Proofreading

By our definition, linguistic proofreading is a review of a translated text by an editor (who is native speaker of the target language) with the purpose of making primarily stylistic and secondarily grammatical improvements. Although today even non-native speakers can use sophisticated Internet search techniques to produce translations that are of near native quality and free from any grammatical mistakes, stylistic nuances remain to be best understood by true native speakers of the target language.

Terminology proofreading means a review from the professional point of view. A terminology editor (who does not need to be a target language native speaker) should be a professional of the area concerned with a profound knowledge of the target language and substantial experience in translating.

As knowledge of a language is not sufficient for one to make a good translator, not all native speakers make good copy editors. In terms of English, for example, there are quite a few self-declared copy editors qualified to act as such by neither  their general education, nor their knowledge of their own language. We at Reflex Translations Services always strive to assign editing jobs to professionals with a degree in language and literature and with a good knowledge of all different dialects of their native tongue.

Proofreading is recommended where linguistic accuracy and an appropriate style are mandatory, which may be the case with an important business letter, for instance. For websites, articles, company brochures and tourism publications, linguistic proofreading is essential.

As style, which proofreading aims to improve, is very much a subjective matter, full customer satisfaction can never be guaranteed. Just think of the time you may spend polishing and refining, for example, a letter worded by a fellow native speaker. It has happened to Reflex Translation Services that a trial translation into English reviewed by our native speaking editor with a university degree in English has been rejected by the UK office of the customer, a global corporation, with the comment that “it leaves some room for improvement”…

Linguistic and terminology proofreading of translations made by Reflex Translation Services is charged at 50 per cent of the price of translation, a rate widely used in the market. Proofreading of translations made by others is undertaken at 70 per cent of the price we would have charged for the same translation. It should be noted that editing can never involve a complete re-writing of the text concerned. If too many corrections are required to a translation, the editor will notify Reflex, and a new quotation for retranslation will be prepared based on our translation rates and sent to the customer.