Biased/incorrect/unfair evaluation by reviewer Thread poster: Khalid Malik
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Khalid Malik 
Pakistan
Local time: 10:33
Member
Urdu to English
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Hi Peers,
I hope all are enjoying a wonderful translating time.
Did you ever face a situation where your translation was proofread, reviewed, or evaluated by a reviewer that
was biased or dishonest?
If yes, would you please share your experience to let others know the consequences and how you coped with the situation?
I will be grateful for your response.
Thanks and kind regards,
Khalid Malik
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 07:33
Member (2009)
English to German
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| Nobody is perfect | Jan 23, 2022 |
Hi Khalid,
maybe the proofreader had a bad day. That is, of course, no excuse for having edited your translation "to death". S/he might not have had any bad intentions after all.
This did happen to me before. The reason for tearing my translation apart was the proofer's intention to get translations from our client instead of "just" revision work.
Aside from replacing my correctly translated words with the ones she preferred, she had also "integrated" sever... See more Hi Khalid,
maybe the proofreader had a bad day. That is, of course, no excuse for having edited your translation "to death". S/he might not have had any bad intentions after all.
This did happen to me before. The reason for tearing my translation apart was the proofer's intention to get translations from our client instead of "just" revision work.
Aside from replacing my correctly translated words with the ones she preferred, she had also "integrated" several mistakes. I copied everything she had changed (there was only one "real" mistake) and sent it to my customer along with my original translation. Of course I admitted my one mistake, then pointed out the reviewer's mistakes and explained that the changes made are those of a non-native German speaker.
My customer's response was "limited" to a) paying for my translation, b) sending me more work, and c) a little note along with the first new job that she was now using a different proofreader.
Just explain to your customer - not to the proofreader - what the incorrect changes are, which words were preferential, and anything else that went wrong. However, just make sure that you remain professional and don't accuse the proofreader of any wrong doings, let alone any bad intentions. Then let your customer decide. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | There are already many similar cases in this forum | Jan 23, 2022 |
Check the headings discussed here:
https://www.proz.com/forum/proofreading_editing_reviewing-418.html
There are plenty of reactions and a lot of advice. Not all of it will fit your situation, but it is unfortunately a very common situation.
Here are some of the most recent threads, but you can go back many years if you have time:
Nov... See more Check the headings discussed here:
https://www.proz.com/forum/proofreading_editing_reviewing-418.html
There are plenty of reactions and a lot of advice. Not all of it will fit your situation, but it is unfortunately a very common situation.
Here are some of the most recent threads, but you can go back many years if you have time:
November 18, 2021
https://www.proz.com/forum/proofreading_editing_reviewing/354425-non_native_client_claiming_issues_with_style_of_my_translation_can_i_have_an_expertise_done.html
October 19 2021
https://www.proz.com/forum/proofreading_editing_reviewing/353791-proofreader_changed_my_translation_with_obvious_mistakes.html
August 7 2021
https://www.proz.com/forum/proofreading_editing_reviewing/352411-non_native_speakers_reviewing_your_edits-page2.html
January 22 2020
https://www.proz.com/forum/proofreading_editing_reviewing/340474-how_to_deal_with_such_a_situation.html
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I would avoid calling a reviewer dishonest.
Sometimes reviewers seriously believe they know better, even when they are mistaken.
Another possibility is that there is not enough time (or the agency is only paying a low rate, so the reviewer does not take time) to check everything they are uncertain about. In these situations I know I have tried to ´play safe´ when reviewing, and changed expressions I did not know, when in fact they were as good as my suggestion, or very possibly better.
Agencies often ask inexperienced translators to review translations, and in fact that is how I began myself! However, I was working in-house, and carefully supervised as part of my training. Not all agencies do that.
My task was to proofread translations into English by non-native subject experts. Then I was told to call the translator and discuss my suggested changes on the phone. Sometimes they happily agreed - I am a native speaker of English, and could catch small things that were not entirely wrong, but Scandinavians say them differently. With terminology and special professional expressions in particular, the translators would often convince me that they were right, and we kept their original version.
I learned a great deal from them about special terminology and law in particular, and I have been very grateful to them. I will not defend reviewers who ought to know better, but I can explain how it happens!
Of course, I have seen some of my translations proofread by people who had done far less research than I had. I have learnt as a translator how important that is, and I know how it feels.
Often there is not much you can do about it. You can explain why you are right and the reviewer is wrong, but always be objective and polite. Give examples, if you can, from other texts or sources to back up your point of view.
It is a waste of your time to make a personal attack. Even if the reviewer is acting in bad faith or directly dishonest, you will never become friends by exposing them!
If the reviewer was just inexperienced or mistaken, then you can hope they will learn from it without losing face.
If you convince the client, then they will respect your professional expertise, and that is the best you can hope for.
Don´t waste a lot of time on it! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Khalid Malik
Pakistan
Local time: 10:33
Member
Urdu to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Expression of Gratitude | Jan 23, 2022 |
Hi Thayenga,
Thank you for your valuable response.
Hello Christine,
I am grateful for your detailed precious reply and for sharing the links to the previous discussions on the topic.
Have an excellent time.
Kind regards
Khalid
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:33
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Christine Andersen wrote:
.....You can explain why you are right and the reviewer is wrong, but always be objective and polite. Give examples, if you can, from other texts or sources to back up your point of view..... Don't spend too much time on it !
On the contrary: I would suggest spending a lot of time on it now, in order to avoid having to spend time on it in the future.
On the few occasions (maybe only one) on which this has happened to me, I spent a long time writing a punctilious, detailed, and circumstantiated rebuttal of each correction the reviewer had suggested, explaining exactly why I had translated the text in that particular way, how I had evaluated alternatives and the reasons why I had discarded them; and elaborating - at considerable length - on the considerations that led me to write in a particular way that enabled me to preserve the style and flow of the original.
They never bothered me again about these matters and I got a lot more work from the same agency. The reviewer disappeared off the face of the earth.
[Edited at 2022-01-23 17:39 GMT]
| | | | Adieu
Ukrainian to English
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| All kinds of things can happen | Jan 23, 2022 |
Was this paid work returned to you with an angry feedback letter? An unpaid test where they just went "nah, no thanks"? An unpaid test where they didn't reject you, but did return a sheet full of tracked changes"for your information"? A job you worked on that appeared online or in print significantly different from your original work? Just corrections from a reviewer you looked up on a MemoQ server? Or what?
Btw, if you're working on a shared TM server project in a CAT tool like Mem... See more Was this paid work returned to you with an angry feedback letter? An unpaid test where they just went "nah, no thanks"? An unpaid test where they didn't reject you, but did return a sheet full of tracked changes"for your information"? A job you worked on that appeared online or in print significantly different from your original work? Just corrections from a reviewer you looked up on a MemoQ server? Or what?
Btw, if you're working on a shared TM server project in a CAT tool like MemoQ for the first time, prepare to get your translation *shredded* by the reviewer role (IF they're doing their job right). Reason being that CATs don't quite work the same as translation by hand. Your contributions may be correct or correct-ish as a standalone product, but if they diverge with the accepted style in the TM, letting them through would essentially "poison" the TM with matches that clash with existing entries and make life difficult for everyone else going forward. Especially if you overwrote other people's perfectly good 100/101% matches that flowed well with the existing TM style.
Khalid Malik wrote:
Hi Peers,
I hope all are enjoying a wonderful translating time.
Did you ever face a situation where your translation was proofread, reviewed, or evaluated by a reviewer that
was biased or dishonest?
If yes, would you please share your experience to let others know the consequences and how you coped with the situation?
I will be grateful for your response.
Thanks and kind regards,
Khalid Malik
[Edited at 2022-01-23 18:27 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-01-23 18:28 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 07:33
French to English
Chiming in with Thayenga Tom and Christine.
It's always a good strategy to admit upfront if the translator has caught a genuine mistake.
Even if they haven't, you should find some minor correction that you can concede is better than your original translation. This shows that you are not just reacting angrily, but are prepared to acknowledge that your work can be improved and you want the best for your client. You want to avoid coming across as the guy who will admit no imper... See more Chiming in with Thayenga Tom and Christine.
It's always a good strategy to admit upfront if the translator has caught a genuine mistake.
Even if they haven't, you should find some minor correction that you can concede is better than your original translation. This shows that you are not just reacting angrily, but are prepared to acknowledge that your work can be improved and you want the best for your client. You want to avoid coming across as the guy who will admit no imperfection.
Once you've found at least one point to concede, you can then happily tear apart the rest of the corrections, explaining why you put what you put, why you didn't put what the proofreader is suggesting. You can just do it for the first few pages if it's very long.
I have occasionally gone to the trouble of analysing the corrections and sorting them into categories like "synonym" "purely subjective change" "incorrect jargon" "incongruent style" and "introduction of an error" to show clients the extent of the damage. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Khalid Malik
Pakistan
Local time: 10:33
Member
Urdu to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Expression of Gratitude | Jan 23, 2022 |
Hello Tom, Adieu, and Kay,
I am so obliged for your valuable suggestions. It is nice to know there are professionals in the ProZ community who spare time to help others.
Have a great time.
Kind regards
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Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 01:33
Japanese to English
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| Unfair evaluation | Jan 24, 2022 |
Reviewers review. Editors edit. If they don't, they don't get paid.
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I have been wearing two hats as I work both as a translator and a reviewer/editor, so I’m probably at a vantage point to give a view on this matter.
As a translator I always welcome feedback and queries from those reviewing my work. Of course, this doesn’t mean I appreciate the overzealous reviewer, and I have no problem defending my translation against unnecessary stylistic changes and the like. My policy has always been to agree to what is acceptable and reject firmly whateve... See more I have been wearing two hats as I work both as a translator and a reviewer/editor, so I’m probably at a vantage point to give a view on this matter.
As a translator I always welcome feedback and queries from those reviewing my work. Of course, this doesn’t mean I appreciate the overzealous reviewer, and I have no problem defending my translation against unnecessary stylistic changes and the like. My policy has always been to agree to what is acceptable and reject firmly whatever is unacceptable, explaining the reason why.
As a reviewer I must say that over the years I have sent back a few translations without a single change (leading once an agency to ask if I had done my job…), but I’ve also seen the good, the bad and even the ugly. I have occasionally refused to review work after seeing the document as it would be easier to translate it from scratch. On the other hand, every time I receive a very good translation I always send a note to the agency saying “please extend my congratulations to the translator". ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Always comment on what is particularly good as well as the errors! | Jan 24, 2022 |
Michael Newton wrote:
Reviewers review. Editors edit. If they don't, they don't get paid.
Another thing I learnt from my early training was to make positive comments as well as correcting errors. I too have written ´My compliments to the translator´ when they were well deserved, and I always try to say something positive as well as pointing out errors or possible improvements.
For a beginner, that is very helpful too - it is important to know when you are right on track as well as where improvement is needed! It makes my day when someone pays me a compliment - I am sure everyone else feels the same.
| | | | | Bane of my life | Jan 24, 2022 |
Working as an in-house translator, overzealous proofreaders have been the bane of my working life. When I proofread a translation, I see my job as to spot mistakes - genuine mistakes - or at most make the odd suggestion regarding what reads better. Unfortunately I have worked with people who seem to delight in finding fault with my work and basically rewrite my translations. In any other job, this would be considered improper. Why do translators put up with it?
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