Post-editing

Even though the quality of machine translation has improved, the results still aren’t flawless. Human translators continue to be needed to guarantee a high-quality text.

That is why ElaN Languages considers translation machines to be a potential tool only for our translators. The process by which a translator turns a machine translation into a reliable, easy-to-read text is called post-editing. Man and machine go hand in hand.

The advantages of post-editing

Machine translations help our translators to translate faster and more efficiently. But you especially will reap the rewards.

• Faster: because the translation machine does the majority of work, meaning the delivery time is considerably shorter. All that remains for our translators to do is rewriting and give it a final linguistics and quality check.
   
• More consistent: everything that a translation machine has already translated is reproduced in exactly the same way for subsequent assignments – including your terminology lists.
   
• Cheaper: faster means cheaper. How much you save depends on the quality of the machine translation and on your deadline.

When is this added value?

Post-editing often comes in handy for texts that need to be regularly retranslated. This includes things like annual reports or user manuals. Would a ‘rough’ translation of an extensive text suffice for you? Post-editing is certainly an option in this case as well.