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Poll: Do you ever proofread your translations on paper?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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May 20, 2015

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you ever proofread your translations on paper?".

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Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Yetta Jensen Bogarde  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:25
Member (2012)
English to Danish
+ ...
Yes May 20, 2015

sometimes that is the best way to get a clear overview

 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Without exception May 20, 2015

I couldn't imagine checking on screen.

I like to run a finger/pen/ruler under the words I'm checking. Which maybe makes me old-fashioned.

I also tend to check out loud. Which maybe makes me certifiable.


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 14:25
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Me too! May 20, 2015

Chris S wrote:

I couldn't imagine checking on screen.

I like to run a finger/pen/ruler under the words I'm checking. Which maybe makes me old-fashioned.

I also tend to check out loud. Which maybe makes me certifiable.


 
DianeGM
DianeGM  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:25
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Other ... May 20, 2015

I try to be as paper-free as possible.
I used to proofread everything on paper, but I've slowly become better and better at proofing on screen. Now I can proof on screen to the same standard mostly, so now I only proofread on paper if absolutely necessary, if for example the text is very complicated, or it is for publication or certification, or if for some reason it has some other special characteristic which would made proofing on screen difficult or incomplete.

@ Chris - I
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I try to be as paper-free as possible.
I used to proofread everything on paper, but I've slowly become better and better at proofing on screen. Now I can proof on screen to the same standard mostly, so now I only proofread on paper if absolutely necessary, if for example the text is very complicated, or it is for publication or certification, or if for some reason it has some other special characteristic which would made proofing on screen difficult or incomplete.

@ Chris - I also read aloud - I do believe it helps - but with all the noise I make - between Dragon and reading aloud - I think my family are starting to wonder about me.
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Enrico Zoffoli
Enrico Zoffoli  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 15:25
Member (2013)
German to Italian
+ ...
Yes May 20, 2015

Chris S wrote:

I couldn't imagine checking on screen.

I like to run a finger/pen/ruler under the words I'm checking. Which maybe makes me old-fashioned.

I also tend to check out loud. Which maybe makes me certifiable.


Same here.


 
David Hayes
David Hayes  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:25
French to English
150% May 20, 2015

If you change the setting of your target document to a double-spaced display enlarged to 150% and then read it aloud as you go, you can save an enormous amount of paper while also spotting all your typos. It's what I do and it rarely fails me.

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:25
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Yes. I try to take care of the environment in other ways. May 20, 2015

Yes, and other people's work.

The paper is either recycled or the pulp comes from managed forests. I send it for recycling again.
I also sit at a wooden desk and wear leather shoes and cotton clothes.

OK, I have a sign on my letter box (the one on the street) asking people NOT to fill it up with junk mail and adverts, and the post office has to respect it, so that saves 60 or 70 kilos of pulp every year.

I save paper where I can by printing on both si
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Yes, and other people's work.

The paper is either recycled or the pulp comes from managed forests. I send it for recycling again.
I also sit at a wooden desk and wear leather shoes and cotton clothes.

OK, I have a sign on my letter box (the one on the street) asking people NOT to fill it up with junk mail and adverts, and the post office has to respect it, so that saves 60 or 70 kilos of pulp every year.

I save paper where I can by printing on both sides, deleting large empty spaces and sometimes illustrations to reduce the number of pages, tricks like that. I still leave margins for writing in, because I need them.

I am aware of the environment, but I am also aware of the need for quality in my work. I often print out my source text too, so that I can note terminology etc. on it with a pencil! I am not aiming at the 'paperless office', but I do save paper when the digital methods are more efficient.




[Edited at 2015-05-20 09:08 GMT]
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Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:25
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
I used to May 20, 2015

Like Diane, I have taught myself to do a good job on-screen. My main reason is that working on paper is very time-consuming, as I have to write the corrections twice--first on paper, which is slow for me, and then again in the document, with time lost searching for the right place. I was also having trouble reading my handwriting and sometimes had to re-read the whole passage to figure out the change I wanted to make.

With the time I save, I can re-read a job twice: first for sense
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Like Diane, I have taught myself to do a good job on-screen. My main reason is that working on paper is very time-consuming, as I have to write the corrections twice--first on paper, which is slow for me, and then again in the document, with time lost searching for the right place. I was also having trouble reading my handwriting and sometimes had to re-read the whole passage to figure out the change I wanted to make.

With the time I save, I can re-read a job twice: first for sense and then for typos. I learned long ago that it's hard to do both processes at the same time; one or the other suffers.

I have found that the MS Word's green grammar-checker is very clever at catching mistakes. I used to use just the red wiggly underline for misspellings, but the green underline is now my best friend forever. I also use the PerfectIt tool, which makes uniform changes throughout the document based on the instructions I give it.

Wasted paper and printer ink are issues for me as well. I try to be as paperless as possible.
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Rolf Kern
Rolf Kern  Identity Verified
Switzerland
Local time: 15:25
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
@Muriel May 20, 2015

I do not understand you. I do not see why you should make the corrections on paper. I read through the pinted translation and make the corrections on the screen. This is very efficient. Then I put the translation through the speller as second check.

Best
Rolf Kern


 
564354352 (X)
564354352 (X)  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:25
Danish to English
+ ...
Hardly ever May 20, 2015

Only when I have to certify a translation, which has to be printed anyway.

I used to print everything, both source and target texts, until I realised that I only used the source texts to look at formatting as I went along (which I could do just as easily on screen), and that correcting on paper was unnecessarily time-consuming. As others have said, it was double work, making notes (in minuscule lettering to fit between the lines or in the margin) and then having to transfer the note
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Only when I have to certify a translation, which has to be printed anyway.

I used to print everything, both source and target texts, until I realised that I only used the source texts to look at formatting as I went along (which I could do just as easily on screen), and that correcting on paper was unnecessarily time-consuming. As others have said, it was double work, making notes (in minuscule lettering to fit between the lines or in the margin) and then having to transfer the notes to the screen. Besides, my handwriting is atrocious after many years of typing, so I would even waste time trying to decipher my own scribbles.

When this question was asked a while back, I claimed that I could do an equally good job by proofreading on screen, and someone challenged me to test it. I've never done that, as it makes no sense to proofread the same text in two different ways, as you cannot recreate the 'first proofreading' situation once you have done the first proofreading! I would still maintain that it IS possible to do an equally good job on screen, simply by enlarging the text, maybe that is even BETTER than looking at a printed sheet of paper?

If I translate speeches, I complete the proofreading first, then read the text aloud and find myself making changes to adapt the text for spoken clarity, sometimes for easier pronunciation and pausing. But I still don't print the text.

I am all for saving paper, except that I find it more convenient to scribble notes on paper rather than on screen... At the moment, I am working my way through a stack of out-of-date letterheaded paper as note paper.
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Giles Watson
Giles Watson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 15:25
Italian to English
In memoriam
Reading out loud May 20, 2015

DianeGM wrote:

@ Chris - I also read aloud - I do believe it helps - but with all the noise I make - between Dragon and reading aloud - I think my family are starting to wonder about me.



I don't know about Swedish but Italian and Greek dance to very different drummers from English and reading out loud helps you spot the places where your translation trips over its own feet. More often than not, a more convincing formulation will pop into your head as you are reading.


 
Anthony Baldwin
Anthony Baldwin  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:25
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Please... May 20, 2015

This is the 21st Century.
I print nothing, unless I must provide the client a hard copy.
The practice of needlessly printing is superfluous, wasteful, and costly.
I don't even turn on the printer most days.
It's a waste of electricity, unless I need it, which is rare (maybe 5% of my work requires printing a hard copy, mostly for translations for local immigrants going through the process with I.C.E. or similar).


 
Diana Obermeyer
Diana Obermeyer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:25
Member (2013)
German to English
+ ...
Ditto May 20, 2015

Enrico Zoffoli wrote:

Chris S wrote:

I couldn't imagine checking on screen.

I like to run a finger/pen/ruler under the words I'm checking. Which maybe makes me old-fashioned.

I also tend to check out loud. Which maybe makes me certifiable.


Same here.


I kind of stare at a text when I'm proofreading.
Screens have the ability to stare me out.
That gives me headaches and burning eyes.
Plus, I can't tap my pen on it while thinking. I've tried and failed.

Last but not least, my dogs are used to their daily paper shredding exercise.
Depriving them of that joy would amount to cruelty.

[Edited at 2015-05-20 11:13 GMT]


 
Ventnai
Ventnai  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:25
German to English
+ ...
Environmental concerns May 20, 2015

I try to keep printing to a minimum due to environmental concerns. Most of my clients send me work as a package and I often do not need to format the final document, so I need to proofread initially in Trados. Trados provides many different verification options and I normally also do the final reading in Word if possible, even it means pasting and copying and entering any changes into Trados by hand.

 
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Poll: Do you ever proofread your translations on paper?






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