TRANSLATION REVISION

TYPES OF REVISIONS

Project management in translation should include two types of revisions:

1) Reviewing or Editing (Monolingual Revision): it is the monolingual revision of the translation to check grammar, spelling, punctuation, style, naturalness and fluency, and compliance with client’s instructions and/or style guides, without modifying terminology or messages. The purpose is to produce a linguistically correct piece of work.

2) Revision (Bilingual Revision): it is a bilingual revision focused on checking the correct transfer of concepts or messages, terminology, localisation, terminology consistency, completeness, and transfer of untranslatables (coding, figures). This is done comparing the source text and translation, side by side, in two columns or incorporated in a CAT tool. The purpose is to produce a text that is faithful to the source, regarding accuracy, consistency and completeness.

Both types of Revision can be done by the translator himself (“Self-revision”), or by a third party (“Other-revision”) who uses his own criteria and a different view to judge the quality of a translation. Although in many cases a “self-revision” can be enough when a translator has proved he/she is scrupulous, unbiased and competent, it will always be better to have a second pair of eyes, even if all texts can be improved once and again. Critical texts require, imperatively, a third party revision. According to international standards, it will always be advisable to apply a third party revision. Of course, the reviser should be more competent than the translator, in that which he/she revises.

REVISION PROCEDURES

The deliverable of a revision process can have different formats, depending on the needs of the client:

1) Deliver the revision as a final text: in this case any mistake identified is overwritten or corrected by the reviser, and the deliverable is a translation fit for use. In this case the original translator does not produce the final document. As this translator has author’s rights over his translation, and could complain for any unauthorised changes to his/her creation, the client must save the reviser harmless of any liability related to this. The reviser is responsible for the quality of the final translation but cannot be mentioned as translator, only as reviser.

2) Deliver the revision as a draft: in this case the reviser highlights the mistakes (with Track Changes, comments, strikethrough, background colour, text colour, etc.), and the draft is sent to the translator whom considers the suggestions given by the reviser, makes the changes he considers appropriate and delivers the final translation. In this case the original translator is fully responsible for his translation.