The aim of this paper is to offer a short survey of the various proposals to evaluate all kinds of translations (our ‘heritage' and our ‘inheritance' in this field of knowledge). A summary and comparison of some of the most important contributions to the issue is given (i.e. the state of the art in evaluating translations), particularly during the last two or three decades. The first section deals with traditional or analytic proposals, based on translation errors. The second section focuses on quality criteria to define translations (so as to evaluate them better). The third section describes holistic evaluations and the attempts to define translation competence. The fourth section compares the proposals mentioned before. And the last one offers a personal contribution and a practical proposal to evaluate translations in academic settings.