What Translators Need: Proofreading

 

Clients typically expect output that is as close to perfection as possible, and a certified translation company in Singapore will often (if not always) ask the same from those they hire as well. If a person wishes to utilize their language skills and find work and/or employment in the translation industry, then they must be prepared to face a high bar of expectations, both in how accurately they translate the source material and how well they write out the document in the requested language. Regarding the latter, there is one crucial skill involved that does not directly involve translation: proofreading.

Proofreading as defined by Merriam-Webster is to read and mark corrections in things. In the case of translations, particularly notarized translations or PR application translations, proofreading here means to diligently and meticulously scan the documents that translators produce.This is done not only to ensure that the document’s language has been converted correctly and that all the key details are correct, but also to confirm that the final product is legible to a fluent speaker of the requested language and recognisable as having sufficient grammatical quality that one would assume it was produced by someone who was also fluent in the requested language.

As mentioned earlier, both clients and translation companies expect translators’ output to be of a high quality (if not the highest). As such, a provider of certified document translation services in Singapore is reasonably expected to proofread their own work before they submit it. However, in translation companies, another step (and person) is added to the process, someone whose role in this case is fully and solely to proofread. They may have been explicitly hired for such a purpose, or they may be an employee who fulfils other tasks alongside proofreading, whichever is the case, they are primarily here to read through the translated document in its requested language and to verify if it is free of errors and of sufficient quality. They do not need to be translators themselves, and only need to be fluent in the requested language. In certain situations, they may also look out for key phrases to ensure that they have been included in the document. For example, when working with a legal translation, one who is proofreading should also be making sure that the translator has used the correct terms and phrases for a legal setting, otherwise the document will not be usable for its intended purpose.

Converting one language to another is a mandatory skill for translators, but others are needed as well, including the proofreading that has been described earlier. If one wishes to work in the certified translation industry of Singapore, then one must also develop one’s skill with proofreading.