1st Annual ProZ.com Translation Contest: feedback on tagging
Edwin Miles Germany Local time: 02:22 Member (2008) German to English
More ways to dislike than to like: human/translator nature?
Dec 7, 2008
Courtney Sliwinski wrote:
... I think that most people are forgetting to tag "likes" and simply looking for mistakes. I feel this is mean-spirited and those who choose to vote should also remember to compliment contestants. After all, these people worked hard on these translations, a few kind words could go a long way.
I've noticed the same effect. However, I'm not so sure it comes from mean-spiritedness. There may be an aspect of competitiveness - after all, I'll bet a large number of those tagging others' texts have entries in the competition as well - but I really think this focus on the "dislikes" comes from a tendency of translation-focused folk to read for "accuracy" first. We expect accurate writing ahead of good writing, and typos, mistranslations, a misplaced, comma etc. stick out like the proverbial pained opposable digit: easy meat for a "dislike" tag.
It's much easier to identify why something sucks than to say why something reads as classic as Garcia Marquez/Rabassa. A significant number of the dislike tags I've read strike me as being of the "tin-ear" variety, justified by some marginal and sometimes imagined increase in accuracy, but with scant attention paid to the translator's attempt at actually making the translation sound good in the target language. I think translator's need to read for pleasure more, but with an ear for why they take pleasure in what they are reading...
Yes, I think translations need to be accurate, and I suspect inaccuracy is the reason around half of the entries have already been culled and we're left with the better half to go on judging. But even if this focus on dislikes is not mean-spirited, I too would like to see a greater focus on the positives. I think it would shift people's attention away from the easy "dislikes" towards the more intangible "likes" (witness the only two "like" choices: "Good term selection" and "Flows well". What about "Particularly accurate", "Subtle rendering", "Nice sound effect", "Great image," "I like your style", or "Good rhythms", for example?). Could/should this be forced somehow? Or do we see the "likes", finally and as intangible as they may be, in the results of the contest?
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It's pretty obvious that anyone evaluating here will mentally translate the text in their own sweet way, and then compare it with what they see. So I took a proofreading stance:
- I marked my dislikes wherever I spotted anything that I would make sure to change while proofreading;
- I marked my likes wherever I'd prefer the contestant's version to mine.
Too many people here have discussed this from an error-spotting stance. Was that the goal?
Next, I gave a general rating to all translations first, so I read them. Only after I was finished, I went back to check the likes/dislikes. If most of the candidates did something in an essentially similar way, there would be nothing to "like" about it. So I chose to focus on the different approaches.
Did I go overboard on detail?
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Susan Welsh United States Local time: 20:22 Member (2008) German to English + ...
More ways to dislike than to like
Dec 7, 2008
Edwin Miles wrote:
I really think this focus on the "dislikes" comes from a tendency of translation-focused folk to read for "accuracy" first. We expect accurate writing ahead of good writing, and typos, mistranslations, a misplaced, comma etc. stick out like the proverbial pained opposable digit: easy meat for a "dislike" tag.
I suspect you're right about this. For me personally , part of the problem is having to read all these things on this tiny screen, scrolling all the time with sore thumb (arthritis) and wrist, and clicking on these little buttons. I proposed a week or so ago that for future contests, it be possible to print out all the entries and read them on "hard copy" before going to the computer. That gives one a chance to see the forest first, before looking at which trees might have this or that defect or advantage. Henry took it under advisement for the future.
But some that I marked "dislike" on quite a bit for some trivial error like spelling, I nevertheless rated highly when it comes to stars. And right now, we don't know what stars an item has, except for the ones we put there. Since the likes-dislikes don't figure in the tally of who wins, people shouldn't get too worked up about them. (Including in the EN-RU pair!)
Edwin wrote:
I too would like to see a greater focus on the positives. I think it would shift people's attention away from the easy "dislikes" towards the more intangible "likes" (witness the only two "like" choices: "Good term selection" and "Flows well". What about "Particularly accurate", "Subtle rendering", "Nice sound effect", "Great image," "I like your style", or "Good rhythms", for example?). Could/should this be forced somehow?
I wouldn't be for this. They all basically mean "I like it," including the two offered. I almost never use "flows well" (which is the default ) almost always "good term selection." But towards the end I used "flows well" for pretty much everything, just because it is the default and I didn't have to do any more tiresome mousing. I don't think all these subtle ways of saying "I like it" are necessary or really add anything.
Susan
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The translation workplace 
stick out like the proverbial pained opposable digit: easy meat for a "dislike" tag.
) almost always "good term selection." But towards the end I used "flows well" for pretty much everything, just because it is the default and I didn't have to do any more tiresome mousing. I don't think all these subtle ways of saying "I like it" are necessary or really add anything.