What Does It Mean to Be A Proofreader On MotaWord?

Whether or not you are a translator that holds proofreader status with us on MotaWord, the information below is designed to help all our vendors achieve success. We aim to inform and encourage skill building within our vendor base, and hope that the following information will help you understand a bit more about how MotaWord works, the opportunities for growth we can offer you as a professional translator, and allow you to take on more responsibility in projects.

MotaWord is a collaborative, cloud-based business translation platform. We require our professional translator base to work together on translation projects to achieve the highest quality and fastest delivery possible to our clients.

An important part of the MotaWord translation process is our single-proofreader model. While the translation phase of a project is collaborative, the proofreading phase is not. We assign one vendor from our base to each project to look over the collaborative translation and ensure the quality, cohesion, and ultimate success of delivery.

Proofreaders are identified as MotaWord's most experienced linguists. Here is a five-step guide to proofreader success:

1. Correct errors in spelling, grammar, and spacing.

2. Make sure that your browser’s spell check tool is activated in the target language you are proofreading. This will ensure that the spell check feature will work on our platform.

As you are making your edits, you will be prompted on the platform to correspond your changes with a letter. These letters are:

T = Typo
“T” refers to any spelling mistakes you come across. Select this letter when you find a mistype.

S = Stylistic

“S” corresponds to any misrepresentations in the subject and style of the document being translated.

C = Consistency
“C” is for any error change that you as the proofreader believe to be inconsistent with the overall cohesion of the text.

G = Grammar
“G” is selected when acknowledging a grammatical error in the target language.

M = Machine Translation
“M” is selected to notify your colleagues that you know something has been machine translated. When this occurs, please let info@motaword.com know the user I.D. of the corresponding translator.

D = Dummy
“D” is selected when a nonsensical type is entered in as a translation. Ex.”bmlkjbgofmglbk…” Or you encounter an error you cannot easily classify using the descriptions above.

3. Check for well-written sentence structure
Are the sentences consistent with the style of the project? Is the grammatical voice appropriate for what the writer is trying to achieve?

4. Follow any client directions
Most projects are equipped with a “Style Guide" provided by the client. In these guides, you will find anything and everything you need to know to deliver the project in the exact format the client wants. Each vendor, proofreader, and translator MUST read each style guide in its entirety to deliver a high-quality translation.

5. Monitor Consistency

• Terminology acronyms, capitalization, currency and measurements
• Even if you see that the project has reached 100% translation, don’t let this confuse you: even if a project has been translated 100%, this does not include the proofreading phase.
• Ideally, we are looking to set up a proactive, not reactive, approach to proofreading on MotaWord:
  Even before a project is fully translated, you can assign yourself as a proofreader on the project and can guide the direction of the translators with your comments, glossary terms, and expertise. You can actually set the style, tone, and consistency of a project before and while the translators are working.
• Do NOT validate any phrase that you are not completely happy with. Please edit the content until it is correct. If you come across work that is deficient, please let us know with a quick message on Intercom indicating the Project # and the string that requires attention.

6. If you see someone doing a great job, let us know! We are trying to build a community of proofreaders that are committed and inclusionary. We rely on our proofreaders to provide us feedback on both the positive and negative aspects of vendor performance.

You can reach us at any time via Intercom.

When reporting on vendor performance, please include

• The project #, vendor ID#
• String #
• Translator use I.D.
• Provide exact examples and citations, as well as what needs to be changed and why.

Proofreaders warn us, the MotaWord Internal Team, we warn the translator, the proofreader fixes, and we delete the problematic translator’s work. If we don’t know of a problematic situation in one of our projects, we can’t act! We need our proofreaders to be our eyes and ears.

We try to see everything, but we simply cannot be everywhere at once. Our proofreaders do see everything that is going on in their project. We rely on our proofreaders to be the gatekeepers of MotaWord to help us deliver on our high-quality promise to our clients.

Are you a MotaWord registered translator? Have you translated most of the projects from the invitations you have received in your language pair? Ready to take the next step and become a proofreader? Write to us at info@motaword.com and let us know!

Happy proofreading!