The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2022 - 33

RESOURCE REVIEW By Andrew Bell
revise than big blocks of
unfriendly text. However, the
segmentation is dependent on
how the text was segmented
in the translation stage.
Not CAT Tool Dependent:
This means that revisers
and translators don't have
to work with the same CAT
tools, or even with a CAT
tool at all in the case of the
reviser, to be able to work
together. This is because the
text can be revised directly in
the bilingual review file.
Bilingual Review Files:
A Productivity Aid or a
Waste of Time?
Bilingual review files come in many shapes and sizes, but they all have
one thing in common: they're meant to facilitate the revision stage of a
translation project.
A
s you can see in the
example in Figure
1 on page 34, the
bilingual review file consists
of several columns. One
column is reserved for the
source text (the original
content in a given language),
another for the translation
(in my case, English), as
well as other columns for
comments, status, etc.
The number of columns
and their purpose all boils
down to which computerwww.ata-chronicle.online
assisted
translation (CAT)
tool you use1
, but the
idea behind these files is
fundamentally the same-
to improve productivity
and allow corrections to be
implemented in the CAT tool
working environment.
(Theoretical) Advantages
Presenting the translation
in this manner is meant to
increase productivity in the
following ways:
One File, Two Languages:
The huge advantage of a
bilingual review file is that
you have both the original
text and its translation in the
same user-friendly file. This
means there's no need to
create a folder structure or be
constantly flicking between
target and source documents.
Segmentation: The text is
segmented into digestible
chunks (usually sentences)
that are much easier to
Track Changes: Track
changes can be used to show
where the text has been
amended, and this makes
it easy for the translator or
project manager to review
the changes and either accept
or reject them. Comments
can also be added to the text
without disrupting the layout
of the document to add
clarity to changes or provide
additional information.
Implement Changes in the
CAT Tool: Once the revision
stage has been completed,
the translator can upload the
changes into their CAT tool
in a single step. The fact that
this is so easy and quick to
do lets the translator update
their translation memories
and termbases for future
reference with ease.
Practical Experience
When I started working as
a freelance translator, my
first assignment was actually
a revision task, but to my
surprise the task didn't
involve a bilingual review
file. I was simply sent two
separate documents: the
American Translators Association 33
http://www.ata-chronicle.online
The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2022
