5 Feb /15

The Industry Standards for Proofreading

(Take a look at our previous article from our proofreading series: What proofreading involves: A look at the different definitions of proofreading. Who does it? What it means at EVS Translations.)

Industry standards for proofreading - EVS Translations
Industry standards for proofreading – EVS Translations

There are many translation agencies that can offer you a translation. They can offer translation plus proofreading, too. But if everyone’s offering these services, why are the quotes different? Because everyone is working to different standards for proofreading.

Anyone can do cheap and cheerful – send out a mass e-mail to freelance translators and take the lowest bidder; tell the client you offer proofreading, but don’t tell them the proofreader can’t read the original text; ask the project manager to quickly proofread the text before submission.

EN 15038:2006 is a standard specific to the translation industry. It provides clearly defined processes that guarantee quality. As part of the standard, the translator must review his or her own work, which must then be reviewed by a separate person of equivalent qualification. The standard defines two different types of reviewing: Dual-control principle (according to EN 15038) and Dual-control principle plus. The former refers to monolingual proofreading (checking the translated text only) and the latter refers to bilingual proofreading, mentioned in the first blog of this series.

Proofreading according to EN 15038:

  • Translator checks own work
  • Additional formatting and number check
  • Dual-control principle – according to EN 15038 (translator plus separate proofreader)
  • Dual-control principle plus – against original language (translator plus a separate bilingual proofreader)
  • Adherence to company-specific and department-specific terminology

According to the standard, translation quality can only be assured when the translation is part of a proper quality control process. EVS Translations applies dual-control principle plus to all its translations and our proofreaders work with industry-specific and client-specific glossaries and style guides to guarantee the highest quality, every time.

Not everybody works to this standard, so not all products are the same. EVS Translations holds itself to a higher standard and the end product reflects this.