Elanex editing services
Elanex offers two kinds of editing: 'stylistic' editing, and 'semantic' editing.
Stylistic editing
The definition of 'good' translation depends on the purpose of the translated document.
Sometimes, a translation which is faithful to the original is not ideal may sound too 'literal'
to the reader, or use words or phrases not appropriate for the context. In the case of a marketing
document, completely faithful rendition is less important than something which sounds as though it
was written by a native speaker. Sometimes it is not possible to meet both these requirements - and
finding the right balance is the 'art' of translation.
This situation is common across the translation industry. Typically, translation companies provide
no solution to this problem - and so often
clients think of a translation as 'poor quality', even though the actual translation quality
(in terms of accuracy of meaning) might be reasonably good, because it is not suited to the needs of the
target audience.
Elanex offers stylistic editing - a new solution to this problem which offers
you the best of both worlds. In an Elanex stylistic edit, the document is reviewed by an expert in
the field - literally a member of the target audience, rather than a professional translator. A legal
document is reviewed by an ex-lawyer; a video game is reviewed by a potential player of the game.
Stylistic editing is a value-added service which can be provided on request for any document -
whether translated by Elanex or not. If you are requesting your translation from Elanex, just specify up-front
that you require the document edited for style not faithfulness.
Semantic editing
First and foremost, translation quality is defined by accuracy - whether all sentences in the original
document were translated, whether the right words and phrases were used, whether untranslatable material such as
numbers was correctly transcribed, and whether the exact meaning of the original sentences was preserved.
Semantic editing is the Elanex term for the process of checking a translation to ensure its accuracy. Semantic editing is a
standard part of all Elanex translations - in other words, we always edit our translations to ensure they are accurate.
Our basic philosophy is that translation is not finished until it is a correct representation
of the original document, written in the way a native would write it. (Stay away from any companies offering 'native checks' -
that means their translations are not done by native speakers!)