Comparing source texts, first translations and revised versions for meaning, register, terminology and fluency.
Academic case study · Business Translation Practice
Translation practice at NOVA FCSH
Coursework in specialised translation, post-editing, terminology, CAT tools and quality review.
This page brings together work from the second semester of 2026 in the BA in Translation at NOVA FCSH. It is coursework, not commercial work. I include it because it shows the process behind the translations: research, revision, terminology decisions and final checks.
Building bilingual terminology resources for business, finance and energy.
Managing a longer business translation in memoQ, including segments, terminology and consistency checks.
Turning broad review criteria into a checklist I could reuse before delivery.
01 / Scope
Nine kinds of work, one portfolio.
The portfolio covered different text types and practical constraints. Some tasks were mainly about terminology, others about register, post-editing, persuasion or technical consistency.
Business and economic translation
A news text about UK businesses, recession and state support, with a focus on economic terminology.
MT post-editing
Reviewing machine translation for problems in meaning, register, terminology and fluency.
Bilingual terminology
An English-Portuguese termbase for business, finance and energy, with context for each term.
memoQ project
A guide to doing business in the UK, translated with terminology research and a note explaining key decisions.
Post-editing checklist
A practical checklist for reviewing a translation before delivery.
UK GDPR
Legal and administrative translation with an emphasis on accurate terminology and readable Portuguese.
Institutional terminology
Checking Entry/Exit System, Schengen and geographical terminology against institutional sources.
Marketing
Promotional material for the fictional MiHaus app.
Tourism / advertising
An academic exercise translating Royal Caribbean promotional copy, with attention to rhythm, brand and persuasion.
02 / MT and post-editing
Post-editing means checking the text, not just the grammar.
For one exercise, I compared an economic source text with a machine translation and then revised the Portuguese. The main problems were literal phrasing, register, inconsistent terminology and sentences that were grammatically acceptable but still did not work in context.
That exercise reinforced something simple: a sentence can be correct on its own and still be the wrong sentence for the text.
03 / Terminology + CAT
Keeping terms consistent across a longer text.
I built an English-Portuguese termbase and later used memoQ for a longer guide to doing business in the UK. I completed the project individually, managing the translation, terminology, segments and consistency checks, then wrote a note explaining my main decisions.
Selected entries from the academic termbases
The termbase entries come from the academic portfolio. They show how I record and research terminology, but they are not intended as a general-purpose glossary.
| EN | PT-PT | Domain |
|---|---|---|
| Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) | Tarifas garantidas de venda à rede | Energy |
| Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) | Sistema de armazenamento de energia em baterias | Energy |
| Share Capital | Capital social | Business |
| Sole Trader | Empresário em nome individual | Business |
| Corporation Tax | Imposto sobre as sociedades | Tax |
memoQ / CAT
Skills practised in memoQ
- Managing segments in a longer document
- Using terminology to maintain consistency
- Coordinating translation, revision and technical checks
- Checking exported files and formatting before delivery
04 / QA
Turning revision into a checklist.
I also developed a post-editing checklist for business translation. Instead of relying on a general final read, it breaks the review into checks I can repeat before delivery.
Terminology consistency
Number and currency formatting
Accuracy against the source
Consistent tone
Natural wording
Cohesion and readability
General formatting
Punctuation and basic errors
Cultural adaptation / localization
Consistent proper names
05 / Specialized contexts
Different texts need different checks.
UK GDPR
Preserving obligations, principles and legal terms while keeping the Portuguese understandable to non-specialists.
Entry/Exit System
Checking names and acronyms against IATE, EUR-Lex and official EU sources.
MiHaus
Writing a slogan, value proposition and promotional description for a fictional digital product.
Royal Caribbean
Adapting promotional copy for tone, rhythm and brand consistency in an academic exercise.
06 / Method development
What I would do differently next time.
In the final reflection, I looked at the weaker parts of the exercises and turned them into specific changes for future work.
Portuguese-only review
Read the Portuguese without the source beside it to catch literal phrasing and awkward sentences.
Terminology
Record the source, context, variant and reliability of each important term.
Post-editing
Group edits by error type so the reason for each change is easier to explain.
Technical QA
Reserve time for formatting, exported files and final segment checks instead of treating them as an afterthought.
NOVA FCSH · Applied academic practice
Coursework I can explain, not just list.
The PT-PT localization sample applies the same review principles to a fictional product flow, with before-and-after examples and a reason for each change.