Revising and Editing for Translators: (Translation Practices Explained)

Revising and Editing for Translators provides guidance and learning materials for translation students learning to edit texts written by others, and professional translators wishing to improve their self-revision ability or learn to revise the work of others. Editing is understood as making corrections and improvements to texts, with particular attention to tailoring them to the given readership. Revising is this same task applied to draft translations. The linguistic work of editors and revisers is related to the professional situations in which they work. Mossop offers in-depth coverage of a wide range of topics, including copyediting, style editing, structural editing, checking for consistency, revising procedures and principles, and translation quality assessment. This second edition provides extended coverage of computer aids for revisers, and of the different degrees of revision suited to different texts. The inclusion of suggested activities and exercises, numerous real-world examples, a proposed grading scheme for editing assignments, and a reference glossary make this an indispensable coursebook for professional translation programmes.

Table of Contents:
Introduction for Users Introduction for Instructors 1. Why Editing and Revising are Necessary 1.1 The difficulty of writing 1.2 Enforcing rules 1.3 Balancing interests 1.4 Quality 1.5 Limits to editing and revising Summary Further reading 2. The Work of an Editor 2.1 Tasks of editors 2.2 Editing, rewriting and adapting 2.3 Mental editing during translation 2.4 Degrees of editing and editing procedure Further reading 3. Copyediting 3.1 Rules 3.2 House style 3.3 Spelling and typographical errors 3.4 Syntax and idiom 3.5 Punctuation 3.6 Usage Exercises in copyediting Further reading 4. Stylistic Editing 4.1 Tailoring language to readers 4.2 Smoothing 4.3 Readability versus clarity 4.4 Stylistic editing during translation Exercises Further reading 5. Structural Editing 5.1 Physical structure of a text 5.2 Problems with prose 5.3 Problems with headings 5.4 Structural editing during translation Exercise Further reading 6. Content Editing 6.1 Macro-scale content editing 6.2 Factual errors 6.3 Logical errors 6.4 Mathematical errors 6.5 Content editing during translation 6.6 Content editing after translation Discussion and Exercise 7. Checking for Consistency 7.1 Degrees of consistency 7.2 Pre-arranging consistency 7.3 Over-consistency Discussion and exercises 8. Computer Aids to Checking 8.1 Google to the rescue? 8.2 Work on the screen or on paper? 8.3 Editing functions of word processors Further reading 9. The Work of a Reviser 9.1 The revision function in translating organizations 9.2 Revision, quality control, checking and re-reading 9.3 The brief 9.4 Balancing the interests of authors, clients, readers and translators 9.5 Time and quality 9.6 Revision of machine translation 9.7 Revision and self-revision 9.8 Quality assessment 9.9 Quality assurance 9.10 Quality-checking by clients 9.11 Revision and editing 9.12 Revision and specialization 9.13 The quality of revision Discussion Further reading 10. The Revision Parameters 10.1 Accuracy 10.2 Completeness 10.3 Logic 10.4 Facts 10.5 Smoothness 10.6 Tailoring 10.7 Sub-language 10.8 Idiom 10.9 Mechanics 10.10 Layout 10.11 Typography 10.12 Organization Further reading 11. Degrees of Revision 11.1 Determining the degree of revision 11.2 Some consequences of less-than-full revision 11.3 The relative importance of Transfer and Language parameters Discussion and exercise Further reading 12. Revision Procedures 12.1 Procedures for finding problems 12.2. Principles for correcting 12.3 Sample order of operations 12.4 Handling unsolved problems 12.5 Inputting changes 12.6 Checking presentation 12.7 Preventing strategic errors 12.8 Avoiding duplication of effort 12.9 Procedures, time-saving and quality Discussion and exercise Further reading 13. Self-Revision 13.1 Integration of self-revision into translation production 13.2 Self-diagnosis Discussion and exercise 14. Revising the Work of Others 14.1 Relations with revisees 14.2 Diagnosis 14.3 Advice Exercises Further reading Appendix 1. Summary of Revision Principles Appendix 2. Quality Assessment Appendix 3. Quantitative Grading Scheme for Editing Assignments Appendix 4. Sample Unilingual Re-reading Appendix 5. Revising and Editing Vocabulary Appendix 6. Empirical Research on Revision

About the Author :
Brian Mossop has been a French-to-English translator, reviser and trainer at the Canadian Government's Translation Bureau since 1974. Since 1979, he has also been teaching revision, scientific translation, translation theory and translation into the second language at the York University School of Translation.