Translation of personal official documents : what Australian practitioners say

The translation of personal official documents has been, to a great extent, an opaque process: little research has been conducted and, accordingly, little is known about professional practices in this area. The literature and guidelines available tend to be based on the professional experience of the author rather than on research into the wider professional context. In this paper we report the findings of a translator survey conducted in Australia to identify the main challenges translators face, the common practices, and the quality and integrity issues in this area of translation. The findings suggest general agreement on the need for accuracy, completeness and attention to detail, but at the same time some variation in professional practice and in the translators' understanding of quality. While translators are generally confident about their ability to deal with the challenges associated with personal official documents, their responses also indicate a need for specific training and more consistent guidelines and quality assurance processes in this area of translation practice.