Choice of Words

Terminology

The creation of company-specific terminology in the source language is highly recommendable. The denominations for a certain term / concept should be defined and documented in written form. The most important aspect for the translation is the consistent use of this terminology, i.e. only one denomination should be used for a certain concept and only one spelling of this denomination (i.e. no inconsequential use of upper and lower case or hyphens). Different software applications that support the technical writer in consistent terminology use are availabe. Spelling and grammar mistakes as well as inconsistent terminology use or wrong spelling variants are reported. Thorough terminology work is the most important factor for high-quality translations and cost savings using automatic pretranslation.

Filler words

Filler words are words which have not too much significance and are not very important for the meaning of the sentence. German examples are "sozusagen", "nun" or "gegebenenfalls" and should not be used as they rather distract from the important information and increase translation costs.

Abbreviations

Uncommon abbreviations often lead to misinterpretations and should be avoided. If this is not possible, words should be abbreviated reasonably and lists with explainations for the translators should be provided. It is also crucial to determine, prior to translating, which abbreviations may not be translated – this is the case if they are displayed on a computer screen and are not localized in the software.