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Poll: When proofreading your own work, how many corrections do you usually find per page?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Sep 12, 2017

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 »



 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:42
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other Sep 12, 2017

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...
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Simon Bruni
Simon Bruni  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:42
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!)


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:42
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Sep 12, 2017

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.

 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:42
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other Sep 12, 2017

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]
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EvaVer (X)
EvaVer (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:42
Czech to French
+ ...
Yes Sep 12, 2017

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.


 
Edith van der Have
Edith van der Have
Netherlands
Local time: 14:42
Member (2016)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Other Sep 12, 2017

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

 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 13:42
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Fingernails Sep 12, 2017

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.

 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 10:42
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
I never bothered to count Sep 12, 2017

I guess it varies a lot.

 
DZiW (X)
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
Eden Cope
United States
Local time: 07:42
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
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:42
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.


 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 14:42
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)
Kristina Cosumano (X)  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:42
German to English
Indeed Sep 12, 2017

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
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 10:42
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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Poll: When proofreading your own work, how many corrections do you usually find per page?






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