CPD focus: translation revision clubs

In the translation industry, revision is a careful comparison of the translated text against the original source to ensure the message and tone of voice have been faithfully and effectively and communicated in the target language.

I completed over 100 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) over the past 12 months. Yay for me, right? Let me explain a bit more about how I passed this milestone.

100 hours may sound like a lot: it works out as three/four working weeks. But when you’re doing regular chunks of CPD as a habit, it’s actually quite easy to hit the 100-hour mark.

One CPD activity I do that really racks up the hours is revision clubs.

What on earth is a revision club, you may ask?

The word ‘revision’ makes it sounds a pretty tedious, I’ll admit. A bit like a club for swotting up before an exam. But no, in the translation world, ‘revision’ means something different. Revision is similar to an editing process, with the important distinction of there being two languages and two texts.

In the translation industry, revision is a careful comparison of the translated text against the original source to ensure the message and tone of voice have been faithfully and effectively and communicated in the target language.

In a real-life translation job, the revision part of the project will be done by a second translator. This follows the ‘four-eyes’ principle, based on the theory that if only one person works on a text, something will inevitably get missed.

In the best-case scenario, the translator and reviser will work closely together to discuss the suggested changes before agreeing on the final version. The best translations will be produced as a collaborative effort by two (or more) translators/revisers.

So now you know.

In CPD terms, a revision club aims to replicate this collaborative work in a more relaxed space.

Three translators – at any stage in their translation career – come together to find a challenging text they can first work on separately, before meeting (online) to discuss the text’s stumbling blocks and to compare notes.

Three seems to be the magic number for revision clubs – I’m in a revision club for French, Spanish and Portuguese and they all consist of three translators. I think it could be unwieldy with a higher number, while with fewer translators there would simply be fewer ideas flowing.

The three of us spend an hour discussing the text’s challenges, sharing the results of our subject and terminology research and comparing each other’s translation solutions. There are scant other opportunities to get your work peer reviewed: they are worth their weight in gold.

Because I translate from three languages, I’m part of three different revision clubs. It’s a lot! But we don’t always manage to meet monthly; sometimes it’s bimonthly if we’re busy and that’s fine. Flexibility comes with the territory when you’re freelance.

But being part of a revision club still means spending many, many hours per year on translation mastery with my peers – honing my craft, discussing solutions and crystallising my own thoughts. Often it means taking a fresh look at my understanding of a phrase, or even a whole text or concept in the source language.

The best things about this form of CPD?

• It’s free.

• It involves talking to my peers, which adds to a feeling of community.

• It exists at the coalface of translation – we get down to the nitty-gritty.

• You get to pick the brains of your peers. Sometimes they come up with an incredibly apt turn of phrase, sometimes you do. It’s a virtuous circle.

• Even if it’s not a ‘real’ translation project, it is real-life translation in action. And we always make sure we pick challenging texts so that we’re stretching ourselves.  

Because I track my time, I can see that in March I spent a total of seven hours on my revision clubs. That’s basically an entire workday! So you can see how these hours add up over a year.

Are you part of a translation revision club? Or a similar type of group within your industry? I’ve love to hear your stories!