## Introduction
An effective translation brief is a document that describes the translation project in sufficient detail for a translator to determine whether the project is suitable for him or her, and if so, how to proceed.
The brief should include the following information:
1. A brief description of the project.
2. A list of languages to be translated.
3. The scope of the translation.
4. The target audience.
5. The source document(s).
6. The translation requirements.
7. The budget.
8. The deadline.
9. Any other information that may be relevant to the translator.
10. The contact information for the project owner.
11. Any additional information that the translator may need to know.
12. The number of words in the source and target languages.
13. The date when the translation is due.
14. The language(s) in which the document is written.
15. The format of the document.
16. Any special instructions.
17. The name and contact information of the person who will be responsible for the translation (the translator).
18. The translator’s qualifications and experience.
19. The location of the translator’s office.
20. The amount of time the translator will be able to devote to the project, and the estimated number of hours he or she will need to complete it.
21. The payment terms.
22. Whether the translator is required to sign a contract.
23. Whether there is a deadline for the translator to submit the translation to the client.
24. The client’s name and address.
25. The type of document and the number of pages.
26. The file format.
27. Any information about the document that may help the translator in his or her work.
28. Any contact information the translator needs to know in order to get in touch with the client, such as the client’s phone number, fax number, e-mail address, and so on.
29. If the client is willing to provide the translator with the source document, the translator should include that information in the brief as well.
30. A description of how the translation will be performed.
31. Any notes about the project that the client may want to include in the project brief.
32. Any comments the translator might want to make.
33. Any questions the translator wants to ask.
34. Any suggestions the translator has for improving the document or the translation process.
35. Any changes the client wants to make to the document after the translation has been completed.
36. Any corrections the translator makes to the source text.
37. Any clarifications the translator asks for.
38. Any problems the translator encounters while working on the translation, and how they were resolved.
39. Any recommendations the translator would like to make for future translations.
40. Any advice the translator can offer to other translators.
41. Any feedback the translator receives from the client about the translation after it has been delivered.
42. Any documents the translator uses in the process of translating.
43. Any sources the translator consults in the course of translating the document, and what those sources were.
44. Any links the translator finds useful.
45. Any files the translator downloads.
46. Any images the translator works with.
47. Any videos the translator watches.
48. Any books the translator reads.
49. Any web pages the translator visits.
50. Any websites the translator subscribes to.
51. Any social media sites the translator follows.
52. Any blogs the translator writes.
53. Any podcasts the translator listens to.
## How to write a translation brief?
Begin by describing the project in as much detail as you can. The more information you can provide, the easier it will be for the translators to understand the project and decide whether they want to work on it. If you don’t provide enough information, translators may not know what they are getting into, or they may decide to decline the project because they don’t know enough about it to be sure they can do a good job.
Here are some examples of how to describe the project:
– The project is a translation of a book from English to Spanish.
– It’s a translation from English into Spanish of a manual for a new product that will be released in the next few months. The manual will be available in both English and Spanish, and it will cover the product’s features, benefits, and instructions on how to use the product. It will be distributed in the U.S. and Canada, and will be sold in retail stores in those countries. The book will be published by the same company that produces the manual, and both the book and the manual will have the same ISBN number. The project will be done by two translators, one of whom will work on the English text and the other on the Spanish text. They will be paid on a per-page basis, and they will be required to submit their work to the company’s quality assurance department for approval before the manual is published. The translators will be working from a copy of the English version of the manual that was provided to them by the company. The company will also provide them with a list of all the words that need to be changed from one language to the other, as well as the names of the people who are responsible for making those changes.