Quality in translations is something we take for granted, but we often don’t stop to reflect on what elements influence the quality of a translation job.
The preparation of the linguist, his knowledge of the economic sector to which the translation refers, the length of the document to be translated and the time available to do so are just some of the elements that heavily influence the quality of the translation of a text.
The revision of a text, usually entrusted to an expert third translator, is the guarantee that the finished product lives up to expectations or that, if a problem is found, it will be resolved before delivery to the customer.
How revising a translation works
Each translator or translation agency follows their own process to deliver what they believe to be high-quality work. In most cases, this process is broken down into two steps: the actual translation and the revision.
At LingoYou, however, we prefer to divide the work of proofreading texts into three phases: translation, editing and proofreading. Editing and proofreading might seem somewhat redundant, so let’s find out why that’s not the case, how these steps differ, and why proofreading is so important in the translation process.
Difference between editing and proofreading
Proofreading and editing are the two sides of proofreading and, together, guarantee the accuracy and quality of a translation. Since these are two complementary steps, they are often confused with each other and used interchangeably. However, editing and proofreading are two separate activities that work together to achieve a common goal. Let’s see what they consist of.
Editing is about making stylistic changes to the translation and making suggestions to improve its overall quality. Ideally, editing will make a translated text coherent and elegant. An editor generally takes on the following responsibilities:
- Do a bilingual review between the original text and the translated version
- Identify and correct any translation errors from a semantic point of view
- Point out any inconsistencies in the translation
- Localize the text, i.e. make all those changes necessary to meet the market and the target audience
- Check that the style, register and tone of voice are relevant and consistent in all parts of the text and, when necessary, make suggestions to improve them
Proofreading focuses on correcting any superficial errors in the edited content, such as errors in spelling or grammar, formatting, punctuation, syntax, or simple typos.
The proofreading process begins when you already have a satisfactory version of the translation in your hands. Since this is the final stage of the process, the proofreader should read the text and try to make sense of it as if he were the target audience himself. Like the editor, the proofreader also has his fair share of responsibility, as he is the last person to read the text before it is published or sent to the client.
The importance of revision for a quality translation
Revision is a very delicate and fundamental step because it transforms a ‘roughly’ translated text into its definitive form. When translating, the goal is not to translate word for word, but to think about how the same message would be said in the target language. To make this happen, it is necessary to take into account the culture of the target audience and all the nuances of meaning that words take on in a given culture. This is the ultimate goal of proofreading: to deliver an impeccably translated text, as if it had been written by a native speaker.
This goal can be achieved through a complete overhaul. Editing allows you to achieve the maximum degree of adherence of the text in the target language; proofreading, for its part, identifies and corrects all those oversights committed during the first phase, such as typos, double spaces, missing words, repeated articles and misplaced commas.
LingoYou: proofreading for exceptional translations
Proofreading is a key step in the translation process, without which an agency could never deliver a product
high quality. If you are looking for a high-quality translation service that takes into account all the nuances of the process, look no further. Choose LingoYou.
Marketing Team LingoYou
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