Creation and management of glossary and style guide

Glossary and Style Guide for Achieving High Quality

Simply translating manuals makes it difficult to maintain consistency in terminology and style.
At Human Science, we review the original documents before translation to thoroughly identify the terminology and style that need to be standardized, and we create a glossary and style guide.
Even when multiple translators share the workload for large document translations, we ensure consistency in terminology and style across the entire project, providing high-quality translations.

Creation and Management Process of Glossaries and Style Guides

Process

What is a glossary?

This is a list of terms used for translation. By creating a glossary that defines consistent translations for product names and technical terms before translation, you can ensure that consistent terminology is used throughout the document.

Rules are needed for which translation to use!

Translation Rules

Especially when translating manuals with a large number of pages by multiple translators, without a glossary, the terms used may differ among translators, leading to inconsistencies in terminology.
At Human Science, we identify the terms that need to be standardized before translation and create a glossary to prevent inconsistencies and errors in the translations.
If you have specific terms you would like us to use, please provide them before translation, and we will include those terms in the glossary for the translation.

Examples of items to include in the glossary

  • ●Provided Glossary (terms with specified translations such as parts, company names, product names, function names, etc.)
  • ●Terms not included in the provided glossary
    ・Terms related to newly implemented features and technologies
    ・Text that does not require translation (such as file extensions and program code)
  • ●Verb
  • ●Unit Symbol
  • ●Other Frequently Used Terms
  • etc.

What is a Style Guide?

This is a list of rules regarding the style (expressions, notation, grammar, etc.) to be used in translations.
Similar to a glossary, establishing rules for style before translation allows for consistency throughout the document, thereby improving translation quality.

Rules are needed for which style to use!

Style Rules

At Human Science, we create style guides for each client and project before translation, providing our customers with consistent, high-quality translations throughout the document. Since the representation of symbols and numbers varies by language, we create style guides according to the rules of each language.

Content to Include in the Style Guide (Example)

  • ●Customer-Specified Rules
  • ●Rules for Each Language

    - Use of uppercase and lowercase letters

    ・Number format (thousands separator, decimal point)

    [In the case of French]
    In French, common grammar norms dictate that you use spaces to group digits (1 000) and commas as decimal points (3.5). However, depending on the project, there may be cases where commas are used as digit separators (1,000), so clearly establishing the formatting rules beforehand is a must.

    - Notation of symbols and signs (quotations, apostrophes, parentheses, etc.)

    [In the case of French]
    In French, it is common to use guillemets « » instead of English double quotation marks “ ”. However, depending on the project, it may also be necessary to use the same double quotation marks as in English, so it is important to clarify the usage rules in advance.

    - Writing Style

    - Style of warning and caution statements

    Reference Document Style

[Sample] French Style Guide