I don’t think that anyone likes to give nor receive negative feedback, however this is something that happens when you work as a freelancer and it's clearly because people have different opinions, views on a specific grammar or syntax issue and because strict guidelines can be a problem on their own. I have been on both sides, first as a PM and then as a freelance translator, and although receiving negative feedback is definitely the worst bit, I really despise giving a negative opinion on a translation and I much prefer reading a well translated text and praise the translator for their job. Having said that, I noticed that sometimes, both agencies and linguists, are not very effective and most of all not very polite in giving their opinion and providing feedback on someone’s work. Not that there is guidebook on how to do this, but I thought of putting together some of what I consider 'best practices' to follow within the revision or LQA workflow – you’ll find them here below.
GIVING NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
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Receiving and implementing feedback are common practices within the translation industry: some people love it and some people hate it. But when can this happen? Let's have a look at the possible scenarios:
As you can see, revised files can create a great number of challenges for translators, and PMs, on how to effectively and efficiently implement the final changes. Having worn both hats, I can say that how you tackle such situation depends on what file you want to work on: either the xliff file or the TM. Having said this, I will explain all the options here below. XLIFF files We all know what they are, or at least if you work with CAT tools, you should definitely have heard of them. In case you are not sure, have a look at this page. If you have worked on a local project that you haven’t yet imported in your TM, you can:
![]() Select the Retrofit function from the Batch Tasks menu and follow the next steps. Select a Specific Review Document. ![]() Look for your revised file, select it and click Open (or Apri, if you are Italian). . Finally, follow the next steps, clicking on Finish and Close. ![]() At this point, you’ll see that the changes included in your revised file in Word will appear within the SDL Trados Studio environment. Then, accept or reject the changes using the appropriate buttons in the Review tab and you'll have your final file in Trados. You can import the final xliff in your Translation Memory or you can make sure your TM is attached to the project and then re-confirm the segments you modified. At this point, you will have a clean and extra approved resource to use for your future translations! TM files If you are not interested in changing the xliff file because you have already imported the relevant segments in your Translation Memory, you can:
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