The main purpose of this Introduction is to provide an introduction of how translation quality evaluation (TQE) based on Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) can be used in practice. The intended audience are translation stakeholders, meaning those interested in requesting translation services, those that provide translation services, and those that use translated materials. It is assumed that the reader of this Introduction to TQE has a general knowledge about translation, but may or may not be familiar with translation quality evaluation nor the MQM error typology. The reader may or not be an MQM implementer.
There are many ways to implement the concepts described in this introduction, so the actual evaluation is not necessarily divided into the three stages presented in these webpages, and the different elements do not need to be implemented in the order they are described here. Although there are other variables that can be used in TQE, in this Introduction to TQE, there are only three variables that must be assigned a value: Evaluation Word Count (EWC), Threshold Value (TV), and Absolute Penalty Total (APT). They are explained below.
This Introduction to TQE presents three suggested stages of evaluation at different levels of detail, which are called An Overview, Concrete Example without Formulas, and Concrete Example with Formulas. Some readers will only look at the Overview section and be satisfied. Most will find the Overview and Concrete Example without Formulas sections useful. A few will want to dive into the details of the Concrete Example with Formulas.
This Introduction to TQE is not intended to be used as a step-by-step instruction manual for setting up a TQE system.
After reading this Introduction to TQE, the next step for readers interested in setting up a TQE system is to refer to the ASTM Standard about MQM. As of September 2022, this standard is a draft (ASTM WK46396). More information is available in the Further Reading section below.