Feedback on translations

Elena Feriani wrote:

Many agencies have translators sign NDAs and don't allow us to share/outsource jobs. I suggest you learn by doing. When I proofread new translators' jobs, I often find mistakes in the way they localise (or rather don't localise) units of measurement, dates, numbers, punctuation...
Probably as a lawyer, you already know how to write properly, but here are some style guides available online you might want to check out:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf
https://gengo.com/en-gb/translators/resources/style-guide/
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/uploads/authors/Berghahn_housestyle_UK.pdf

I just copied the first ones I found but there are many more.

Staci Burton wrote:

I'm looking for experienced translators who translate German or Finnish legal/business/financial documents into English to give me feedback on my translations. I haven't yet started building my own client base, but have been translating for various agencies for over a year now and none of them provide real feedback. I even ask the project managers specifically for feedback from the reviewer, or to see any corrections made to my translations and most provide nothing at all, or just tell me my translation is fine, good, accepted, etc. Some have used me again, so I assume they thought my translation was ok. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I was a lawyer for 20 years before retiring and becoming a legal translator and I learned how to be a good lawyer by drafting documents and having a more experienced lawyer review and correct them. I would very much like to learn how to be a better translator by having someone experienced provide me with feedback. If there are any experienced translators out there in my language combinations who have overflow work I would love to prepare translations for you for a small fraction of my regular rate per word in exchange for feedback and corrections.

Rachel Waddington wrote:



I do think you are right to be thinking seriously about feedback. High-quality, targetted feeback is the quickest way to improve and as freelancers we are very lucky if we get this from our clients. It's a big downside of the way we work. In the past, a lot more translators began their careers in a translation department of an end-user company, where they could be mentored and have their work revised, but that's quite rare now.

Another option, especially if you are going to target end clients, would be to pay your own reviser. If you're paying, you can come to your own arrangement about what kind of feedback you want and a second pair of eyes is generally recommended in any case. If you're working for agencies maybe you can send an occasional short piece to a paid reviser purely as an investment in your development. If you find the right person it could be a really good decision.

Anyway, good luck and I'd be interested to hear how you get on.

Elena Feriani wrote:

Hi Staci,
I don't know why I assumed you were British. There are plenty of style guides for American English online.
Edit: I tried to post a link to a Google search here but it doesn't work. If you search for "American English style guide" you'll find many.

Good luck!

[Edited at 2022-06-24 06:09 GMT]