Why do you need an editing service?
Because copywriting, content creation, and being an expert in your field is difficult enough as it is! You shouldn’t have to combine that with attaining a native-speaker level in your second language. A good editing service will help you achieve the level of quality that you need to have confidence in your content.
At QuickSilver Translate, we believe editing should be done by experts. All our editors are degree-holding native-speakers of English, or Spanish, with wide experience in both academic and business editing. Our editing service can be combined with translation, or not. If you work in academia and are writing in your first language, but publishing in English (or another language) we would recommend our specialised academic editing service.
Here are some of the issues we consider during the editing process:
Brevity
Conciseness: at sentence level, paragraph level, and entire text level. Long, rambling sentences can be confusing, and you don’t want to lose your readers attention. We recommend trimming down sentences to about 20 words or fewer, to improve the readability of the copy. We assess (in collaboration with you) what is the “important information”? Is your argument linear? Are your explanations clear?
Standard word order (flow)
“I’d love to own an old, beautiful car” said no English-speaker ever… In English, the rules regarding adjective order are very specific, more so than in other languages. There is a “standard” word order in almost all languages, but this is especially noticeable in English. Mostly we learn by listening, we’re not taught. But all English-speakers know when something is just “wrong”, even if it’s otherwise grammatically correct.
We only work with translators and editors who are native-speakers of the target language to ensure copy flows naturally, without losing the context, tone and/or meaning of the original piece.
Humour
Humour in translation can be problematic. In academic, informative or technical copy we would advise leaving humour out. We have found that jokes are often only understood within a specific cultural context. So something that is widely considered to be funny in British-English could translate into something odd — or even downright offensive — in another language. Using light-hearted or informal language is a safer bet!
Uniformity
Manager / Supervisor / Team Lead / Boss / Chief… these are all synonyms. If you use a variety of terms while referring to the same thing, your readers could find this confusing. We recommend embracing uniformity and consistency! Choose one term per concept, and stick with it.
‘Active’/’Passive’
The passive voice is less direct and takes longer for the brain to process and understand. As such, we recommend using the active voice as much as possible. This style preference will improve the overall flow of the given piece, as well as indicating proactivity and confidence.
Cultural Sensitivity
Political correctness, inclusivity and sensitivity are important to engage your readers. We consider gender and other related issues.
Sources
Using sources (and avoiding plagiarism) is vital for your credibility, but drawing the line can feel complicated. Naturally, it is fine to learn from another work, but important to credit the original author if referring to complete concepts, arguments or ideas. Furthermore, your references and/or citations should be presented clearly and consistently — we are familiar with a number of style guides and will conform to your preference.
Read it through one more time
There is a lot to be said for a fresh pair of eyes! After we conduct a thorough review, we always read through the copy one last time! At this point, the text should read and sound as smooth as possible. If it doesn’t, we go through it again.
Our in‑house editors will take your text from good to great!
QuickSilver Translate helps companies create or adapt their sales materials and websites to different linguistic areas (localisation). And we do this for all needs (marketing, technical, journalistic, academic, etc.). We take care of copywriting, translating, editing or reviewing any type of document, using our pool of highly qualified professional editors and linguists.
