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Introduction
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Editing is often a sensitive topic - someone has worked hard to translate
reports or other materials into English and
they feel a strong personal connection to the English text. Unfortunately, working
hard is sometimes just not enough when you have to write in a foreign language.
Even if you follow every rule of
grammar and get all the spelling exactly right, the result often retains
the flavour of the writer's mother tongue. This can distract the
reader from the message you are trying to communicate - cause them to
pay more attention to the way something has been written than to what it
is saying.
For better or worse, English is
rapidly becoming the international working language and you need to make
sure your written materials communicate exactly what you need and want
them to - if your English text is important, you need an editor. |
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Some editing
samples |
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How best to demonstrate the difference
between a translated webpage and a translated and edited webpage? For
obvious reasons, I do not want to identify the businesses whose text I
have used as an example, but each of the following comes from a real
website.
| Example 1 |
Original text:
...to better exploit
the business opportunities on the growing Chinese
market, a decision has been made...
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Edited text:
...to better exploit
business opportunities in the growing Chinese market, we
have decided...
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| The total number of words
has been reduced, the grammar improved and it has been
changed from an indirect, to a direct statement. |
Top of Page
| Example 2 |
Original text:
...a
high level of it expertise...
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Edited text:
...a high level of IT
expertise...
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| In English it is a
word. IT is the abbreviation for Information Technology. |
Top of Page
| Example 3 |
Original text:
...Despite extensive
internal has many of our customers experienced errors...
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Edited text:
...In spite of
extensive pre-release testing, many of our customers
have had problems...
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| The problems in the
original text can be difficult for a Swedish writer of
English to see. They are quite obvious to an English-speaking editor
though - and to your English-speaking customers. |
Top of Page
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What does it cost? |
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Well, that depends...
What kind of text
needs to be edited?
How fast do you
need it done?
What kind of
editing is necessary?
The easiest answer
is that it usually costs less than a base translation.
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