for 89 languages, a fast turnaround, a same-day quote and a personal service that is second to none.

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