An original real-estate article should also appear in another language. The translation should read fluently, but must not change an open recommendation to check into a firm assurance in any place. You should spot exactly such shifts before publication. The following procedure is an editorial recommendation for quality assurance, not an assessment of any particular translation service.
Record the approved source text
Work from a clearly labelled version. Note the topic, the country addressed and the scope of the article. Do not translate an older draft and a new revision at the same time without making their differences visible. Otherwise, linguistically clean texts may rest on different substantive bases.
Create a short glossary. It should list central technical terms, their intended meaning in the source text and instances where a straightforward equivalent is questionable. The list need not cover the entire technical vocabulary. It should prevent the crucial terms from being used differently with every publication.
Uncertainty must be preserved
Mark up formulations such as “kann”, “im konkreten Fall prüfen” or “noch offen”. The linguistic check is not only about grammar but about meaning. A possibility must not become a general rule. A fictional example must still be recognisable as such in the second language.
Equally important is the national attribution. Translating an Austrian article does not turn it into an article about the law of the target country. Leave the actual scope of applicability clearly stated. If a different legal system is to be addressed, a separate research and editorial elaboration is required.
An example of the crucial query
In the fictional source text it says: “Lass prüfen, welche Unterlagen für dein Vorhaben erforderlich sind.” The translated version, however, may read back as: “These documents are sufficient for your project.” The editorial team corrects the statement and examines neighbouring passages with similar modal verbs.
Back-translation is a tool for finding errors, not a substantive guarantee. For demanding content, a person who is suitable both linguistically and substantively should assess the specific version. Responsibility for approval must not disappear into a general note about automatic translation.
Keep sources and versions together
Link both language versions to the same underlying register of sources. Do not alter bibliographic details in a way that suggests a different retrieval or a different source. New research must have its own, actual reference.
Then save the source version, the translated version and any resolved queries together. In the event of a later substantive correction, the affected language versions will be explicitly rechecked. This procedure does not allow adoption of other people’s articles: the starting point is exclusively self-authored or otherwise explicitly authorised content. For this library use original texts of your own, not other people’s texts merely rebuilt with synonyms.