| Pages in topic: [1 2 3 4] > | Poll: Has a proofreader ever "ruined" a translation you've done? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Has a proofreader ever "ruined" a translation you've done?".
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| | | | | No, not to my knowledge! | Aug 10, 2017 |
Most of my translations are proofread in-house and my clients know this (and pay for it). I work with a few translation agencies that have their own proofreaders but over the years we developed a mutual professional relationship. One of these agencies (the only one, I must admit) even sends the proofread files for my final approval.
| | | | Connected Tr (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:45
Chinese to English
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Surprised to see so many people voting yes! Do we really have so little confidence in proofreaders? I don't think I've ever had a problem with one. Maybe I've just been lucky.
| | | | Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:45
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
| It's not 'proofreading'... | Aug 10, 2017 |
Revising, correcting, editing... fine. But it's not proofreading! Unless we are all submitting proofs to be given a final read-through before publication.
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| Several times | Aug 10, 2017 |
I am often very grateful to editors or whatever you like to call them. I have done my share of proofreading, back in the day when it basically WAS proofreading, to extensive revising and editing, and I am afraid I may have ruined other people's texts before I knew any better. However, when I started, I was working in-house, and had to call the translator and discuss any changes I wanted to make. My colleagues kindly explained why their versions were better than my suggestions, and I learnt a lot... See more I am often very grateful to editors or whatever you like to call them. I have done my share of proofreading, back in the day when it basically WAS proofreading, to extensive revising and editing, and I am afraid I may have ruined other people's texts before I knew any better. However, when I started, I was working in-house, and had to call the translator and discuss any changes I wanted to make. My colleagues kindly explained why their versions were better than my suggestions, and I learnt a lot. And sometimes they even accepted my suggestions!
Now and then, I have been asked to accept or reject the results after a proofreader has been through my work. Often I simply accept all the changes, or reject a few, but they are not worth fussing over. However, I have on occasions written lengthy mails explaining my choice of wording or whatever...
And on at least two occasions the client has preferred the original, unedited translation.  ▲ Collapse
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 01:45
Spanish to English
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| Don't think so | Aug 10, 2017 |
However, I do have a vague recollection of something like that happening on at least one occasion - you know the kind, where the "proofer" replaces perfectly good words with synonyms, like nevertheless/however. But in general, I think most of my translations are usually taken at face value, at least by my regular (non-agency) clients.
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At least none that I am aware of.
My agency customers who outsource editing/reviewing work (as opposed to in-house agency review or end-customer review) usually send me the revised version to confirm or ignore changes made to my translations.
Although I tend to accept all changes that in my opinion are only preferential, it has happened that corrections made did alter or defeat the intended meaning, mostly because of shortcomings in figuring out English expressions/sentence structure... See more At least none that I am aware of.
My agency customers who outsource editing/reviewing work (as opposed to in-house agency review or end-customer review) usually send me the revised version to confirm or ignore changes made to my translations.
Although I tend to accept all changes that in my opinion are only preferential, it has happened that corrections made did alter or defeat the intended meaning, mostly because of shortcomings in figuring out English expressions/sentence structures/phrasal verbs...
But it also happens (not every day, granted) that the reviewer of a text I translated spots something I totally missed out or misunderstood.
Even after on-the-fly rereading, then overall in-CAT rereading and QA (only for segments that I am paid for, of course), then target-only rereading.
The second-pair-of-eyes principle should be made compulsory by law for any material that needs to be flawless.
Philippe ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not actually RUINED ... | Aug 10, 2017 |
I don't think "proofreaders" have ever actually RUINED my work, but there have been occasions when they have damaged my exquisite grammar and syntax - insisting on phrases from some standard "style sheet" or possibly not being native speakers of English themselves.
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Egmont Schröder
Germany
Local time: 01:45
Member (2013)
Chinese to German
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It was not that long ago that I got back a translation with complaints from the customer.
It turned out that the errors were "corrections" from the editor who apparently didn't run a grammar and spell check.
| | | | jaymin
Canada
Local time: 19:45
German to Korean
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Imagine that a reputable large agency comes back with a proofed document unprofessionally done.
Even asked what can be done to avoid mistranslation.
| | | | boostrer
United States
Local time: 19:45
Member (2007)
English to Russian
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| Almost always | Aug 10, 2017 |
My proofreaders would manage to revert a correct translation into a Google Translate styled pile of words. Usually it results in decreased readability of the target text, but fairly often they add severe mistakes.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 21:45
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| A thousand times | Aug 10, 2017 |
In fact, it's what most revisers do best.
Generally, there is a very strong need of the reviser to show they are necessary and they are working hard, so they change several terms and expressions with synonyms, and change the order of the terms in the sentence.
Also, they replace an entire phrase like "The majority of the voters are lost" to "The majority of the voters is lost", insetead of changing only the word "are", so the entire stretch is red and underlined.
Also, they ch... See more In fact, it's what most revisers do best.
Generally, there is a very strong need of the reviser to show they are necessary and they are working hard, so they change several terms and expressions with synonyms, and change the order of the terms in the sentence.
Also, they replace an entire phrase like "The majority of the voters are lost" to "The majority of the voters is lost", insetead of changing only the word "are", so the entire stretch is red and underlined.
Also, they change correct translations to literal or incorrect ones.
Finally, the agency submits your translation to a reviser, but gives you no feedback. When the client complains, the agency sends you the translation with the client's remarks, and only then you see all the shit the reviser did in your work. Then you have to discuss with the PM and say all those very undue changes were made by the reviser and you were not even aware of them.
This is a very, very undue practice of many agencies. ▲ Collapse
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Ana Vozone
Local time: 00:45
Member (2010)
English to Portuguese
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A proofreader changed, not a small translation, but an entire book I had translated about sailing.
The book was published with my name as the translator, but of course the proofreader's name was not included so, "officially", I am the translator of that mess.
I complained to the publisher, but there was nothing they could/would do...
| | | | | Over 70% of my translation work | Aug 21, 2021 |
Over 90% of my work is English to Japanese tasks. I mostly work as a proofreader. But sometimes I am asked translation work.
Over 70% of my translation work was ruined by proofreaders before. Maybe the company I work for doesn't have enough Japanese natives. So, I told the company not to change my translation by proofreading and just let me know if there are any problems. I recheck proofread files and correct them by myself.
[Edited at 2021-08-21 08:43 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-0... See more Over 90% of my work is English to Japanese tasks. I mostly work as a proofreader. But sometimes I am asked translation work.
Over 70% of my translation work was ruined by proofreaders before. Maybe the company I work for doesn't have enough Japanese natives. So, I told the company not to change my translation by proofreading and just let me know if there are any problems. I recheck proofread files and correct them by myself.
[Edited at 2021-08-21 08:43 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-08-21 08:44 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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I've had minor disagreements with a proofreader but they were always within what is normal.
For the most part, I am grateful that there is a proofreader, as the second pair of eyes.
I'm not in this as an ego thing. There are careers better suited to stroking one's ego than freelance or any kind of translation. I don't have any problems with people proofreading me, I find it a very much needed and desirable part of the job, but I am also honest if I do think the proofre... See more I've had minor disagreements with a proofreader but they were always within what is normal.
For the most part, I am grateful that there is a proofreader, as the second pair of eyes.
I'm not in this as an ego thing. There are careers better suited to stroking one's ego than freelance or any kind of translation. I don't have any problems with people proofreading me, I find it a very much needed and desirable part of the job, but I am also honest if I do think the proofreader is overreaching.
Very rarely do I really have to give a piece of my mind to a PM about a proofreader they've hired and this is mostly to do with test translations I sometimes complete.
I've come across pompous language from someone who has clearly never proofread a translation in their life, is functionally illiterate when it comes to Serbo-Croatian and modern Serbian (clearly speaks only modern Croatian or perhaps is poorly educated in Bosnian) and is suppose to proofread my Serbian translation, has never heard of track changes feature, hasn't replaced any of the supposed mistakes with their own suggestion and is just plain nonsensical. I've been also sent my test proofread by a TM that didn't get one tense right. The PM took my perfectly wonderful test translation and turned it into a machine translation.
In such instances, I do get annoyed but not because they think my work was subpar, but because my Asperger's mind cannot grasp the fact that this person is a PM somewhere, getting paid to be that bad at their job, and is going around spreading their ignorance and nonsense hiring others like themselves. Incompetence rubs me the wrong way, but I do feel grateful I tested because what would be even worse is trying to work with people like that.
So, people I genuinely work with are professional and dare I say wonderful, but people I sometimes test will range from very professional to oh my goodness what is this! ▲ Collapse
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