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Poll: When proofreading your own work, how many corrections do you usually find per page? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "When proofreading your own work, how many corrections do you usually find per page?".
This poll was originally submitted by B D Finch. View the poll results »
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neilmac Spain Local time: 04:54 Spanish to English + ...
The sticking point for me of this question is the word "usually". I'd usually say none, although that might sound presumptuous. I find that most errors tend to come from typing, which nowadays is a minimal part of my translation process. I might occasionally find a turn of phrase that can be tweaked and improved, but actual errors per se tend to be few and far between. Of course, using Dragon can give rise to its own little slipups, but that just makes life more interesting IMHO... ... See more The sticking point for me of this question is the word "usually". I'd usually say none, although that might sound presumptuous. I find that most errors tend to come from typing, which nowadays is a minimal part of my translation process. I might occasionally find a turn of phrase that can be tweaked and improved, but actual errors per se tend to be few and far between. Of course, using Dragon can give rise to its own little slipups, but that just makes life more interesting IMHO... ▲ Collapse | | |
Simon Bruni United Kingdom Local time: 03:54 Member (2009) Spanish to English It's not 'proofreading'! | Sep 12, 2017 |
Editing, revising, correcting... but definitely not the final reading of proofs prior to publication. (You may have noticed I'm on a futile mission to rectify the misuse of this word!) | | |
It is extremely variable, it depends on the subject matter, on my mood (some days my writing doesn’t flow as well or my fingers don't obey my will and are all thumbs), and how long I have been translating that particular day… A certain number of pages might contain some corrections while others have none. | |
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It's totally unpredictable. I try to get the whole job "right" (i.e., the way I want it) the first time around; if I can only do a draft, I will flag the section to go back and work on it later. When I consider that that whole job is done, I re-read it for substance. Depending on a my grasp of the subject, how alert I was, how many other things I had on my mind, my present mood, etc., etc., I may have few or many changes to make. Then I run the spell and grammar checkers. My third reading is fo... See more It's totally unpredictable. I try to get the whole job "right" (i.e., the way I want it) the first time around; if I can only do a draft, I will flag the section to go back and work on it later. When I consider that that whole job is done, I re-read it for substance. Depending on a my grasp of the subject, how alert I was, how many other things I had on my mind, my present mood, etc., etc., I may have few or many changes to make. Then I run the spell and grammar checkers. My third reading is for typing mistakes -- yep, I would definitely call it 'proofreading'. An expert once told me: never fool yourself by trying to read for substance and typing mistakes at the same time. The processes have to be done separately; you are using separate parts of the brain
[Edited at 2017-09-12 09:56 GMT] ▲ Collapse | | |
EvaVer (X) Local time: 04:54 Czech to French + ...
Teresa Borges wrote: It is extremely variable, it depends on the subject matter, on my mood (some days my writing doesn’t flow as well or my fingers don't obey my will and are all thumbs), and how long I have been translating that particular day… A certain number of pages might contain some corrections while others have none. Of course. | | |
I don't count them, so I wouldn't know. But there can't be many, as I usually proofread my own work at approx. 3000 words or more per hour. I must add I do this very scrupulously, with 'hyper focus'. Many mistakes I spot are due to the speech recognition I use: tricky because they do not trigger spelling control and they can be really ridiculous - not something you'd want to send to a client | | |
I'm a fast touch-typist. When my fingernails are getting too long I tend to make more typos and realise it's time to trim them. | |
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I never bothered to count | Sep 12, 2017 |
I guess it varies a lot. | | |
DZiW (X) Ukraine English to Russian + ... I'd rather not... but MANY | Sep 12, 2017 |
However, if occasionally I really have to, then I take some time and treat it as somebody else's work, often paraphrasing, rewriting and combining sentences. | | |
Eden Cope United States Local time: 20:54 Swedish to English + ... Depends on the project type/size | Sep 12, 2017 |
If I am translating a big project, I am usually more careful to make less errors or to catch them and correct myself as I make them. If it is a small project like a birth certificate or university letter, then I find it most important to get a "rough draft" of everything first and then go over it 2-4 times. | | |
Kay Denney France Local time: 04:54 French to English Depends on context! | Sep 12, 2017 |
If it's a straightforward catalogue, just typos here and there. If it's a brochure, I might well rewrite every single sentence. My first draft is often pretty abysmal, but I go through the text several times before delivering. The final check will mainly be a matter of putting commas back in. | |
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Ricki Farn Germany Local time: 04:54 English to German Hard to tell | Sep 12, 2017 |
I kind of take a mini-break after each sentence, read an internet joke or look out of the window to reset my brain, then re-read the sentence to spot mistakes. So when I re-read the entire text at the end, I find maybe 3-10 mistakes in a day's work (I don't know how many pages that is, IT translators count words not pages). So which would I count for this poll, the "near real-time" re-reading or the final pass? | | |
Kristina Cosumano (X) Germany Local time: 04:54 German to English
neilmac wrote: Of course, using Dragon can give rise to its own little slip-ups, but that just makes life more interesting IMHO... I've had at least two experiences proofreading the work of people who used Dragon. There were some real head cratchers in them when the program didn't understand correctly, and translator hadn't changed the errors before submitting. Yes, they were interesting, to say the least. | | |
Mario Freitas Brazil Local time: 23:54 Member (2014) English to Portuguese + ... It depends on several factors | Sep 12, 2017 |
1. The pair - In Pt-En I usually make more corrections than in En-Pt 2. The field - Some fields are more subject to errors than others 3. The jargon - Same thing 4. How much time I had to deliver - Haste causes more errors, of course ... I could think of a few others. | | |
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