FIT Professional Ethics & Standards 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A certified translator discovers mid-project that the source document contains fraudulent financial data. What is the ethical course of action?
- Alter the translation to correct the inaccuracies
- Complete the translation faithfully and notify the client of the concern (Correct answer)
- Refuse to complete the translation without explanation
- Report directly to authorities without informing the client
Correct answer: Complete the translation faithfully and notify the client of the concern
A translator's duty is to render content faithfully; concerns about source content should be raised with the client, not resolved by altering the text.
Question 2: Under FIT ethical guidelines, which of the following best describes the principle of 'professional solidarity'?
- Agreeing with all decisions made by translation associations
- Supporting colleagues while maintaining honest critique within the profession (Correct answer)
- Refusing to compete with fellow translators for the same contract
- Sharing client information among trusted professional peers
Correct answer: Supporting colleagues while maintaining honest critique within the profession
Professional solidarity means supporting the profession and colleagues constructively, not uncritical agreement or improper information sharing.
Question 3: A translator is asked to translate a document they know was obtained illegally by the client. The ethically correct response is to:
- Complete the job since the translator bears no legal responsibility
- Decline the assignment as it implicates the translator in wrongdoing (Correct answer)
- Request written confirmation of legality before proceeding
- Translate only the portions unrelated to the illegal activity
Correct answer: Decline the assignment as it implicates the translator in wrongdoing
Accepting work tied to clearly illegal activity compromises the translator's ethical and potentially legal standing.
Question 4: When a translator accepts a retainer contract with an agency, their primary ethical loyalty must be to:
- The agency exclusively, since they are the paying client
- The end client, overriding all agency instructions
- The accuracy of the translation and the code of professional ethics (Correct answer)
- The target-language audience's preferences over source fidelity
Correct answer: The accuracy of the translation and the code of professional ethics
Regardless of contractual arrangements, a certified translator's core obligation is to professional standards and translation accuracy.
Question 5: Which FIT principle addresses a translator's obligation to stay current with developments in their specialized fields?
- Fidelity
- Continuing professional development (Correct answer)
- Impartiality
- Non-maleficence
Correct answer: Continuing professional development
Continuing professional development (CPD) is a recognized ethical obligation to maintain competence as fields and terminologies evolve.
Question 6: A translator working on a legal contract realizes they made a significant error in a previously delivered section. They should:
- Hope the client does not notice and proceed with the rest
- Wait until the full project is delivered before mentioning the error
- Immediately notify the client and provide a corrected version (Correct answer)
- Only correct it if the client specifically asks for revisions
Correct answer: Immediately notify the client and provide a corrected version
Prompt disclosure and correction of errors is an ethical requirement that protects the client and upholds professional integrity.
Question 7: A certified translator is offered a premium rate to rush a technically complex translation in 12 hours, which they estimate requires 30 hours for quality work. The ethical response is to:
- Accept and deliver whatever is possible in 12 hours without disclosing limitations
- Accept, use machine translation for speed, and lightly post-edit
- Decline or negotiate a realistic deadline while explaining the quality risk (Correct answer)
- Accept and subcontract to an unvetted freelancer to meet the deadline
Correct answer: Decline or negotiate a realistic deadline while explaining the quality risk
Accepting work one cannot competently complete in the given time is unethical; transparency about constraints protects all parties.
FIT Professional Ethics & Standards 2
A certified translator discovers mid-project that the source document contains fraudulent financial data.
What is the ethical course of action?