‹ Back

In technical translation, consistency is not cosmetic. It is functional.

Imagine a technical manual referring to the same component by three different terms, each one linguistically plausible. The problem is that the reader may no longer know whether those three terms describe one component or three different ones.

Technical documentation depends on relationships: between components, instructions, specifications, procedures and terminology. When those relationships become unclear, the document becomes harder to use. That is why technical translation requires more than language proficiency; it requires disciplined terminology management and an understanding of the subject matter, the document and its intended users.

A good technical translation should not merely sound technical; it should remain technically coherent, because the purpose of a manual is not to demonstrate linguistic elegance. Its purpose is to communicate information clearly enough for someone to use it.

Clarity is functionality.