| Pages in topic: [1 2 3] > | Poll: Do you proofread your translations on paper? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you proofread your translations on paper?".
This poll was originally submitted by Jenn Mercer. View the poll results »
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:12
Spanish to English
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No, no no no. Whatever for?
| | | | Rosa Grau (X)
Spain
Local time: 13:12
English to Catalan
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Many years ago, when I started on this business, I used to proofread everything on paper but, of course, we used to work in Word only, the spellcheckers were not what they are today, and we were used to doing things as if we were book publishers. I don't think that nowadays anyone expects you to proofread on paper, especially considering that when working on CAT projects, 1) the result file does not get messed up and 2) most words are not your responsibility. How would you distinguish your words... See more Many years ago, when I started on this business, I used to proofread everything on paper but, of course, we used to work in Word only, the spellcheckers were not what they are today, and we were used to doing things as if we were book publishers. I don't think that nowadays anyone expects you to proofread on paper, especially considering that when working on CAT projects, 1) the result file does not get messed up and 2) most words are not your responsibility. How would you distinguish your words from pretranslated ones? ▲ Collapse
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But in the same way I've got used to reading the newspaper on the screen, I am now confident about my proofreading skills on screen. I used to think I caught more errors when I printed stuff out, but now, quite apart from environmental issues, I think that is not necessarily the case.
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DianeGM 
Local time: 14:12
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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| Only in very special cases | Feb 20, 2012 |
I usually proofread on screen, occassionally if the text is really complicated and/or very technical and I find it hard to follow the continuity and grammar on screen, I print the source and the target text to proofread, but those cases are few and far between.
| | | | Kimberly Wastler
United States
Local time: 07:12
Member (2005)
Italian to English
+ ...
DianeGM wrote:
I usually proofread on screen, occassionally if the text is really complicated and/or very technical and I find it hard to follow the continuity and grammar on screen, I print the source and the target text to proofread, but those cases are few and far between.
Me, too!
I find that having the text read back to you, out loud, can be extremely useful for both proof-reading and content.
| | | | Angus Stewart
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:12
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
neilmac wrote:
No, no no no. Whatever for?
I don't proofread my translations on paper, since I already go through a proof reading process consisting of several stages on screen. However, in response to the question posed by Neilmac I think the point of doing so would be that the eye interacts differently with the text when seen in hard copy, as opposed to on screen thereby enabling errors to be detected more easily. I think that I might consider doing this if I was finding it difficult to concentrate on proof reading a particular document on screen and wanted to be able to look at it with a fresh set of eyes.
| | | | David Wright
Austria
Local time: 13:12
German to English
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I don't trust my abilty to notice things on the screen to teh same degree as when I'm reading on paper - but then I hate reading material on the screen anyway!
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Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:12
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
I did when I started out as a translator because I was told it gives you another perspective on your writing and allows you to pick up more errors and make more stylistic improvements. But I soon found this was not the case for me so I scrapped the idea. I only do it now for literary translation, which is nice to see on paper and, since it's something you potentially revisit countless times anyway to tweak and refine, one more read-through on paper doesn't really add time to the process.
<... See more I did when I started out as a translator because I was told it gives you another perspective on your writing and allows you to pick up more errors and make more stylistic improvements. But I soon found this was not the case for me so I scrapped the idea. I only do it now for literary translation, which is nice to see on paper and, since it's something you potentially revisit countless times anyway to tweak and refine, one more read-through on paper doesn't really add time to the process.
For everyday translations I now do either two or three on-screen proofreads, two for purely factual texts and three for more style-heavy texts; in both cases one of these proofreads is purely for formatting. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Evans (X)
Local time: 12:12
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Not any more | Feb 20, 2012 |
I used to, and like other colleagues I now do several on-screen proofreads, except in the case of literary work, when I do still do a printout, partly because the page layout and look of the final version is very important.
I too have replaced my final paper readthrough for all other translations with reading out loud from the screen. This ensures a good flow in the language, and weeds out infelicities, typos and correction mistakes.
| | | | Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:12
Hebrew to English
| Keep it Green - Leave it on the screen! | Feb 20, 2012 |
To the 32-odd% who answered "Yes" (sometimes/always)....why aren't you thinking of the poor trees?
| | | | | Not any more | Feb 20, 2012 |
In the old days, the screen didn't look like paper, and one's perception was different. Nowadays, the screen representation is identical. Moreover, with my large screen, I can compare the two documents side by side, which is harder to do with paper.
I hear the trees giving a big sigh of relief!
Thirty years ago my mother invested all her savings in a paper company, convinced that paper was the one thing that would never go out of style. Who could have ever imagined back... See more In the old days, the screen didn't look like paper, and one's perception was different. Nowadays, the screen representation is identical. Moreover, with my large screen, I can compare the two documents side by side, which is harder to do with paper.
I hear the trees giving a big sigh of relief!
Thirty years ago my mother invested all her savings in a paper company, convinced that paper was the one thing that would never go out of style. Who could have ever imagined back then that we would be where we are today?
[Edited at 2012-02-20 10:51 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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wonita (X)
China
Local time: 07:12
David Wright wrote:
I don't trust my abilty to notice things on the screen to teh same degree as when I'm reading on paper - but then I hate reading material on the screen anyway!
And as long as I still discover mistakes I don't see on the screen, I will always do.
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 13:12
French to German
+ ...
| Sometimes... | Feb 20, 2012 |
especially with longer legal or paralegal documents.
| | | | | occasionally | Feb 20, 2012 |
I used to, but don't anymore. I will do so on rare occasions to verify certain things on a long document or to check visuals like charts etc.
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