Editing text with the right tone and nuance

Important documents should always be error free, no matter what language they’re written in. When working with international partners or clients, it's especially important to conduct a thorough review. The texts people read about your organisation greatly affect their trust in your business. For other translations like contracts, it’s essential that the actual content of the text is correct as well. That’s why it’s crucial that texts are well written and accurate.

What is text editing?

Editing (also known as revising) simply means improving and adjusting texts. If desired, we can advise you on adjustments to tailor the translation even better to your (foreign) target audience. You can also have your own texts or existing translations reviewed by our experienced revisors. Our project managers will discuss with you which parts of the texts require extra attention. Together, we can focus more closely on the actual content, which is important with contracts for example, or ensure the right tone of voice is used in marketing texts. In addition to spelling and grammar errors, the revisor filters out the following possible flaws:

Wordiness

Texts are often too wordy. Generally speaking, 25% of a text can be trimmed. Inexperienced writers tend to repeat themselves a lot. Recent studies show that writers who use unnecessary words are perceived by readers as less intelligent and less credible.

Official-sounding language

Untrained writers often use fancy words to try to elevate a text. However, this usually happens at the expense of readability. Our experienced translators can improve your text by cutting unnecessary phrases, so your message is perfectly aligned with your (international) audience.

Overly long sentences

Inexperienced writers often use overly long and complex sentences. This makes a text much harder to read. To ensure your message resonates with your intended audience, it’s a good idea to have a professional translator review your text. With a great sense for language and nuance, they will take your writing to the next level while maintaining readability.

Difference between corrections and revisions

The terms “revision” and “correction” are sometimes confused. However, these specialisations differ in several ways:

Correction (focus on linguistic accuracy)

With a correction, the text is checked for language errors such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typos. The content and style of the text remain largely unchanged. The goal is to produce an error-free version of the original text without making stylistic changes or overhauling the content.

Revision (focus on language and content/style)

A revision goes beyond simple error correction. Revision also takes into account the style, tone, word choice, structure, and possibly the translation (if it’s a translated text). The revisor may rewrite phrases and sentences to make the text clearer, more consistent, or better suited to the target audience. Sometimes the revisor is given a briefing with specific preferences or guidelines for tone and style. For important texts such as academic literature, books, publications, corporate communication, or advertising, a full revision is usually recommended, carried out by a native speaker of the target language.