What is post-editing?

What is post-editing?

Anyone who works in the translation industry or orders translations on a regular basis is most likely familiar with machine translation. This tool is often used to save time and money. Although artificial intelligence is improving continuously, machine translation should be used with great care. It cannot completely replace the work of professionals.

So, how can translators still take advantage of this technical aid without sacrificing the quality of the finished translation? This is where post-editing comes in. During this step, language specialists review the machine translation and check such things as:

• grammar
• coherence
• syntax

The aim is to make the machine-generated translation resemble a human-generated translation as closely as possible. Since texts with complex sentences are difficult for translation software to handle, it is essential that a human translator is assigned to optimise the translation afterwards.

How does SwissGlobal employ this method?

The degree of revision required varies according to the purpose and quality requirements set forth by the client, but it also depends on the type of text. The DIN ISO 18587 standard helps to determine what is needed. If a text will only be used internally and contains mainly simple sentences, a basic post-editing step is sufficient. However, if the texts are press releases or other external communications, then a more extensive post-editing is necessary.

No matter which of the two types you require, our language specialists always do a thorough job and guarantee high-quality translations. In the end, technology enables the bulk of the work to be done more efficiently, and post-editing ensures a flawless final product.