Poll: How has your experience with proofreaders been, in general? 论题张贴者: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How has your experience with proofreaders been, in general?".
This poll was originally submitted by Djana Surkovic. View the poll results »
| | | | Dénis Wettmann 
爱尔兰
Local time: 19:20
正式会员 (自2016)
German德语译成English英语
+ ...
| Not everyone know the distinction | Feb 4, 2017 |
ProZ.com Staff wrote: This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How has your experience with proofreaders been, in general?". This poll was originally submitted by Djana Surkovic. View the poll results »
Some companies give the finished translation to another translator to 'proofread' and they edit the translation instead. Making stylistic changes that are not appropriate for the proofreading process, are unrelated to the quality of the translation and introduce errors in the process. Fortunately, experiences like that are rare.
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Usually worked with good, accurate and nice proofreaders, and I have tried to do the same for them
Only once I have worked with a proofreader who wanted to implement her preferred terms (non the core terminology of the translation) which changed none to the translation.
| | | | Marion_J_W
德国
Local time: 19:20
German德语译成English英语
My son does all my proofreading for me and I am very happy with his work.
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Dénis Wettmann
爱尔兰
Local time: 19:20
正式会员 (自2016)
German德语译成English英语
+ ...
| Utilising family resources | Feb 4, 2017 |
MarionJ.W. wrote:
My son does all my proofreading for me and I am very happy with his work.
My spouse and myself proofread the work of each other. We have a tight quality control process that we delevoped over the past 5-6 years, which works for our academic as well as translator work. ☺️
| | | | EvaVer (X)
Local time: 19:20
Czech捷克语译成French法语
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Positive with most proofreaders chosen by me, negative with most proofreaders chosen by agencies.
| | | | | Positive overall... | Feb 4, 2017 |
… even with most proofreaders chosen by agencies and with some of them I developed a good professional relationship. Sure enough over the years I also had some bad experiences. A few years back one of my long-standing customers (a Japanese company) picked a Spanish proofreader for the texts I translate (I translate exclusively into European Portuguese) and it took some time and a lot of emails back and forth for him to understand that Spanish and Portuguese, though related, are quite different!
| | | | Ricki Farn
德国
Local time: 19:20
English英语译成German德语
Positive above all with proofreaders I know personally (including the one I try to promote as my preferred partner just for this reason).
Often negative when
- the proofreader feels they and me are 100% anonymous to each other
- the proofreader is not a language professional but e.g. some random employee of the end customer
- both of the above. I've received (rarely, but more than never) aggressive comments that made me give up on the entire ongoing project. I be... See more Positive above all with proofreaders I know personally (including the one I try to promote as my preferred partner just for this reason).
Often negative when
- the proofreader feels they and me are 100% anonymous to each other
- the proofreader is not a language professional but e.g. some random employee of the end customer
- both of the above. I've received (rarely, but more than never) aggressive comments that made me give up on the entire ongoing project. I bet that same person would not have said those things to my face, or maybe not even if they had known my name.
- agencies try to replace adequate word rates by more pressure and stress. A "proofreader" is not some person who does not speak my language and makes me justify my translation in several rounds because "I haven't translated the word 'server'" (it's 'Server' in German) or because my translation does not contain certain target terms (most proofing tools generate false positives when words are inflected or concatenated).
Conversely, I know I'm a snarky bitch, so I don't proofread. ▲ Collapse
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Dénis Wettmann
爱尔兰
Local time: 19:20
正式会员 (自2016)
German德语译成English英语
+ ...
| Thank you for the self awareness | Feb 4, 2017 |
Ricki Farn wrote:
Conversely, I know I'm a snarky bitch, so I don't proofread.
I like your entry, it made me laugh.
| | | | Nilton Junior
巴西
Local time: 18:20
正式会员 (自2009)
English英语译成Portuguese葡萄牙语
+ ...
I can't say I have had neither good nor bad experiences with proofreaders because I rarely receive any feedback on my translations. I assume no news is good news.
Nowadays editing represents a large chunk of my business. These are a few steps I take in an attempt to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable:
1. I encourage the translators to include comments in the files.
2. We are not enemies, so the translators are welcome to discuss with me ... See more I can't say I have had neither good nor bad experiences with proofreaders because I rarely receive any feedback on my translations. I assume no news is good news.
Nowadays editing represents a large chunk of my business. These are a few steps I take in an attempt to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable:
1. I encourage the translators to include comments in the files.
2. We are not enemies, so the translators are welcome to discuss with me how to tackle certain parts of the text.
3. I strive to be fair when creating my LQA reports, but I am always interested in the translators' point of view if they do not agree with my changes.
4. If the deadline is daunting, I don't mind receiving the translation a few hours or even days later if it will not affect my workload. I know how awful it is to work against the clock, so I will be always willing to help taking that pressure off.
The translators I work with seem to be happy with this apporach. I hope we can keep refining it as a team as it will only help us deliver better quality to our clients. ▲ Collapse
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In general, I don't know who are the proofreaders of my translation works. They, however, often increase my translation knowledge by pointing out my mistakes.
| | | | Mario Freitas
巴西
Local time: 14:20
正式会员 (自2014)
English英语译成Portuguese葡萄牙语
+ ...
Yes, this has been discussed here earlier. And it hasn't changed.
I was lucky enough to find some clients whose revisers are competent. However, the vast majority of revisers I have to deal with, invariably make very undue "corrections" and usually replace A LOT of words with synonyms to show they are necessary.
In general terms, I really think the agencies would make a lot more money and pay a better rate to the translators if the excluded the revisers from the loop. Most of my jobs... See more Yes, this has been discussed here earlier. And it hasn't changed.
I was lucky enough to find some clients whose revisers are competent. However, the vast majority of revisers I have to deal with, invariably make very undue "corrections" and usually replace A LOT of words with synonyms to show they are necessary.
In general terms, I really think the agencies would make a lot more money and pay a better rate to the translators if the excluded the revisers from the loop. Most of my jobs that have been revised by these professionals and delivered to the client would have pleased the client a lot more and have fewer errors if the version I sent to the agency were submitted directly to the client. Revisers usually make my work a bit worse before they deliver it. Ultimately, I honestly think the revisers are those who were not able to fill their time with translations and have to accept proofreading jobs to do that. In other words, translators who do not succeed become revisers. Now, how can a person revise and "fix" the job of someone who is professionally much more qualified than they are, and a lot more competent? Revisers are eager to find errors in tranlators' work, and they WILL make them up when they don't find them, no doubt about that.
IMO, a revision or proofreading work is only acceptable when it is sent back to the translator to accept or refuse the changes made by the reviser. The last word MUST BE that of the transaltor, who will be responsible for the content of their translation in the future, never the reviser's.
[Edited at 2017-02-10 04:02 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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