Revision of an English text machine-translated into Italian (MTPE)
An Italian text that needed a human touch: revision of an automatic translation from English
Alexandra is a researcher at Trinity College, Dublin, at Trinity Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies who had to present her research on the historian Filiberto Pingone at Casa del Pingone, in Turin. Alexandra knows a bit of Italian, but not enough to translate her presentation from English herself. She decided to machine-translate her texts, but she wasn’t satisfied with the result. So she preferred relying on me to revise her texts and be sure it was at the same high level she needed.
The importance
of human revision
Working together
First contact
Alexandra wrote me an email after having found my name online and she immediately explained in detail what she needed: she had to give a presentation in English on the topic of her research, Filiberto Pingone, but she wanted to translate her slides into Italian as well. Since she doesn’t know Italian very well, she tried an automated translation. She then realized the result wasn’t that good and she wanted a native Italian speaker to revise her slides so they were correct and with the proper academic style and tone of voice.
I therefore corrected the (many!) inaccuracies of the automatic translation and I modified the text to make it enjoyable and at the same time without altering the typical academy style.
Some passages were hard to deal with, but I could count on Alexandra who was open to discussing some choices and explain what she meant.
Preparing for the assignment
For this revision service I didn’t any advance preparation, I just had to get down to reading the slides from start to finish before getting on with the job, so that I knew the context and the topic.
Services Alexandra chose
Alexandra opted for a revision service of an automated translation from English into Italian: this was the right choice since AIs that create automatic translations are very useful in some cases, but cannot substitute 100% a human translation made by a thinking brain. These systems often misunderstand the meaning of some sentences, do not maintain terminology consistency, and do not always understand the right style to use according to the context. A fresh look at an automated translation is crucial to make the text look and feel right – the human touch is key.
Important document?
Difficulties
Automatic translation systems have improved a lot in recent years, but are not yet completely reliable. They should be avoided for important documents that need to be published or presented in front of a wide audience since they contain many mistakes and inaccuracies. Automatic translations often badly misunderstand context, some terms are translated wrongly and the style is not always kept as in the original version. A revision of a text automatically translated is crucial, but sometimes it would be cheaper and faster to have the text translated by a professional human being starting from scratch.
Results
A text that felt like it was originally written in Italian.
The correction of inaccuracies and severe mistakes in understanding the proper context.
A document that can be easily read and with pleasure by an Italian audience.
A satisfied client!
What the client has to say
Wow, you’ve done brilliant work! I’m so grateful. I’d highly recommend your service any time.
Thank you so much for sending the two versions as well – it’s great for me to learn what sounds most fluent in Italian. I appreciate your comment about the slide, too, which I’ve incorporated now.
Thank you!
Write to me if you want me to revise your texts, whether they’re translated or written from scratch.
Texts revision offers an external and attentive look at your documents to ensure the perfect final result, with no mistakes or inaccuracies in terms of terminology, syntax or style.
Fill out the contact form to get my quote within 48 hours.
Other occasions when you may need the revision service
- Text translation: when a content is translated from one language into another, the revision step is crucial to be sure the translated text is both loyal to its original version and grammatically correct.
- Text writing: revising a text after it is written is important to ensure it’s correct and can be read fluently. It guarantees perfection.
