Best practice for revising translations

Brian Mossop, Canada

This workshop will be held in two parts.

The workshop will look at the reviser's tasks from the point of view of various constraints. The format will comprise brief theoretical presentations followed by text-based or scenario exercises focusing on the most effective way to carry out a given revising or editing task.

Here are the topics we'll look at over the course of the two days:

• What is revision: how should we see it? What is the best way to define quality for revision purposes? How should we integrate self-revision into the translation process? How important is it to have a translation revised by a second translator? Reviser/revisee relations and the need to justify changes. To change or not to change: principles for making corrections. Should we revise on paper or on screen? How much research should revisers do? How much attention should we devote to consistency? Conflicts of loyalty (to the various parties involved in a translation job).
• Degrees of revision: review entire text or just parts? review some or all aspects of a translation? compare every sentence of the translation to the source or just glance at the source when necessary?. Computer tools for revision. Revising well but also quickly. Abilities required of revisers.

If there is interest, we'll also look at revision within large translation departments and translation agencies: consistency among revisers; auditing the contribution of revision to a translation service.

About the presenter

Brian Mossop was a French-to-English translator, reviser and trainer at the Canadian Government’s Translation Bureau from 1974 to 2014. He continues to lead workshops and webinars on revision in Canada and abroad. Since 1980, he has also been a part-time instructor at the York University School of Translation in Toronto, teaching revision, scientific translation, translation theory and translation into the second language. For more, visit www.yorku.ca/brmossop.