Feedback on your translations on the TWB Platform

TWB Q&A TWB Platform
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following this debate i would like to ask for reviewers and translators in TWB ( new and experienced) what do you consider "accuracy " in twb?
BECAUSE I CAN SEE NOT ALL REVIEWERS ARE FEEDBACKING SAME SCORE TO THE SAME PERSON… and that is so relevant and we know it

*because it looks identical to the original text (even when not natural necessarily )?
*because it looks perhaps not 100% accurate but super natural and smooth?

i ask this because PERSONALLY I THINK ACCURACY IS SUBJECTIVE so it would interesting to know how TWB reviewers and translators see this subject

and one last extra question : according to you accuracy should depend more on the client needs or the translator suggestions?

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63

@me5
Experienced translator and reviewer here:

  1. It is impossible for the same person to get the same scores all the time. Yes, there is some subjectivity involved, with some reviewers being more exacting than others, thus giving lower scores, but there is also the personal factor - you, as a translator, do not perform the same in all tasks. Sometimes you will have less time to revise yourself and the wording might sound unnatural, or you don’t spot typos, or you’re tired and don’t notice tricky words, or you are not aware that a certain term used in the source text has a different meaning than its day to day one, a domain-specific meaning.
  2. Accuracy is not subjective and it should only depend on how exactly the information in the source text was conveyed in the target text. According to TWB’s DQF-MQM error typology accuracy errors are “added or omitted information, mistranslated text with changed meaning”. So, if you have the phrase “safeguarding of children” and you translate only “safeguarding”, your translation is inaccurate, because it is missing some information. There is no subjectivity there. You can find more information about how accuracy is assessed here.
  3. This being said, I do agree that not all reviewers are conscientious and fair, and they will not work on their task as thoroughly as they should and they will score the translation at random, most times lowering the scores out of a misunderstood competitiveness.
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