Quality and integrity in the translation of official documents

Abstract

ABSTRACT The translation of official personal documents is widely needed and practised. As people migrate physically or virtually for employment and other purposes, millions of personal documents are translated and submitted to public administrations and private companies. This is also one of the areas of translation that is most regulated around the world, with translators often required to sit a test, demonstrate relevant qualifications, and/or be sworn in by the relevant ministry or administration. However, the confidential nature of the source documents often implies that the quality of the corresponding translations can only be assessed by the clients themselves or the institutional staff who process the applications and cases. In this paper, we assess the quality and integrity features of a corpus of translated official personal documents collected in Australia. While the analysis shows a high standard overall, it also reveals areas for improvement.