There is no one better than oneself to see what needs to be improved and what failings are observed, either due to the deficiencies noted in the translation - grammatical didactics, ignorance of certain terminology, poverty of vocabulary - or perhaps because of the comments received from your clients, which help a lot to improve. Maybe your texts are very similar to the original? Excessive repetitions? Here are some tips if you want to improve your professional translations.

1. Read a lot, and good writers, in your target language. Mastering your mother tongue is essential for a text to sound natural and be impeccable in terms of grammar, spelling, etc., so one of the main tips is to read and look at the style of the best writers. This will help you to distinguish the different types of narrative and understanding how to effectively write is a key ingredient to translate later.

2. Read about different disciplines and subjects. Whether agriculture, economy or technology, to name a few, and although some branches may not be of our interest or specialty, it is useful to acquire vocabulary. You never know exactly when and in which project you are going to need it. It is not uncommon to read contemporary novels with specialized vocabulary that we have not heard of, or that there are very specific references connected to the most technical fields. Like the good swimmer, the translator must be prepared to swim in all waters and do so satisfactorily with all the resources at your disposal (libraries, dictionaries, reference material, etc.).

3. Read different types of printed material: novels, reports, resolutions, laws ... We will find useful terms in many types of texts and all these materials will help you to enrich your vocabulary and familiarize with different modes of expression. Even the shampoo label or the composition of the your hummus provide information that may be relevant at some point. You never know.

4. Use the dictionary to learn specify terms. A dictionary does not only serve to verify the definition of a term; it also teaches us to express the same in another way by linking to other words or expressions that perhaps we did not know. It also gives examples of how to use the word and, if it is a good one, a lot of other interesting information: etymology, synonyms, etc. And when we speak of a dictionary, we obviously refer to all kinds of works, monolingual in the original text language and in the translator´s mother tongue, bilingual, specialized and many more.

5. Accumulate synonyms. The translator must carry a suitcase full of words and phrases that can not only get you out of a hurry, but also prevent it from repeating itself like garlic (without excessively betraying the author's style to which it translates). A good linguistic should be able to recite at least three synonyms of any word

6. Use different sources of information, especially the most reliable ones. Luckily, we have a large collection of terminology in all branches of activity: economy, finance, taxation ... The United Nations, as well as its specialized agencies, national and international entities, etc., have deepened in these areas, so the specialized vocabulary is usually within our reach.
Read beforehand the document to be translated and mark all the technicalities that may be a problem. If we anticipate the obstacles -searching the terms and having a clear translation or, at least, the meaning-, the translation process will be more fluid and not stumbling, which usually happens when we have to interrupt the writing to look for the terms in question. And when we talk about sources of information it may have a friend or acquaintance who is dedicated to that branch in question.

7. Compare texts published in two languages. These texts allow us to see how others have translated a term, expression or, simply, how they unfold with the subject in question. Checking texts is a good exercise because it allows us to always learn, be it an expression or a new linguistic modality.

8. Exercise your writing. In some way, translators are also exercising their creativity. Encouraging creativity and practicing writing can only be for the benefit of the translator, who in the end can contribute with more quality to the texts. Knowing how to write and learning writing strategies help the translator to gain fluency and confidence.

9. Always reread and review carefully your translations. Another way to self-critic and see our own pros and cons is to reread with a critical eye what we translate. Let the translations rest and see what we could have done differently, and apply it later.

10. Be curious about what surrounds us and continue to train. Improvement and learning never ends in any field, and translations are not exceptions.