Controlling Quality in Translation Crowdsourcing

I recently attended a workshop on crowdsourcing solutions for translation at the Middlebury Institute of Intl. Studies at Monterey. During the course of this workshop, we discussed two main issues with crowdsourcing that come up in translation: quantity and quality. This blog will deal with the latter, and is a follow-up to my blog on quantity.

 

Many organizations may be wary of crowdsourcing translations because they do not want sensitive or public facing documents to be poorly translated. While these fears are not completely unfounded, I believe that a high-quality translation can indeed come from crowdsourcing or community translation if some measures are put in place to ensure quality. Here is my list of the15 best general practices for controlling quality when crowdsourcing translation.

 

  1. Develop a heavy screening/vetting process.
  • Demand at least 2-5 years of experience.
    • Ask for proof of any accreditations.
  1. Consider a fast track to streamline this process. For example, persons holding an MA in translation or ATA certifications would receive immediate approval.
  2. Do not allow volunteers to translate into their ‘B’ language.
  3. Advertise yourself as a place where the translator’s skills matter.
  4. Create a list of banned words for each language, and use content filtering.
  5. Create a simple style guide.
  6. Ensure both editing and review is done.
  7. If human review is impossible, use an automated review tool to check for simple typos.
  8. Ban use of MT.
  9. Limit volunteers to only one language pair i.e. no ‘C’ languages.
  10. Provide terminology.
  11. Train and educate volunteers on how to use the organization’s tools.
  12. Invest in volunteers; ensure they are growing.
  13. Publicly recognize your translators so they are incentivized to produce high-quality work.
  14. TRUST your community of translators.

Please also see the infographic I created on the 5 best practices for both quantity and quality, which combines the most important aspects from each blog on quantity and quality:

5 Best Practices for Both Quality and Quantity in Translation Crowdsourcing