Why is it that translators, writers, and authors all require the assistance of a proof-reader to review their work?  The simple answer to this question is that four eyes are better than two!

Producing literary works can often be an extensive and extremely arduous task, and a literary work can change over time as it’s being written. During the production process, the author may well neglect to follow certain guidelines which relate to the formal aspect of the language, and this is not always due to professional negligence or a lack of awareness.

Modifying Literary Texts

Most literary texts are modified and changed throughout their creation, with new storylines, tweaks, and arguments being added while scenes are switched around. This can often result in sentences lacking grammatical sequence, where situations become isolated from their original context. For example, a character may start off as a butler to begin with, and then months later become a chauffeur, because it suits the storyline better. Besides changing timelines, the author may well change events and situations, and an incident that happened before could now happen afterward. And all during this process, we see traces of what had originally been written being left behind, which can result in erroneous or paradoxical situations.

It’s Very Difficult for an Author to Check Their Own Work

And regardless of how many times the author re-reads the text, they still won’t see some of these errors, and there’s a very good reason why: because they’re the creator of the text and are familiar with it: they don’t need to read the text to understand it - they already know what has occurred, is now occurring, and what will occur.

The Proof-Reader Sees All!

On the other hand, the proof-reader is not involved in the composition of the text and is therefore in the perfect situation to detect any problems that a reader may perceive.

Strictly speaking, the task of the literary translation proof-reader is not to make corrections, because most cases don’t involve mistakes. Their role is to offer possible improvements. The proof-reader becomes a partner to the author/writer, a collaborator with them, and any recommendations they make should be taken for exactly what they are – suggestions and ideas for improving the style of a text.