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 Now that I edit translations regularly, I am developing new tricks to make the process more efficient. Below, I’ll share two of those tricks. First, though, let me start at the beginning, when I would reject any offer to edit a translation. I used to fear editing because the editor is the last set of eyes on a document, and that’s a lot of responsibility. Any time I saw “proof” or “edit” associated with a potential job, I would delete it or turn it down without a second glance. I let my fear stand in the way of Cochran Language Services reaching its full potential. Conveniently, this spring, one of my clients started sending me weekend editing projects. I agreed to take short ones initially, my way of testing the waters. Guess what? The PM was satisfied with my efficient and thorough work, so she continued to send similar jobs. With time, this solidified my confidence in my eye for detail, understanding of scientific texts, and grasp of English grammar. Now, I look forward to seeing the project inquiry in my inbox on Fridays. As promised, I’ll share with you two tricks I developed to streamline the editing process. 1) Analyze the source text a day or two before. I search for terminology, abbreviations, etc. that I don’t recognize and look them up. This is, of course, easiest with short projects of <3,000 words. I’m positive that it could help with longer ones, though. What this does is keeps me from wasting editing time bouncing my attention back and forth between internet searches and the target document details.
2) Edit the headers/footers/letterheads on every page first, THEN tackle the body of the text. For the same reason above – it keeps me focused on one area of the text at a time. I can make sure footers are consistent with the source text. I can zero in on phone numbers, names, and addresses without thinking about scientific terms. Also, this eases me into the editing process. Sometimes, once you get into the body of text, it can overwhelm you, especially when errors and missing text abound (after all, you never know the quality of the translation until you set eyes on it). So, headers and footers give me a feel for the translator’s work. I hope these two tricks help you, or that you recognize them because you use them too! Comments are closed.
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