Translation Final Proofreading

Translation Final Proofreading

Due to my extensive experience in translating scientific texts, I am asked from time to time to „scan” through the final version of the translated scientific article just before its publication. In Polish, some call this process „brushing,” in English, this kind of text is sometimes called PDF proof.

My somewhat insane accuracy, at least when it comes to language issues, makes it much easier for me to spot minor translation errors. Noticing a typo or oversight is a source of great satisfaction for me.

Theoretically, the text sent for final proofreading should already be at an excellent stylistic and linguistic level. My task should be limited to reading the text, assessing whether it is well-written, and spotting the above-mentioned minor mistakes. The practice shows it is not that easy, especially when I am dealing with a more extensive scientific publication, e.g., composed of articles by various authors, translated by multiple translators, and then reviewed by various editors.

More often than not, in such a collection of scientific articles translated into English, I find one or two texts that stand out from the rest in terms of language level. I recently had the impression it was because the author of the article was Spanish, and in the English translation, there were traces of his native language visible. It did not have a positive effect on sentence structure, style, or choice of vocabulary.

On the other hand, the correction of such shortcomings was beyond my competence, at least in this specific task – giving the „final touch” to the translation text. I had no other choice but to signal the problem to the client, and I know that this particular article was proofread again.