| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Am I altering the text too much? Thread poster: Tombaroo
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Nicole Schnell 
United States
Local time: 10:36
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | From the view of an outsourcer | Jan 9, 2013 |
Tombaroo wrote:
I worry that my approach may be considered somewhat overzealous by a more scrutinising audience.
Technically, there are no degrees in "scrutinizing". What counts is if your work is helpful or if it is just stealing time and money.
to make it read (in my eyes at least) more naturally?
This is the toughest test for any proofreader/editor/reviser. What sounds more natural to your ears might not be appropriate to the readership or target group. Make sure that you do your research before you apply the "red pen".
Should sentences which are technically correct but use vocabulary which I find uncommon / jarring be amended, or even rewritten completely?
Do never, ever rely on your personal opinion. Do your research. The translator has been selected for a reason.
IMPORTANT: Never, ever change a text because a competitor of the end client has a much prettier way of phrasing or naming things. Speech, style and how products or processes are named are highly individual and at times seriously copyrighted. An editor who rewrites a translation using personal preferences that he picked up somewhere else can bring his client into legal trouble.
I feel torn between presenting the best possible text to highlight my abilities to a potential employer, and yet on the other hand risking them thinking I haven't grasped the purpose of the exercise.
This only screams: "I am a beginner! Look at all my hard work!! I am sooooo much better than this translator!!!"
Please let go of this weird perception that you have to prove that you are such a hard worker. If we were eager to watch industrial workers, we would buy Uncle Milton's Original Ant Farm as desktop entertainment.
Editing/proofreading/revising is an incredibly important part of Quality Management. Quality Control is a means of saving money by reducing the risk of costly law suits due to mistranslations and unintentionally false information.
You are NOT supposed to use editing/proofreading/revising as means of your personal wars.
We don't like that. Why?
- Firstly, you are questioning our choice of translators (and our IQ?).
- Secondly, you are wasting our time.
- Thirdly, and most important: Any rewriting based on your personal preferences requires another round of proofreading. Because your "new and improved" text is nothing but another raw version. Are you perfect?
Nobody is perfect.
Greetings,
Schnell Creative Group, Inc.
Portland, OR
USA
| | | | | Proofreading may depend on source (and purpose) | Jan 10, 2013 |
Tombaroo wrote:
...so am in the process of applying for in-company positions.
Happily, I have made it through the second stage of an application process and have been given a test translation as well as a text to proof read.
The OP has indicated that the potential position is "in-company". I could be wrong (please tell me), but this seems to imply work for a company that is not itself in the business of translation.
So the question that comes to my mind is, where are the translations that the OP would be proofreading coming from? That is to say, have they been sent out to a responsible translation agency and worked on by professionals, or are they texts translated by in-house employees who happen (for example) to have the required technical or product knowledge but minimal translation training/experience - could they, in fact, be non-native speakers of the target language?
As many have stated, "less is more" is a very good standard to apply when proofreading - if you are proofreading a translation produced by another professional.
In my personal experience, however, it may be necessary to follow a slightly different philosophy when proofreading texts by authors (for example, translating their own work) who "can English".
Depending on the source of the translation, if a client wants a quality text that is marketable to the general public, it may mean that you have to put on the villain's hat for a while and be cruel to be kind.
To know which way to go, however, you have to use your judgment, and of course find out as much as possible about the intended use of the translation.
In a testing situation, I would be inclined to agree with those who suggest possibly submitting two versions (*IF* there is actually a significant difference between what you want to do to "improve" the translation, and what you would do applying a hands-off-as-much-as-possible approach).
Ultimately, as Tatty said, "I would make all the changes I felt necessary for the purposes of accuracy, style or readability." And as Nicole said, "Make sure that you do your research before you apply the 'red pen'".
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