Translation is undoubtedly a creative pursuit. On the other hand, any agency will tell you that, in business terms, it’s a process that can be systematised and standardised for maximum efficiency. It almost sounds like these two facts conflict with each other – so conflict an inevitable part of the business? Not at all. It would be easy to suggest that the translation industry is an intractable battle, with translators and their delicate artistic temperaments fighting project managers who want to turn the whole thing into a production line – but the truth is that the two groups can and do work together very well, producing excellent results for end clients. A translation workflow is neither wholly art nor exclusively science – so where do those two categories overlap, and what can be done to make the process as seamless as possible?

This is the summary of an article published in the translation blog of Translators Family, under the title The translation process: art or science?, by Oleg Semerikov and Translators Family.

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