Article on proofreading tips
Thread poster: Mark Hemming
Mark Hemming
Mark Hemming  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:36
Slovenian to English
+ ...
Jun 2, 2020

Hi all,

Just wanted to share an article with you on proofreading tips and tricks that you may find useful, especially for those new to translation.

Mark


 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 02:36
Member
English to Turkish
Does this work for you? Jun 2, 2020

Mark Hemming wrote:

Hi all,

Just wanted to share an article with you on proofreading tips and tricks that you may find useful, especially for those new to translation.

Mark


Do you generate much traffic to your website by posting your articles here? Isn't it better for you to post them on LinkedIn or Facebook? Let me take this opportunity to post my article on proofreading, perhaps I'll generate some traffic to my website, for whatever good that'll do.
https://turkolocal.com/thoughts-on-proofreading/


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 23:36
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
None of you touches upon what I consider the best last step... Jun 2, 2020

I mean: reading aloud the whole text after the last proofreading has been done. It’s time-consuming but extremely effective…

Zibow Retailleau
Valentina Del Maestro
Thayenga
Esther Dodo
Josephine Cassar
Daniel Williams
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Valentina Del Maestro
Valentina Del Maestro  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 00:36
Spanish to Italian
+ ...
You hit the spot! Jun 2, 2020



Very interesting article, good to read confirmed what I always state about proofreading


 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 02:36
Member
English to Turkish
Thanks for the tip! Jun 2, 2020

Teresa Borges wrote:

I mean: reading aloud the whole text after the last proofreading has been done. It’s time-consuming but extremely effective…


That's a good tip, I might want to try it sometime. However, my article wasn't about tips and pointers, but rather about the role and purpose of proofreading in general, and, particularly, about the spiteful and malevolent translators (who're given proofreading tasks) hell-bent on sabotaging another translator's work by replacing words with their synonyms and rewriting sentences without changing the meaning in any significant way, all in an effort to make the original translator's work look weak so that they can be better placed to receive translation jobs from that agency in the future. I don't know about yours and others', but this happens a lot in my language pair.


Nathalie Bullen
Stephanie Bohnerth
Mario Cerutti
Lidija Klemencic
Georgiana Zarnescu
Inez Ulrich
 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 02:36
Member
English to Turkish
Thank you Valentina! Jun 2, 2020

Valentina Del Maestro wrote:



Very interesting article, good to read confirmed what I always state about proofreading


Thank you!


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 23:36
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I don’t have a negative opinion of proofreaders (quite the contrary) Jun 2, 2020

The proofreaders I have been working with have a cooperative attitude towards the translator (maybe because I’m also a proofreader). I have had an arrangement with two colleagues (I worked in-house for 20 years with one of them) where we proofread each other's work (mostly work done for direct clients). So far, it has worked quite well as a moneyless system and I (we?) have learned a lot. With most of the agencies I work with I don’t know if my work is edited or not, but I’ve been working ... See more
The proofreaders I have been working with have a cooperative attitude towards the translator (maybe because I’m also a proofreader). I have had an arrangement with two colleagues (I worked in-house for 20 years with one of them) where we proofread each other's work (mostly work done for direct clients). So far, it has worked quite well as a moneyless system and I (we?) have learned a lot. With most of the agencies I work with I don’t know if my work is edited or not, but I’ve been working with the same proofreader for two agencies, this means that we know each other work quite well and we trust each other (we are both translators and proofreaders, but she is a much experienced proofreader than me). I must say that we only had a slight disagreement once…Collapse


 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 02:36
Member
English to Turkish
Just to clarify Jun 2, 2020

Teresa Borges wrote:

The proofreaders I have been working with have a cooperative attitude towards the translator (maybe because I’m also a proofreader). I have had an arrangement with two colleagues (I worked in-house for 20 years with one of them) where we proofread each other's work (mostly work done for direct clients). So far, it has worked quite well as a moneyless system and I (we?) have learned a lot. With most of the agencies I work with I don’t know if my work is edited or not, but I’ve been working with the same proofreader for two agencies, this means that we know each other work quite well and we trust each other (we are both translators and proofreaders, but she is a much experienced proofreader than me). I must say that we only had a slight disagreement once…


I totally respect proofreaders, by which I mean people who make their living by proofreading, checking and editing translations, not translating texts. However, I can't say the same for translators who also provide proofreading services. In my experience, translators-turned-proofreaders do not make particularly good proofreaders especially when they have a financial interest in the translation agency that asks for them to proofread a translation.


 
Inez Ulrich
Inez Ulrich  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 00:36
Member (2016)
English to German
+ ...
... Jun 5, 2020



That's a good tip, I might want to try it sometime. However, my article wasn't about tips and pointers, but rather about the role and purpose of proofreading in general, and, particularly, about the spiteful and malevolent translators (who're given proofreading tasks) hell-bent on sabotaging another translator's work by replacing words with their synonyms and rewriting sentences without changing the meaning in any significant way, all in an effort to make the original translator's work look weak so that they can be better placed to receive translation jobs from that agency in the future. I don't know about yours and others', but this happens a lot in my language pair.


Ha! Know exactly what you mean! Actually, I like proofreading a lot, tbh, and don't mind filling that role, but on the other hand, I rarely get really good translations on my desk, so it can be really a pain.

Only recently I was in a very weird situation as translator, as I was being proofread by someone who had only spent a few semesters at a German university (and he didn't even do linguistic etc.) and constantly asked me this or that translation from another translator was correct. It took him ages to proofread my translation and I had to wait twice or even three times as long for my payment as agreed, as he needed so much time to "accept" my translation. I seriously considered killing this guy - more than once.

And for another project I had to work with a second translator. We were supposed ot proofread each other's translations, only that this guy was neither a native speaker nor was his German good enough to do any of this work at all. I had to complain for about 2 weeks before they reacted at all. They still have non other translator, quite chaotic project management.

So those things can happen as well to translators.


 


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Article on proofreading tips







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