Poll: What percentage of segments with errors you consider to be unacceptable when proofreading? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What percentage of segments with errors you consider to be unacceptable when proofreading?".
This poll was originally submitted by Jose Marino. View the poll results »
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
While a 75% threshold may produce a relevant workpiece to start with and 97%+ is almost 'a perfect match', in non-techy translation even a 100% match may be not right or require rephrasing/rewording, let alone replacing/removing.
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The word segment makes me shiver as I’m one of those dinosaurs who still works with sentences…
P.S. Translations might be excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor, but I’ve never had to deal with an unacceptable translation, probably because I never accept an editing or proofreading job without having a good look at it first…
[Edited at 2019-04-16 10:23 GMT]
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 23:25
Spanish to English
+ ...
I'm sorry, but I don't really understand the question. I suppose I must be an out-of-date, no longer useful translator, on the way to the scrapheap of history. Boo hoo.
But seriously, although I work with a CAT tool and I know what segments are, the bit about percentages says nothing to me. I'm usually too busy actually working to be navelgazing or doing maths, which I was never any good at and therefore dislike.
[Edited at 2019-04-16 09:22 GMT]
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I don't see it from that perspective.
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All errors are unacceptable, but then to err is human.
When we used to send work out, I used a threshold of one major error (e.g. mistranslation) and three minor errors (e.g. punctuation) per 1,000 words.
Which converts into fewer than 1% of segments/sentences.
| | | | Mario Freitas 
Brazil
Local time: 19:25
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Never thought of it | Apr 16, 2019 |
It's not only the volume of mistakes that matter. It's the type of mistakes too.
Literal translations are probably the worst kind, because they are very, very common, and they destroy any translation. And the translator usually does not agree that you change them to the correct terms. They'll say your changing things with synonyms. So, nothign to do with volume or number of errors.
Other than that, if the translator uses undue language, too informal, etc., that makes it a lot more "u... See more It's not only the volume of mistakes that matter. It's the type of mistakes too.
Literal translations are probably the worst kind, because they are very, very common, and they destroy any translation. And the translator usually does not agree that you change them to the correct terms. They'll say your changing things with synonyms. So, nothign to do with volume or number of errors.
Other than that, if the translator uses undue language, too informal, etc., that makes it a lot more "unacceptable" than the number of occurrences.
Anyway, I voted 10%, because corrections required in more than 1 out of each 10 segments will indeed disqualify the translator anyway. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Rebecca Garber
Local time: 17:25
Member (2005)
German to English
+ ...
| It depends on the type of errors | Apr 16, 2019 |
CAT tools mark errors in my work that I override all the time, because the tool is wrong.
Autosuggest at less than 97% usually requires some fixing, but sometimes that 3-10% difference is just the font, or the punctuation, or autohyphenation was turned off, or a typo was fixed...
I've also seen great, fluent translations that were the wrong register for the text or the wrong linguistic code. Those are actually really bad, because someone worked very hard on that text, and they... See more CAT tools mark errors in my work that I override all the time, because the tool is wrong.
Autosuggest at less than 97% usually requires some fixing, but sometimes that 3-10% difference is just the font, or the punctuation, or autohyphenation was turned off, or a typo was fixed...
I've also seen great, fluent translations that were the wrong register for the text or the wrong linguistic code. Those are actually really bad, because someone worked very hard on that text, and they failed. ▲ Collapse
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Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
United States
Local time: 14:25
Spanish to English
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I don't proofread other colleagues' work in part because the definition of errors is so iffy. We all have different standards and criteria.
An actual misunderstanding of the meaning of the text or true mistranslations should be rare in the work of professionals.
| | | | Gitte Hovedskov (X)
Denmark
Local time: 23:25
English to Danish
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Errors are not acceptable, they are fixable.
We all make mistakes, but that doesn't mean that any level of errors is 'to be expected' or 'acceptable'. Not in my book, at least.
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There are no "segments" in the material I translate or proofread.
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