Poll: The quality of my work has increased over the past 5 years. Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "The quality of my work has increased over the past 5 years.".
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| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 05:20
Spanish to English
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| Remained about the same | Aug 5, 2022 |
Although having said that, there are bound to be some minor details of things that have improved with experience. However, if I were to state that the quality of my work had increased over the past five years, that would imply that it had been inferior in the preceding decade or so.
| | | | | I don't know, but... | Aug 5, 2022 |
I do hope so. I started over 30 years ago, so I've had a long time to improve. I'd be extremely disappointed in myself if I hadn't. Most of my customers are repeat clients, so they seem to be satisfied with my work. Nevertheless, I don't rest on my laurels and I strive to better myself…
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I know a bit more stuff but my brain is getting older, so who knows?
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Bruno Pavesi 
Brazil
Local time: 01:20
Member (2020)
English to Portuguese
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| I certainly hope so! | Aug 5, 2022 |
I feel much more comfortable about a lot of things in my translation. Especially in terms of getting a bit looser with how I translate things. But I try not to focus too much on what I do well, I prefer to figure out what I did wrong or could have done better/different and work on that.
| | | | Thomas Lof
Local time: 05:20
Member (2020)
English to Dutch
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| Q stays the same, but workload increased by too many deepfake-pretranslations | Aug 5, 2022 |
I guess over the last five years my output quality stays the same or improves slightly, but is hampered by too often context matches, 100% matches or pretranslations (MT) which takes so much unnecessary time (reading, understanding, comparing with the source, deleting and rewriting or editing) against too often a lower fee.
Most pretranslations don't know about interpunction or QA systems regard my language as some odd dialect of US English and complain even about correct translations and... See more I guess over the last five years my output quality stays the same or improves slightly, but is hampered by too often context matches, 100% matches or pretranslations (MT) which takes so much unnecessary time (reading, understanding, comparing with the source, deleting and rewriting or editing) against too often a lower fee.
Most pretranslations don't know about interpunction or QA systems regard my language as some odd dialect of US English and complain even about correct translations and interpunctions. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | A Difficult Quantity To Determine | Aug 5, 2022 |
In my case, it is just about inevitable that I will occasionally encounter different issues in my translation work that might result in one of my literary projects being lower in quality than others in my portfolio. I think it often depends on the quality of the author's original text. I can think of one case where the author's manuscript included things, here and there, that sounded really off the wall, or at least, which seemed to have nothing to do with/totally disconnected from the surroundi... See more In my case, it is just about inevitable that I will occasionally encounter different issues in my translation work that might result in one of my literary projects being lower in quality than others in my portfolio. I think it often depends on the quality of the author's original text. I can think of one case where the author's manuscript included things, here and there, that sounded really off the wall, or at least, which seemed to have nothing to do with/totally disconnected from the surrounding context, or that were expressed in a manner that was more than a bit vague, if only because I have not grown up in or have been educated in his culture. Anybody who thinks, or even brazenly states that literary translation is "non-pro", well...
[Edited at 2022-08-05 13:00 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-08-05 13:20 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-08-05 14:55 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jennifer White
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:20
French to English
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| What does this actually mean? | Aug 5, 2022 |
either: The quality of my work has improved over the past 5 years
or: The quantity of my work has increased over the last 5 years
Which is it?
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:20
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Lots of moving parts | Aug 5, 2022 |
In terms of raw translation ability - whatever that means - I think but am not sure there has been little change in my case.
On the other hand, I have undoubtedly become better/more efficient at using past translations to inform my work, which is important for many of my clients, so that is a clear positive.
On the other other hand, I have for the past several years been so busy (on average) that it becomes difficult to sit down for half an hour or an hour to review a... See more In terms of raw translation ability - whatever that means - I think but am not sure there has been little change in my case.
On the other hand, I have undoubtedly become better/more efficient at using past translations to inform my work, which is important for many of my clients, so that is a clear positive.
On the other other hand, I have for the past several years been so busy (on average) that it becomes difficult to sit down for half an hour or an hour to review and think carefully about the translation before submitting it. So what implications does that have for quality?
And this is before we consider the effects of season, mood, fatigue, caprice, and so on.
Dan ▲ Collapse
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Jennifer White wrote:
either: The quality of my work has improved over the past 5 years
or: The quantity of my work has increased over the last 5 years
Which is it?
Isn’t the clue in the question?
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