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Soft skills in revision and LQA

Added by: Ekaterina Chashnikova
January 30, 2025

Let's talk about soft skills for a bit.

Revision, proofreading, and LQA in translation companies are often arranged in such a way that the translator does not know who is reviewing the translation, and the reviewer does not know who the translator is. And even if they know each other's names, they do not know each other personally. In such conditions, it might be easy to succumb to irritation and leave a harsh comment when you see an error.

But even in the conditions of anonymity, it is important to remember that there is a person behind every text and every mistake. You may still have to work with them. So maintaining a neutral or even a positive atmosphere benefits everyone.

(☝️ We are not talking about unambiguous spelling, grammatical errors, or incorrect terms.)

My experience shows that soft, constructive feedback does its job. As an editor, I improved the quality of the translator's work through feedback in projects where communication took place through LQA and project manager forms. As a translator, I explained my choice to the reviewer and significantly reduced the number of edits in similar conditions.

⛅️ What you can do as a reviewer:

✔️ Remember that the translator is also a person.

✔️ Phrase your feedback in a way that you would be happy to receive yourself.

✔️ Do not get aggressive or personal: the task is to win over the translator so that they hear and accept the important information.

✔️ Explain your edits and provide references. Especially if you aim for improvement, not correcting an obvious mistake. If the suggested improvement is necessary, you can always explain it.

✔️ Note at least one positive aspect of the work in the general comment.

✔️ Avoid generalizations unless there is a repeated error.

⛅️ What can you do as a translator?

✔️ Remember that the reviewer is also a person. 🙃

✔️ Phrase your objections in a way that you would enjoy reading yourself.

✔️ Provide a justification or a reference for each objection.

✔️ Thank the reviewer if they corrected a mistake or gave other valuable feedback.

It is also important to remember that roles can change. For example, the reviewer may be on vacation, and a less experienced colleague will be assigned as a translator. Then, you may become the reviewer. Some project managers choose to alternate the roles of translator and reviewer between two linguists.

Have you had an unpleasant experience with anonymous editing or LQA? Have you had a pleasant experience when you were happy to receive feedback from an anonymous colleague year after year?

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