We proofread and we edit – fine tuning for your texts

Professional proofreading is a review of a text in which the proofreader checks and corrects grammar, spelling and punctuation. At tolingo, this service is applied to translations which our translators have produced.

The correction of the target text always takes place based on your briefing and usually covers the entire translation. The major focus here is on correctness in the most formal sense – in other words, correct spelling and grammar, as well as the content in the target language. Proofreading is carried out only on the target language, i.e. the proofreader does not compare the original text with the translation.

Professional editing goes far beyond mere proofreading (which would be reviewing and correcting just the grammar, spelling and punctuation). An editor generally compares both texts (in the source and target language), corrects spelling and grammar errors, rewrites passages for linguistic or style reasons whenever necessary and also adjusts the translation to better suit the specific target group.

Subtext (information that is not explicitly stated) that has not been successfully carried over into the translation is consistently and appropriately inserted during the editing process; this is particularly important for texts that contain emotion-based content or are intended to motivate the reader to take action. To ensure that these messages also reach your international target group with the right tone, we’ll adapt the translation stylistically and linguistically to the cultural context. To do this, we work exclusively with native speakers who usually live in a country where the target language is spoken. As a result, your translations will be not only error-free, but also flawlessly well-written, authentic and appealing.

The main difference between proofreading and editing lies in the extent of the service. Both services include basic proofreading of a text (in our case, a translation) and correction of grammar and obvious errors. For a purely proofreading job, our proofreaders look only at the translated text. Editing additionally entails altering the text with regard to style, readability and appropriateness for the target group. To do this, our editors compare the translated text with the source document.

Both of these services follow what we call the “four-eye principle”. This means that the translation and review (incl. adjustment) are carried out by two separate people. While proofreading focuses mainly on correct spelling, editing ensures that the text is also optimised, linguistically and stylistically.

As a general rule, we believe that: The more complex a source text and the more technical the terminology in the original, the more useful it is for your translation to undergo a review step. Whether proofreading or editing is the right choice in an individual case depends primarily on the intention and complexity of the source text. Here at tolingo, both of these review steps can only be combined with human translation.

Proofreading is suitable for factual and descriptive texts where the information is more important than the style. Formal errors are identified and improved, resulting in a grammatically and orthographically correct translation of the original text. For texts that draw on the readers’ emotions or seek to motivate them to take action (especially in marketing), editing can be a decisive factor in effectively communicating a message to your audience in the target language. During the editing process, a translation is checked for formal as well as linguistic and stylistic correctness, and adapted for the corresponding target group.

Light post-editing and full post-editing can only be combined with machine translation. In terms of content, the two relate to each other in a similar way as proofreading and editing do in human translation.

Light post-editing is ideal for translating large volumes of text where the goal is more about grasping lots of information quickly than it is about style. Experienced translators review whether the translation by the artificial intelligence is correct and complete in terms of containing the essential information.

Full post-editing is particularly useful for texts that need to be persuasive in terms of their writing style and readability as well as suitable for the cultural context. Our experienced translators perform all the light post-editing services (grammatical and form-related review and proofreading) as well as adapt the text linguistically and stylistically for your target audience. The result is a machine translation that is indistinguishable from a translation carried out by an experienced human translator.

Humans make mistakes – and professional translators and native speakers aren’t exempt from that rule, of course. Artificial intelligence technology has not yet reached full maturity, either. So a second pair of eyes scrutinising a translation can be very useful.Human translations can be affected by typos or spelling mistakes, for example, while machine translations sometimes lack subtlety or finesse. With our review steps, we resolve these sources of error by correcting your text, either only grammatically or additionally optimising it for your target group.

If you want to increase the quality of your translations with a review step, we’d be happy to offer personal advice to help you choose the right solution.

We’ll review, correct and optimise your translations in German, English, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese and many other languages. As a general rule, you can add a review step to any translation job as an add-on service. When ordering, specify which type of review step you would like for your translation and we will prepare a customised quotation for you based on your requirements. If you don’t know exactly which type of review makes the most sense for your project, we’ll be happy to advise you, of course!

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