24 Jan Let’s not forget why bilingual revision is so important
Revision is considered a very important stage in the entire translation process. But what does it entail exactly?
The main goal of the reviser is to ensure that the translated text correctly conveys the meaning of the source text and does not contain any linguistic or formatting errors. This step is fundamental as it makes it possible to deliver a final product that is overall coherent, accurate and suited to its specific context.
Although specific software has been developed for running reliable automatic checks, it is still not enough to ensure the quality of the final product, because such checks are limited to linguistic and grammatical aspects. Professional revisers are essential because they only can validate the accuracy of the content and understand if the issues found by the software are real errors or false positive results, depending on the context.
What are the stages of a bilingual revision?
While editing, the reviser carries out an in-depth reading of the translation and checks it against the source text, to ensure the translator has delivered a translation that meets the client’s expectations. Usually, the reviser reads sentence by sentence, or, if they use a CAT tool, segment by segment and analyzes and amends the text taking into account the following six areas:
- Accuracy: the content must be correctly conveyed, without unnecessary omissions or additions. It must not contain mistranslations or literal translations that make no sense in the target language. Formatting and layout changes can also fall into this category.
- Terminology: terminology must be compliant with the industry standards. And with any specific glossary provided by the client.
- Coherence: the text must be coherent at a structural and terminological level.
- Grammatical correctness: syntax must be correct. Spacing, punctuation and capitalization must follow the target language rules and the translation should be free of typos.
- Linguistic aspects: style must be fluent and natural. While intercultural aspects should be properly adapted or localized.
- Specific instructions: if the client has provided any, the translation must adhere to the style guide, which for example covers the required tone of voice, grammar and formatting instructions, the need to localize or not localize currencies, measures, URLs and e-mail addresses. While also including information about DNTs (such as product names), and so on.
The context is paramount
During this phase, the source file in the original format should always be checked to verify the translation in context. If available, it is advisable to use the preview function of CAT tools to see the final layout of the translation in context.
The reviser also leverages from specific software that allows to automatically check specific aspects. Such as formatting, numeric mismatches, glossary compliance, typos, spacing and punctuation issues and much more.
To make sure that all the main aspects are covered during the editing step, the reviser can also rely on checklists. Whether provided by the client or created by themselves. A checklist is simply a list of items you mandatorily need to verify, check or inspect during the revision stage, in order to deliver a high-quality translation that meets the client’s expectations.
Once the bilingual revision is done, an additional proofreading step usually follows. During this phase the proofreader mainly focuses on the target text, they may further improve the style and correct any typos or grammatical errors that can have somehow still be present.
Who takes care of bilingual revision?
Usually, a professional reviser deals with the bilingual revision: a native speaker, expert and qualified in the relevant field, who has followed client-specific trainings and have a deep knowledge of the client’s instructions and requests.
A translation company may employ in-house revisers or decide to work with external linguists, specifically onboarded and trained. The reviser may directly amend the text as necessary, or they can simply report the corrections needed and let the translator implement them. They usually also provide feedback, to ascertain the level of quality of the service while offering advice on how to improve in future projects.
