How to approve

[How to approve]

Approval is the last task
before publishing.

It is carried out
by the Language Coordinators,

who verify the quality of the subtitles.

Once taken,

ideally, approval tasks
should be completed within a week,

even though Amara
gives each task a 30-day limit.

Leaving approval tasks in the dashboard
for longer periods of time

can demotivate the volunteers

and even potentially lead them
to abandon the Project.

Here are a few easy steps

for performing approvals
quickly and efficiently.

The Amara editor

marks reading-speed
and line and subtitle-length issues

with a red exclamation mark.

By using your browser's search function,

you can easily locate
all exclamation marks

and swiftly decide
if you should send the task back

with notes on how to correct these issues

or correct them yourself,
if there are very few of them.

Don't forget to check
the title and description

and edit them according to the TED, TED-Ed
or TEDx title and description formats,

as appropriate.

Next, watch the talk with the subtitles on

to see whether the synchronization
of the subtitles is correct.

In the meantime,

you can scan the subtitles for accuracy,
grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Once you are done with the first pass,

decide whether you can complete
the task as it is,

or whether the subtitles need to be
sent back for further corrections.

The approval task should not take
too much of your time.

For example,

the approval of a standard
18-minute TED talk

should not take more
than 30 minutes to complete.

If more time is required,

you should consider
returning the task to the reviewer

with instructions
on how to improve the subtitles.

Before sending the subtitles back,

it's a good idea to make
the necessary changes

at least in the first minute or two,

to give the reviewer an example
of what you mean.

In your comments, you can include
links to guidelines and tutorials,

examples of mistakes,
language resources, tips and tricks,

and anything that you feel
will help the volunteer improve.

Make sure you refer to objective standards

from reputable resources
by a language authority in your culture

so the volunteers will feel
that the level of skill

necessary to be good
at translating and reviewing

is fully accessible to them,

provided that they base their decisions
on more careful research.

Remember to phrase your feedback
in a polite and constructive manner.

Only comment on the work,
and not the contributor.

Be objective, and make sure to point out
not only the mistakes,

but also what worked in the subtitles,

to encourage the volunteer.

You can write feedback templates
for the most common comments

and share them with the other
Language Coordinators in your language.

This will reduce the time
needed for approvals even more.

In OTPedia, you can read more
about how to tackle an approval task

and also find a huge library
with useful resources

you can share with the translators.

And for now, happy approving!