When it comes to proofreading your own translation work, we all know how difficult it can be. Regardless of how many times you re-read your work, you still keep finding small errors. Just proofreading your own work is difficult enough, but if you try to proofread your own work while you’re tired, proofread on your computer screen, or proofread after you’ve been translating for several hours, you can see that none of these are ideal scenarios; but these are just stumbling blocks describing the nature of our work as translators. Sometimes it’s not practical to print a hard copy of the document you’re working on due to its length or because the translation needs to stay in the translation tool until it’s been proofread.

Most translators with specializations work on tight deadlines anyway, and there very often isn’t time for a proof-reader to check the document and return to the translator for final approval. And because of these deadlines, many translators will admit that there’s barely enough time to finish the actual translation, so there’s certainly not enough spare time to have a break for an hour or so and then go back and proofread your work two or three times. So, generally, we proofread on our computer screen and hope for the best!        

Here are some realistic techniques for translators who work on tight deadlines, and who proofread on their computer screen.

Our first piece of advice is that the target file should initially be edited against the source file, but from then on the target file should be read on its own. You may be surprised at how many mistakes you catch when you’re just looking at the target file. Remember that your spellchecker has certain limitations, so do a search for homonyms such as their/they’re, to/too, and so on; and this should certainly be do-able. Another piece of advice we’d like to offer is that when you’re working on a translation where you have two terms that are confusingly similar, such as agent/representative, contract/agreement, loan/credit, and so on, do a search for just those words so that you can individually compare each of these words in the target document to the corresponding word in the source document.

The Quality of Proofreading

When you’re being paid by the word it can discourage thorough proofreading because you’re effectively decreasing your hourly rate every time you go back over a word; whereas when you’re being paid by the hour you’re essentially being rewarded for doing numerous careful revisions of the document. It could well be that’s how it works in international organizations and high-level government departments where translators are only expected to translate (say) 1500 words a day due to the strong emphasis on quality. However, for translators who are working mostly with the private sector, the equation of speed versus quality is one that needs to be carefully considered.