Poll: Would you turn down a job that contained misspellings/typos in the text? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | Julian Holmes 
Japan
Local time: 14:00
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| Ventnai
Spain
Local time: 07:00
German to English
+ ...
No, why would I if I knew that I was going to be paid? I often receive texts with typos, spelling mistakes or other errors. I usually point them out for the sake of the end client's image as much of the material goes out to end customers or retailers.
| | | | Mike Sadler (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:00
Spanish to English
+ ...
| I wouldn't be doing much work if I did that | Dec 29, 2014 |
Nearly every document I translate contains errors. I wouldn't mind betting that every one of us could recount primary-school howlers we've found in government or major NGO documents. Press on, smile, and get the invoice out.
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| Cast the first stone... | Dec 29, 2014 |
Mike Sadler wrote:
Nearly every document I translate contains errors. I wouldn't mind betting that every one of us could recount primary-school howlers we've found in government or major NGO documents. Press on, smile, and get the invoice out.
No doubt about it!
On the other hand some source documents pass scorch-free through spell checkers, and yet I have a hard time figuring out what they intended to mean!
Practice in doing such guesswork leads me to see through this poll question.
I know several translators who invest an inordinate amount of time honing and backing up their multimillion-segment TM, so that 80%+ of most translations go through a CAT tool at lightning speed.
The underlying question here is whether all this effort pays off. Conversely, it asks if these people accept jobs that will ultimately pollute their precious TM.
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 07:00
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
If I get paid for the job, then it really doesn't matter, does it?
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A couple of times I have been given an OCR'd text that had mistakes in almost every word. In those cases, I did say I wouldn't do the job unless I could have a clean copy. This doesn't happen very much any more.
Otherwise, I take what they give me. I don't expect other people to have the same knowledge of language and grammar that I do.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 07:00
Spanish to English
+ ...
Not really. It depends. My source language is Spanish and, unlike English, its orthographic system is relatively simple, so there aren't usually many howlers. The main spelling mistakes commonly made by Spanish speakers tend to be confusing the letters B and V, and the consonants N and M.
I might send my clients a translator's note drawing attention to any spelling and grammar errors or other inconsistencies, usually along the lines of " by the way, the source text could be doing w... See more Not really. It depends. My source language is Spanish and, unlike English, its orthographic system is relatively simple, so there aren't usually many howlers. The main spelling mistakes commonly made by Spanish speakers tend to be confusing the letters B and V, and the consonants N and M.
I might send my clients a translator's note drawing attention to any spelling and grammar errors or other inconsistencies, usually along the lines of " by the way, the source text could be doing with a little revision", hoping not to ruffle too many feathers. ▲ Collapse
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Tim Drayton
Cyprus
Local time: 08:00
Turkish to English
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You could never find work as a legal translator in the Turkish to English pair if you did!
| | | | | Not for that alone | Dec 29, 2014 |
If there was more than the odd typo, and it was actually difficult to understand, I would contact the client to clarify what it meant and clear up anything ambiguous.
I would only turn it down if it looked suspicious or impossible in other ways.
OCR often has trouble with the extra Danish vowels, but they can be systematically tidied up, and the problem is easily solved.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 01:00
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Apart from being irritating... | Dec 29, 2014 |
Typos, misspellings and other writing horrors are par for the course in our profession. Sure, we all make fun of typos in secret, but our heads tend to focus on writing a polished translation...unless the typos or misspellings are deliberate to produce a certain effect.
More important is to spend our scarce time to reread those unclear sentences and paragraph to try to evince what they mean. On rare occasions, I have asked the client what they meant by a certain nonsensical s... See more Typos, misspellings and other writing horrors are par for the course in our profession. Sure, we all make fun of typos in secret, but our heads tend to focus on writing a polished translation...unless the typos or misspellings are deliberate to produce a certain effect.
More important is to spend our scarce time to reread those unclear sentences and paragraph to try to evince what they mean. On rare occasions, I have asked the client what they meant by a certain nonsensical sentence only to do one of the following: a) just cross it out or (b) use a new sentence provided by the client.
In the case of (b) above, sometimes the client's clarification is either worse or more nonsensical.
In the end, we have to reconcile ourselves with the sad fact that some otherwise intelligent people carry a bag of chaotic thoughts in their head, this making them incapable of expressing a coherent train of thought in writing. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 02:00
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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I think the people who vetto these questions are a bit lazy in the end of the year. The last questions were all quite a bit childish in their formulation. This one, for example, should probably say "lots of mispelled words or typos", because the way it was submitted (and accepted), it makes no sense. It's very rare to receive a document without errors. As translators, we correct these errors in the translation. A professional would never refuse a job because it has errors, or he/she can find ano... See more I think the people who vetto these questions are a bit lazy in the end of the year. The last questions were all quite a bit childish in their formulation. This one, for example, should probably say "lots of mispelled words or typos", because the way it was submitted (and accepted), it makes no sense. It's very rare to receive a document without errors. As translators, we correct these errors in the translation. A professional would never refuse a job because it has errors, or he/she can find another profession.
However, if there are MANY errors, absurd errors, poor construction, many agreement errors, etc., something like a Google Translator document, then it's comprehensible to refuse it. ▲ Collapse
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Oleg Osipov
Russian Federation
Local time: 08:00
English to Russian
+ ...
Mario Freitas wrote:
However, if there are MANY errors, absurd errors, poor construction, many agreement errors, etc., something like a Google Translator document, then it's comprehensible to refuse it.
When a source doc appears to be a total mess. I've never come across those.
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