How to translate an official document: A Quick Guide

An official document usually states some contractual relationship or contains sensitive personal information. When it comes to official document translation many factors come into play. Within our globalized world, official document’s translation is increasing at an unrecorded rate. Due to the high demand of this type of translation, many individuals allege to provide quality, certified translations. Truth is, conventions are generally – and widely – ignored. In this brief article, I will explain the basics of what a certified translation of an official document should look like.

To start off, the translator should always consider the format and style portrayed in the original document. To exemplify, even if a birth certificate contains extra spacing, typos or an unusual format, the translator should not attempt to fix the. Instad, the translator must follow a simple golden rule: the target document should mimic, to the best of the translator’s capacity, the original document’s format.

Furthermore, the crucial part – interpreting the document – is what most of translators fail to do. Experience and knowledge in the industry standards and conventions are strictly necessary to render a successful translation. For instance, translating“appearing before me”, has a standard way of writing it in every language. Here, the translator’s interpretation is not sufficient for the translation to be effective. The translator must know by heart the particular legal conventions that make up the particular official document they are translating.

Nonetheless, the translator is still responsible of conveying the meaning of the document and not just translate words literally. This is only gained through exhaustive practice in rendering official document translations. Writing skills that match those of a native speaker are essential to achieve accuracy. Syntax and semantics are fundamental aspects that a professional translator must be proficient in to carry out an official document translation effectively.

The following are basic rules that a professional and experienced translator must follow for official document translation:

There must be a heading that states: “Translation from [source language]” and should be written in the language of the desired target language. However, the format and layout should match exactly that of the source of the text.
The translator should add any typographical conventions as they are in the source document. Any empty spaces, columns, or boxes should be omitted or add “No entry” in the blank space.

For any signatures appearing in the official document the following format should be used: “[signature]”. This should be used whether the signature is legible or illegible.

Anything that is crossed out or marked on the original document should be marked as is, if legible. Also, any names of official courts, attorneys, names of people, cities, countries and addresses should be kept in the original language and should not be translated.

If there is any seal, stamp or logo, these should be placed in brackets to look like this: “[Seal]”. Parentheses will not be acceptable when translating the seal or logo of the source document. That also applies to any notes of certification, attestation and/or authentication. For any numbers or dates, they should be copied without change.

Abbreviations should be written out in full in the target language and if not enough information is available to do so; they must be added in the translator’s notes. Additionally, if the original document has any typos or errors they should not be changed or corrected and a comment should be added in the translator’s notes. Any notes a translator will want to add, these should be inserted in the footnote of the paper and should be marked as follows: “[Translator Notes]”.
If there is more than one sheet they should be numbered and stapled together.When finished translating the official document it is important that the deliverable is reviewed and proofread.

Failing to follow one of the above mentioned basic rules could result in the official document translation rejection.

Published on July 2015 by Mariano Morales.