Hello All,

As I know, every expert has own preferences and hints for self-checking own translation or proofreading the text created by another person. Some experts prefer to perform final review on printed text, some read it aloud, almost everybody are trying to take a pause before checking their work, at least if deadline allows it, but most of translators use some complex methods of review. I wonder if we can share here with these techniques and tips.

In my early day as a freelancer, I have used to print out the translation and check it. And then, if I had found any error I would repeat the process again.... and again.\

When you print the document you have a chance to see it in a new fresh way. Otherwise, your mind can play tricks and you may miss some errors. Smtime peopl can read it witht noticin anything especially if there is a single error in the paragraaph :)

When I have founded AIT, the process transformed in 'Print&Read Policy' but on the less strict terms, without cycle'.

There are always some common things one shall pay specific attention to during proofreading/editing. For example, I usually start self-checking using various check-spelling means as it's easy to miss an error in some text editors or CAT tools. The next stage is text review paying specific attention to details like dates, proper names, titles, values, etc. One should not forget about grammar, stylistics and word use. If something looks weird - it's better to doublecheck the sentence, word or phrase using search engines and relevant forums. And finally, if deadline allows, I read out loud some parts of the text to my wife to see if everything looks comprehensible and the text goes "smooth". These are my methods, but according to the theory of translation, this process takes much more stages, such as reading by target group, back translation and so on, which are almost impossible to be implemented in modern conditions, when clients need high quality transition in no time.  

Another good option is to put the translation aside for some time, and to work on some other tasks, before checking it. Such approach allows to acquire some freshness of vision for self-checking stage. Surely, if deadlines allow...

Nothing will completely substitute reading (preferably by a different pair of eyes) if at all possible, but I use Languagetool (languagetool.org) as help. For Polish, my target languiage, it has a pretty extensive set of rules.

yes I totally agree with @Simon

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