Is serious proofreading part of the job?

MaV

It looks like today is a frustration Sunday - I promise to move on to more optimistic topics during the week. But…

Doesn’t it get on your nerves when clients expect you to proofread your own work? I’m not talking about re-reading what you’ve done and trying to send it back as perfect as possible. I’m talking about actual proofreading. As in “the work that should be done by someone else because we tend to read whatever our brain wants us to read in a text written by ourselves”.

Do you have many clients expecting you to do both things? If you do, what do you tell them? Yes, sure? Do you charge extra? Do you warn them you might not be the best person to carry out that work, but you’re happy to proofread someone else’s work? That you have no talent for proofreading?

eleonorang

Educating clients is one of the most difficult tasks in our job ? They simply can't tell the difference between a job we know was done properly and one that was not. Have you tried asking to a colleague you trust to provide proofreading services for your translations and offered yourself to do the same for theirs? That might work and everybody will be happy ?

MaV

eleonorang Have you tried asking to a colleague you trust to provide proofreading services for your translations and offered yourself to do the same for theirs? That might work and everybody will be happy

Yes, I always do that, both ways. But it's free work made out of pride... Many clients will tell you they don't have a budget for proofreading. In Portugal, it happens in most "serious" cultural institutions.