The technical specification defines what the job that is the subject of the tender actually is. A single sentence carried over wrongly can go as far as the rejection of the product delivered. For that reason technical specification translation is the type of text in which free rendering is least acceptable.
References to standards are not translated
The TS, EN, ISO and ASTM numbers in the text are document identifiers. They are not translated but carried over as they are. If there is a Turkish standard equivalent it is stated separately, but the source number is not deleted. The year next to the number is kept as well, because different years of the same standard carry different requirements.
Units of measurement and tolerances
Units are not converted in translation. The value given in the source text and its tolerance are carried over as they are; if the reader needs a conversion, a footnote is added. The decimal separator, too, follows Turkish writing rules and not the source, and this choice does not change anywhere in the document.
Acceptance criteria
The expressions "sağlamalıdır" (shall meet), "tercih edilir" (is preferred) and "sağlanması hâlinde puan verilir" (points are awarded if met) carry different levels of binding force. If these levels are flattened in translation, an article the tenderer takes to be mandatory may in fact be a scoring factor, or the other way round. The modal verbs are kept as they are.
Drawings and tables
Technical specifications come with tables and drawings as annexes. The header row of a table, the unit column and the footnotes are part of the translation. The labels on a drawing are handled as a separate item; they have to be placed without disturbing the page layout.
Brand and model names
As a rule no brand is named in a specification, but where one unavoidably appears, the brand name is not translated. Model codes, serial numbers and part numbers are carried over in the same way. A change of a single letter in these codes points to a different product.
Samples, inspection and acceptance
Technical specifications often provide for samples to be supplied and for an inspection after delivery. Which standard the inspection method follows, how many samples are taken and which result counts as a non-conformity are written here. Because this section binds the contractor directly, it is the part that has to be carried over with the greatest care.
Warranty and spare parts
The warranty period, what the warranty covers and the obligation to keep spare parts available come at the end of the technical specification. The starting point of the periods is critical: whether they run from the delivery date, the acceptance date or the commissioning date is carried over exactly as written. In most jobs these three dates are months apart.
Tracking revisions of the specification
A technical specification may change several times during preparation. Each version has a number and a date. Whichever version the translation was made from, that information is visible in the delivery file. A translation with no version information turns, months later, into a document of which nobody can tell which text it corresponds to.