1. Why Develop a Translation Brief

The Translation Brief: A Tool to Guide Translator Decisions, Thereby Improving Translation Products and Communication Quality  

Herein lies the challenge: every language is a unique set of visual, auditory and tactile symbols of communication, expressing underlying cultural practices, values and beliefs. The conventions and text elements (e.g., title, tone, voice) for each language are dictated by cultural norms associated with the underlying communicative purpose. Translators need to take into account grammar, writing conventions, and idioms or forms of expression that are particular to each language while retaining the intended meaning of the source text. The translation process involves creating a new text in a target language by deciphering the meaning of information found in a source text. The objective is to communicate the same information or “the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, firstly with respect to meaning and secondly with respect to style” (Nida, 1959, p.19).
In reality, creating word-for-word equivalents that a target language reader can understand may not be possible. How ideas are expressed and the writing conventions (e.g., spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, paragraphing, headings, titles) and linguistic markers used to give readers context or perspective about the text and its intended purpose are governed by the rules of each language. English (U.S.) source-text markers are determined by U.S. culture, traditions and conventions, while target-text markers must be taken from the target culture in order to be meaningful to the readers.
In addition, many health care texts embody nationally-adopted policies, practices and financing models or reflect health care delivery systems unique to a particular locale. Likewise, texts designed to support processes of acquiring health care in the U.S. (e.g., advanced directives, conditions of admissions, health coverage brochures, referral or treatment authorizations) may not have a natural equivalent in many target languages.
Translators can produce native-quality translations, texts that read as if they were originally produced in the target language. But this may require some rewriting of the source content, adapting or restructuring how it is presented or changing cultural references to meet target reader expectations. Translators, in effect, must disaggregate and recompose a source text and create corresponding phrases and content to more effectively convey the information and meaning found in the text. Each step in this process involves decomposing sentences, manipulating the flow of ideas and choosing words and forms of expression that fit a target language.
No longer bound by the source text, an inherent risk with this level of restructuring and rewriting is the potential to create text that departs from the intended meaning of the source text. At the other extreme are translation products that emphasize creating a lexical equivalent of the source text, thus undermining the clarity of the intended message. Within these extremes is a fertile ground for reworking texts to convey intended meaning while only approximating the source text’s actual words.
To approximate a source text, translators must make tradeoffs in terms of emphasis, decisions that should not be made in isolation.  Such decisions should be subject to requester input and “are not the discretion of the translator" (Nord, 1991b, p. 9). Ideally, translators should have subject matter expertise, highly developed knowledge of both languages involved and writing skills similar to or better than those of the original author. This involves resolving differences at the word level (health care jargon, colloquialisms and other expressions that do not translate literally) and choosing target language words that replicate the intended meaning in the target culture. It also requires setting priorities to guide word/phrase selection and making critical judgments about how best to convey concepts and ideas. In other words, translators need to understand health care content as well as common words that can hold particular meaning or intent within the health care field (e.g., premium, co-payment, outpatient, treatment authorization, limited exam).
 
A translation brief can help translators produce better-quality translations by clarifying misconceptions that can result from analyzing a text at the word level, as well as describe how sections of the source text are used, its communicative purpose and the desired results (Colina, 2003; Nord, 1997). Even a well-trained translator may fail to re-create intended meaning if he/she does not understand the context in which the source text is used (Nord, C. 1991b). Preparing the translation brief helps the requester (and, by association, the authors or subject experts and their organizations) become aware of key vocabulary, content or language convention issues and graphics that may need to be replaced. Most importantly, the translation brief provides instructions about priorities for restructuring and recomposing content as well as resolving cultural and language differences. In essence, the translation brief enables requesters to participate in, and make decisions about, how these differences are to be resolved as well as take a greater role in directing and managing translation projects.

The primary purpose in preparing a translation brief before commissioning a translation is to encourage analytic thought about the source text and to prompt an assessment of the suitability of the English original for its intended target reader. Analyzing a source text (including how, when, where and from whom it is received) can help identify assumptions embedded in the source text that may not apply to the target audience. For example, a telephone number referenced in a source text may not be answered by someone who is prepared to answer calls in the target language. Considering the purpose and use of a source text in the world of the target reader can help identify limitations or challenges before a translation is commissioned and resources are expended.

The value of preparing translation briefs increases over time as requesters begin to appreciate how language and culture is embedded in text and develop competencies in analyzing source texts.  Commissioning translations, working with translators and learning about linguistic tradeoffs with specific target languages create opportunities to improve communication with these populations. The process of comparing source and target audiences to prepare a translation brief is also an opportunity to consider how well the content meets the informational needs of the target audience.