| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Bad reviews and corrections Thread poster: Umang Dholabhai
|
|---|
conejo 
United States
Local time: 12:17
Japanese to English
+ ...
| Take it with a grain of salt | May 22, 2009 |
First off, as others have said, look at the comments thoroughly and see if you have actually made any real mistakes.
A "real" mistake would be something that can be objectively proven to be wrong by multiple people using reliable resources, such as dictionaries. If someone translated "apple" as "orange", that would be a "real" mistake. Omissions, typos, additions that are not absolutely necessary to convey meaning, misspellings, wrong grammar, and this type of thing would all be "r... See more First off, as others have said, look at the comments thoroughly and see if you have actually made any real mistakes.
A "real" mistake would be something that can be objectively proven to be wrong by multiple people using reliable resources, such as dictionaries. If someone translated "apple" as "orange", that would be a "real" mistake. Omissions, typos, additions that are not absolutely necessary to convey meaning, misspellings, wrong grammar, and this type of thing would all be "real" mistakes.
I work as both an editor and a translator. I have had my own work reviewed, and I have reviewed a lot of other translators' work. So being on both ends of the spectrum, I can say that the majority of all changes editors/reviewers make are subjective and cannot necessarily be proven. As an editor I try to make the final document sound as good as I can, and most of that is subjective. Certain word choice can also be subjective in some cases... for example if there are multiple correct translations for the same word in the same context, it comes down to personal preference.
I have also had the experience when I was in college where both my friend and I had grade point averages above 3.8 on a 4.0 scale, both of us had excellent writing skills, and both of us were from the same 200-mile radius region of the same country, speaking the same native language. We reviewed each other's papers, and we found that we were marking each other's papers all up, and most of it was purely subjective. So even if people have reliable editing skills, personal preference makes a lot of it.
So first:
1. Check to see if you made any 'real' mistakes. If you did, correct them for free, apologize for your mistake, and take measures so that it doesn't happen again. If you didn't, then go on to the next step.
2. If the requested changes are minor and do not change the intended meaning of the source document in a manner that would cause a problem, then explain why your version is correct, and say something like "If you want to change to X, that would be fine too."
3. Sometimes clients have terminology that they use in-house that they would like you to use. If this is the case, use their terminology unless it would change the meaning in an adverse manner.
4. Basically agree to what changes you can, because you don't want to seem difficult. However, if the change is not appropriate for whatever reason, don't accept it and explain why it is not appropriate.
That is how I handle things.
Good luck. ▲ Collapse
| | | | conejo
United States
Local time: 12:17
Japanese to English
+ ...
| The requirements for editing/proofreading are often vague | May 22, 2009 |
I agree with Viktoria about this point. A lot of times agencies are not clear what the requirements are, or they ask you to do an extremely detailed job but don't want to pay the money for the time it would take to actually do all that.
One time I had to laugh because I had been doing editing for years with a certain client, and one day I happened to look on their website and saw that there was a list of about 100 things they were promising the end clients that editors absolutely fo... See more I agree with Viktoria about this point. A lot of times agencies are not clear what the requirements are, or they ask you to do an extremely detailed job but don't want to pay the money for the time it would take to actually do all that.
One time I had to laugh because I had been doing editing for years with a certain client, and one day I happened to look on their website and saw that there was a list of about 100 things they were promising the end clients that editors absolutely follow every time they edit, and I had never seen any such document since I had been editing for them. (lol) That hadn't been on their website when I first started working for them; it just magically appeared during that time without any notification to the editors. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Umang Dholabhai
India
Local time: 22:47
English to Gujarati
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Unclear requirements of the agency | May 23, 2009 |
Besides what Conejo said, agencies do not take enough pains to know know what are the exact client requirements. I have been fortunate enough to have worked with agencies which provide me with detailed glossaries indicating all such words which have to be transliterated or translated. There have been instances where the agency sends me a ten thousand word document back with a "reviewed document" pdf where the client reviewer tells me to alter all those painstakingly done translations to be trans... See more Besides what Conejo said, agencies do not take enough pains to know know what are the exact client requirements. I have been fortunate enough to have worked with agencies which provide me with detailed glossaries indicating all such words which have to be transliterated or translated. There have been instances where the agency sends me a ten thousand word document back with a "reviewed document" pdf where the client reviewer tells me to alter all those painstakingly done translations to be transliterated or vice versa. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Bad reviews and corrections | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
| | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
