About Editing, Proofreading and Translation Services
The role of editors, proofreaders and translators is often misunderstood. As a guideline, I am providing a short summary of each of these services, as defined by the South African Translator's Institute.
Editing
"Editing means improving a text so that it puts the writer's message across in the best way.
Editing should be done near the beginning of a publishing process.
Editors look at grammar and spelling, but their job extends beyond this. Editors have to determine what the writer is trying to say, how he or she is saying it, whether the message is clear and the arguments are logical, whether the language and style are consistent and appropriate, and even whether the text is well-structured and flows properly.
If the original document is poorly written, the edited version may end up looking quite different. In a country like South Africa where many people are forced to write in a language that is not their mother tongue, the work of editors is extremely important." (SATI WEBSITE)
Proofreading
"Proofreading, in the publishing industry, means checking a typeset version of a document against the original manuscript to ensure that the typeset version contains everything in good order. The proofreader makes virtually no changes to the text itself. Proofreading is done near the end of a publishing process.
Clients who want only spelling, grammar and glaring errors corrected during editing sometimes use the term proofreading for this. Other terms used for similar activities include language checking, reviewing and light editing." (SATI WEBSITE)
Translation Services
English --> Afrikaans
Afrikaans --> English
As a registered member of the South African Translator’s Institute (SATI), I also offer professional translation services.
""A translator puts a text written in one language (the source language) into another language (the target language) in such a way that the message remains the same. The skill of translation lies in retaining all elements of the message while formulating the text in such a way that it sounds like an original in the target language." (SATI WEBSITE)
