Decoding the jargon: what is post-editing and why is it necessary?

Post-editing has become increasingly important in the workflow of translation companies in recent years. A relatively new service, it reflects a growing need among businesses to streamline turnarounds and costs, whilst ensuring their messages are conveyed across cultures and target markets. Like translation, post-editing requires a detailed knowledge of both the source and target languages and cultural context of the relevant countries.

What exactly is post-editing?

Post-editing is a service that involves a qualified translator reviewing a text that has previously been edited or translated, usually by an AI or machine translator. Post-editors look at both texts side-by-side, making changes to the translation to check that it reflects the terminological consistency of the original and that it conveys information faithfully and in the intended tone to the target audience. It goes beyond quality assurance, instead involving the verification of linguistic decisions and word choices made at the editing or translation stage to avoid serious errors, incongruities, and cultural mishaps that could cause reputational damage.

How does post-editing differ from proofreading?

Proofreading (sometimes called revision) is the very final stage of the translation process, where smaller errors such as punctuation and capitalisation mistakes, typos, or smaller grammatical issues are resolved before a document is delivered for use by the client.

Post-editing, however, usually consists of more fundamental changes being made to the document. It is not uncommon for language professionals at the post-editing stage to completely rewrite parts of a text if the tone or content does not aptly reflect the original. If there are only few issues, post-editing can sometimes take less time than translation, however if there are many issues, including terminological inconsistencies or clumsy renderings, rewriting sections of a document can take more time than translation.

What is the relevance of post-editing to businesses today?

As machine-translation becomes the norm and AI-generated translation becomes more widespread, demand for post-editing has increased significantly. Businesses managing continuous localisation processes need fast and reliable ways of managing multilingual content to communicate effectively with international stakeholders.

Opting for a speedier translation process followed by post-editing has its advantages. It’s usually more cost-effective, can be quicker (but also slower depending on the severity and number of errors), and trained linguists ensure that the document is ready for circulation. Post-editing has therefore become a convenient way for businesses to outsource linguistic expertise to highly trained translators while harnessing new technological developments.

Final thoughts

Post-editing is a growing service in the translation industry and demand for it shows no signs of slowing down. While post-editors are able to correct the issues caused by machine translation and AI, there are risks that remain when using these technologies. These include concerns regarding confidentiality, random changes to numbers in target documents, and a flat tone that fails to replicate the feel of the original. You can read more about the performance of AI translation in our whitepaper.

More than anything, the increasing demand for post-editing highlights the inherent value of humans in the translation process. Multinational businesses recognise that an ‘it’ll do’ approach to translation simply doesn’t cut it where a business’ international reputation is at stake.

At AST, we believe that human translation followed by human proofreading remains the best approach to ensure that a document meets the highest standards. However, we recognise that post-editing can be a more convenient solution that combines a good level of quality, speed and human expertise.

AI and machine translation are extremely useful tools, but they should be used in conjunction with a highly trained post-editor to ensure that your message is conveyed correctly. Using new technologies should not mean compromising on quality, quite the contrary.

If you’re looking for a post-editor to help with your communications and marketing projects, look no further. Get in touch at: office@astls.co.uk.