Susan Harkus

User-centred architecture
Engaging content & communications
= > Business-effective website

Writing for translation

Consider your readers who can't read English - write for translation

If you want to make your website pages accessible to ALL readers, not just to English readers, what do you do?

• Do you ignore the potential of overseas interest and sales? For example, almost the entire south-east Asian market comprises people who prefer to read information that is written in their own language.
• Do you develop different language versions of your website, and struggle with the maintenance and cost overheads of multiple versions of content?

Take advantage of what non-English readers are using

Website visitors aren't seeking a language experience. They read to learn or to do. Invariably, if their native language is not English, they submit your web page to a preferred translation website to read YOUR content in THEIR language. They don't care if there are a few syntax errors or if some translations are not idiomatic.

Businesses cannot ignore automatic translation

Search engines such as Google are already offering automatic translations of foreign language pages.

Planned for or not planned for, non-English readers will be exploring Australian websites and will be using translation software to understand the offerings of Australian businesses and of government departments.

Even those whose second language is English, will be daunted by the challenge of reading long English texts.

The Internet has opened up a completely different translation solution.

Readers will always take control, so businesses must ensure that the online translations of their content communicate their message. How? By writing their content with forethought and discipline.

The bonus? Disciplined writing improves readability

The objective of disciplined writing is to produce documentation that can be parsed accurately by translation software. And good writing practices produce other benefits! Documentation that can be parsed accurately by translation software can also be parsed and understood more easily by the human brain!

And research heavily supports the translation software option

I researched and tested my own writing for translation approach in 2000. I was just one of many writers and researchers who were looking for ways to reduce localisation timeframes.

When I began writing for translation, I believed that the success of using translation software would depend on the quality of the software and the software's dictionary that held target language equivalents for English phrases.

I discovered what other researchers, such as Arendse Bernth at IBM Research, already knew and were constantly confirming: success depends on the quality of the source text.

Research also shows that the new generation of translation machines do not require unnatural writing styles such as 'Controlled English'. When I developed user documentation using a disciplined writing approach, no one noticed any difference in the style of the documentation!

Try machine translation out for yourself

Copy the address of this page and go to Altavista's "Babel Fish" website. Paste the address into the option, "Translate a web page" and choose your preferred target language. Assess the results for yourself.
Altavista's "Babel Fish".

My research paper

My paper and my research report on writing for translation can be found in the library of the multilingualwebmaster website.

My conference presentation is attached to the paper. If you download the PowerPoint file, you can read the presentation notes which explain the research.