Terminology generally refers to the development, processing, storage and use of technical terms. It should help employees of a company to avoid misunderstandings and ensure clear communication with defined terms - both among themselves and with customers or users. Professional terminologists and specialist translators constantly deal with the relationships between terms and objects and their names or descriptions. A highly complex process.

In practice, this often means that companies do not implement continuous terminology work, even though they understand that it is quality and not quantity or speed that is important. However, this is extremely important because a lack of terminology harbors high risks. Not only can it lead to delays in projects or confusion for customers in day-to-day business. Errors can also occur when ordering spare parts due to poor translations. In the worst case, users of a machine can injure themselves because they have not interpreted the technical documentation correctly due to incorrect terminology. Incorrect terminology work or even not using it at all is therefore not only bad for the company's image, but can even be life-threatening in cases of doubt.

The problem for companies often lies in compiling specialist vocabularies according to relevant rules, making them accessible and standardizing them where necessary. This requires know-how and time. Companies often lack not only trained staff who can spare enough time, but also resources. Very often, companies do not dare to tackle terminology work because they do not know where to start and find it difficult to conceptualize it.

Rely on experts

Once a terminology decision has been made, the question often arises as to how the existing terms should be stored and managed and how they can be accessed at any time. Nowadays, this is usually implemented in digital form on the basis of databases and often even in multiple languages. This means that everyone involved in the process has access to the terminology. At this point, trained specialist translators should assist companies and not only support them with terminology-compliant translation work, but also explain why this is so important.

Specialist translators support their customers in creating a terminology workflow and relieve them of a lot of work when it comes to creating or continuously expanding a terminology database.

However, the right preparation is also important for terminology work. The company can take this into its own hands by considering the following aspects:

• Define goals that you want to achieve with standardized terminology
• Inventory: What is already there? What is urgently needed?
• Clarify responsibilities so that there is no duplication
• Set intermediate goals
• Start with one area of the company - where is terminology most important? Where can it be implemented most quickly? - and then extend to the entire company

Once the basic framework is in place, the work of the terminologists and specialist translators begins. They create a concept and a definition with regard to which term structure is important for the company, which information each term requires in order to be clearly understood and which synonyms are associated with it. The affiliation to a department or product area is also important.

With a translation tool such as memoQ or Trados, the corresponding terminology work can be improved even further. On the one hand, professional specialist translators or terminologists can offer their customers modern terminology management software, and on the other hand, all termbase entries can be exchanged between authoring support programs and terminology management programs (such as QTerm) without friction losses - whether at entry level, index level or term level. Depending on the application and the needs of the respective company, specialist translators also rely on different translation memory software and the appropriate terminology management software.

Higher added value thanks to terminology

A lack of terminology leads to delays in communication, misunderstandings and incorrect reactions. It also hinders communication with the national and international market. Without continuous terminology work, specialist translators have to carry out enormous amounts of research, which leads to additional work and therefore delays in the translation project. Standardized terminology therefore leads to time and cost savings and improves the quality of translations.

Terminology therefore increases the quality, security and profitability of business documentation and information - whether in the editorial or marketing department or in merchandise management. If you want to hold your own in international and national business, terminology work is essential. Business associations have recognized this problem and are working to standardize the terminology used in their industry.

Every industry has its own terminology, and this should be written down in order to avoid multiple terms and promote clarity. This can greatly improve and simplify corporate communication both internally and externally. After all, uniform terminology ultimately ensures good cohesion and cooperation between the individual specialist departments in the company.

Michaela Gorisch, Managing Director of gds Sprachenwelt and expert for qualified specialist translations for technical documentation / ag