Book review
Reviewed by Roser Sánchez Castany 
Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Translation Revision and Post-Editing: industry practices and cognitive processes is a relevant, versatile book aimed primarily at researchers, teachers and advanced students in Translation Studies interested in revision and post-editing as independent fields, and also in the connection between them. Given its empirical and practical nature and the fact that it provides a variety of professional points of view, this book may also appeal to professional translators with a special interest in checking workflows.
This work comprises 12 chapters, organised in four parts. Each part provides an overview of relevant research focus with regard to a specific topic: post-editing versus revision; non-professional revision and post-editing; professional revision in various contexts; and training. In addition to these contents, the book starts with an authors’ introduction including a detailed and systematic literature review in the post-editing and revision research fields, with both theoretical and empirical approaches. A common thread running through the volume is the fact that translation revision and machine translation post-editing are undoubtedly connected activities.
Part I of this work comprises the first three chapters and it is entitled “Post-editing versus revision”. This part is devoted to the existing relationship between post-editing and revision processes in various contexts and from different points of view. In Chapter 1, Nitzke and Gros investigate and discuss the phenomenon of preferential changes made in revision and post-editing processes, which they call “over-editing”. The authors argue that not every translation professional is suited to perform the revision of translated texts and machine translation post-editing. They also claim that revision and post-editing skills should be included in university curricula, paying special attention to teaching how to avoid personal preferences when suggesting changes, and how to rapidly assess which changes to a text are really necessary.
Chapter 2, by do Carmo and Moorkens, presents an analysis of the impact of translators’ use of machine translation based on the editing task present in translation, revision and post-editing steps from three different perspectives: Translation Studies, machine translation research, and the industry. The authors claim that it is necessary to rethink post-editing processes as translation steps, rather than revision. They also clearly state that, for machine translation output to be used efficiently in a professional context, translation professionals need to become more specialised in a specific field and therefore trained in the use of dedicated tools.
In Chapter 3, Daems and Macken asked professional translators to revise or post-edit texts that were machine or human translated, without knowing the real provenance of the text. They found that there were significantly more changes –many of them preferential– made to machine translation in revision rather than post-editing. Regarding quality, they state that for human translation, the quality of the post-editing was higher than the revision, whereas for machine translation, the quality of the revision was higher than the post-editing. Finally, they conclude that assumptions made by translators about the nature of a text are likely to influence the quality of the revision or post-editing processes.
Part II, entitled “Non-professional revision and post-editing” includes two chapters (4-5). In Chapter 4, LeBlanc presents the partial results of a study that focuses on the working language of civil servants in a bilingual (English-French) setting in Canada, with professional and non-professional editors operating within the public service. The author states that non-professional editing should not be considered as a marginal activity due to certain factors, such as the fact that professional translators are sometimes not informed about the audience for the texts they translate or not aware of specific requirements regarding to the strict linguistic norms or conventions to be followed. LeBlanc firmly maintains that non-professional revision and editing are worthy of research by Translation Studies scholars.
In Chapter 5, Parra Escartín and Goulet focus on what they call “self-post-editing” as a writing aid, understood in this context as the process where a group of non-native speakers of English and non-professional translators post-edit a machine-translated version of their scientific papers from Spanish into English. The study compares these versions with the edits made by a professional proofreader without access to the original text. They conclude that physicians were, to a certain extent, capable of carrying out a post-editing task. However, they point out that the quality of the post-edited text would not be good enough for publication, as it still needed some major edits relating to syntax or style.
Part III of this volume, comprising Chapters 6 to 9, is entitled “Professional revision in various contexts”. In Chapter 6, Schnierer presents an overview of the recommendations given in the EN 15038/ISO 17100 standard regarding translation revision steps and compliance with quality standards among several translation service providers. The companies involved in the study, some of which are certified and some not, claim to work in line with the standard. With respect to translation revision, it can be stated that translations are revised at many companies, mostly using a bilingual method in which the translation is compared with the original text.
In Chapter 7, Korhonen explores, from the language industry point of view, the potential of revision not only in correcting translators’ errors, but also in editing texts further. The author clearly states that there are many differences between language service providers in terms of how they offer their services to their clients and how they organise their workflows. If revision is understood as a task that goes beyond checking and that reaches into the production of creative translation services, it is clear that quality assurance is only one of its possible purposes. Korhonen therefore states that revision needs to be seen as part of the text-production effort, instead of merely a step in checking for errors.
Chapter 8, written by Valdez and Vandepitte, is devoted to the relationship between biomedical revisers and translators in terms of their competences and working practices in this specialised field. The authors state that the lack of communication and trust between these professionals could lead to misunderstandings that would ultimately have a negative effect on the perception of translation quality and the reputation of biomedical translators. Valdez and Vandepitte argue that improving the relationship and collaboration between translators and revisers is a key issue for the industry, starting with including these communication skills in the university training programmes.
In Chapter 9, Feinauer and Lourens contest the traditionally binary scenario of self-revision and other revision processes in literary translation as independent tasks. The authors argue that the processes integrated in the revision stage include plenty of different situations that not only involve the translator’s self-revision and third-party revisions, but also include intervention from authors, editors, proofreaders, and other industry agents. In this chapter, the act of revision itself is also called into question, and the authors clearly understand it as a cluster of possible combinations of self-revision and other revision steps.
Finally, Part IV of this volume includes the last three chapters (10-12), and is devoted to training in revision and post-editing. In Chapter 10, Konttinen, Salmi and Koponen analyse commonalities and differences in revision and post-editing competences in the translator education programme at the University of Turku. The authors firmly believe that translation, revision and post-editing skills are paramount in a translation university programme. However, they maintain that teaching programmes should include basic communication competences to address the relationship between human agents, which, in turn, is also necessary to make a clear distinction when teaching ways of pointing out changes in revision and in post-editing activities.
In Chapter 11, Van Egdom observes trainer-to-trainee revision from the translator trainer’s perspective through technology. The author recommends using translationQ, a tool designed to help translator trainers, among other professionals, to increase consistency and objectivity in revision and evaluation tasks. The author’s analysis reveals that this tool would avoid the repetitiveness factor in revising scenarios, given that it allows the reuse of error inputs. The tool has some positive qualities related to ergonomics, and it is also compatible with the most frequently used tools in the industry. It also means students can experience a real revision environment, being aware of their own learning process.
Chapter 12, by Ginovart Cid and Colominas Ventura, analyses the machine translation post-editing skill set. The authors carry out a study that involves an analysis of different syllabi, and an online questionnaire and several individual interviews with educators involved in machine translation post-editing courses. The study reveals that it is not common to include practice in machine translation post-editing in traditional translation courses, where translation quality is indeed evaluated. In addition, the main focus in post-editing is mostly placed on procedures and processes, software features, and techniques for efficient keyboard use. Less attention is paid to practising with controlled languages or carrying out pre-editing tasks.
All things considered, the chapters in this volume are an excellent reference for learning and understanding the connection between revision and post-editing from different points of view. The editors not only present useful chapters about the basics of these processes, they also offer a detailed literature review that complements the volume. Hence, this work is therefore undoubtedly a practical book for scholars, teachers and student translators conducting research in the fields of revision and post-editing.
Received: 23 April 2021
Accepted: 27 April 2021