Towards a Terminology for Translation Quality Assessment

Recent research on the revision and assessment of general texts has revealed that the terms and concepts used in discussing this process are somewhat confused, hence the need to map out the terminology used in various evaluative practices. This article offers an overview of translation assessment and attempts to define the key terms specific to this field, including subfields such as translation management quality control (assessment; formative revision) as well as revision theory (assessment criteria; purpose). Each concept and term is discussed at length and exemplified. The article focuses initially on various assessment procedures, including pragmatic revision, translation quality assessment, quality control, didactic revision, and 'fresh look'. For these procedures to be scientifically credible and ethically acceptable, they must be based on clearly defined criteria. Thus, the second part of the article puts forward criteria which have been delimited and duly tested in prior research, namely: logic, context, purpose and language norm.