Because I’m not a naturally gifted proofreader, I’m always looking for new and helpful proofreading tools. I have proofreading issues:
- I read too fast, and start skimming
- I don’t enjoy proofreading, so I put it off
- Because I’m not naturally gifted at this task, I fear that I’m missing things in the text, and I go over and over (and over and over) it to an extent that is not helpful
In a previous post, I wrote about PerfectIt, an add-on for Microsoft Word. I’m still using PerfectIt, and I find it useful; it’s more of a consistency-enforcer than anything else (when you intersperse grey with gray, like-minded with like minded, Chief Executive with Chief executive, and so on), but it always catches more of those errors than I do.
After hearing several other translators rave about text-to-speech proofreading, I decided to give it a try. Simply put, this involves having your computer read your translation back to you. There are various pieces of software that can do this, but if you have a recent version of Microsoft Word, it’s built in. In Office 365, just click the Review tab, then you’ll see a huge letter A (like the big E on the eye chart) with some sound waves bouncing off it, with the button text “Read Aloud.” That’s what you want. Just click it, and the robo-narrator will pick up where your cursor is, and start reading your translation to you.
Once the narrator–in my version of Word, this is Microsoft David Desktop–starts reading, you can adjust the speed to your preferred pace. David’s default pace is about 150 words a minute. So if you want him to read you a day’s worth of work–say 2,000-3,000 words, that would take about half an hour if you never paused him. Of course you do pause–that’s the whole idea–but the point is that this is a doable investment of time. And David…what can I say about David? I wouldn’t want to listen to him read an audio book, but he’s not cringe-worthy to listen to. Which is probably good; he won’t lull you to sleep, but he’s easy enough to understand.
So far, I’ve uncovered a few benefits of text to speech proofreading:
- Most helpfully, it amplifies (literally) errors that my eyes would probably skim over, but that my ears catch right away. Things like “The employees were direct (instead of “directed”) to keep a log of their activities,” or “There are many guides and reference book (instead of “books”),” or “The Word (instead of “World”) Bank,” and so on.
- It forces you to slow down to the narrator’s pace. As mentioned above, I have a big problem with skimming. Even if I use the gold-standard proofreading method–printing the thing out and going through it line by line with a ruler–I still have issues with reading too fast. But with Dear David, I can’t do that. He just chugs along doing his HAL-esque thing, so I slow down to his pace.
- You can look at the source document while David reads the target. Let’s say you have a series of numbers in the text: “In 2016, the project distributed 3,284 boxes of candy. In 2017, this rose 18.52%, and in 2018, it is expected that candy distribution could reach 5,659 boxes.” If you’re proofreading that on paper or on the screen, you have to constantly glance back and forth: was that 5,659 boxes, or 5,596, for example. But while David reads what you typed, you can watch the source document to see if the figures match up. Big win!
- One caveat: obviously this technique doesn’t help with homophone errors: you’re/your, it’s/its, etc. And–for me at least–those types of errors are getting harder and harder to catch, because we’re exposed to them all the time. A little part of me died when I read “You’re brother” in the New York Times Magazine. That’s a story for a different day, but something to consider.
I’m now a fan of this technique; readers, any thoughts on it?
That sounds fantastic but would David read in French for example? I translate into French so I would we wanting someone who can read me my finished translation. Would you need a French Word version for that?
Thanks, Pascale! If you have the French language pack for Windows installed, I think it should install the French version of MS voices. However I can’t vouch for that because I don’t have that on my computer (you need the full language pack, not just switching the MS Word language to French). Let me know how that goes if you try it!
Hi Pascale,
From what I understand, this feature isn’t available (yet) in the French version of Word. Too bad, but as the button is there (greyed out), I guess it’s just a matter of time.
Thanks, Marie! Perhaps other readers have ideas for TTS tools that work for French??
Correction: I had a file in English opened in Word today, and noticed that the button wasn’t greyed out anymore, so I gave it a try and a female voice with a rather heavy French accent started reading the text. 🙂
I made her read French afterwards, she’s definitely more comfortable with that language.
So it does exist in the French version as well, I’m just not sure why it wasn’t available the first time I tried…
Ooh! Exciting! Thanks for reporting back.
I’ve used text to speech on all my work for a long time now. As well as a translator, I also work as a copy editor and proofreader. I therefore wouldn’t say it’s only for people who aren’t naturally gifted at proofreading – I don’t think I’ve ever used it and not needed to change anything, which just goes to show how important a tool it is. And best of all, it’s free! I’d recommend it to anyone who ever proofreads anything…
Thanks, Susie!
Have to say that I completely agree with Susie. I have used and still use this in my editing and translation work. It’s by no means perfect but it does force me to not skim and to listen closely. I find it has improved over the years, but sometimes the pronunciation is hilarious. Useful and what’s more, it’s free.
Great, thanks Joanne! Glad you enjoyed it!
A very useful and well-organized article, Corinne.
Thank you !
Thanks, Abdullah!
I just gave text to speech a try. And I am thrilled! It makes it soo much easier to proofread, I can stay focused and hear my mistakes.
Many thanks for the hint! 🙂
Thanks, Kristina! Glad to hear it worked well for you.
I tried several TTS tools and I love Natural Reader. The voices are really much more natural than in other tools, even the free ones.
http://thefrenchalizer.com/tuesday-tips-tried-and-tested-tools/
Thanks, Sandrine! I’ll take a look at Natural Reader; it sounds interesting.
I find that a combination of text-to-speech with proofreading on paper gives best results:
I like to go through a printout of a bilingual export (from Memoq or Trados) line by line using a ruler while having the target text read to me via TTS.
Thanks, Michael! Combining the two is a great idea.
I have three thoughts on this topic:
1) An alternative/additional method is to read the text aloud. In this way, you can both spot errors and flag wording and phrasing that does not sound natural.
2) If you want more realistic and natural-sounding voices, you can purchase them at http://www.zabaware.com. You can also purchase Ultrahal, which is chatbot you can philosophize with.
3) As with any method in this business, it’s only good and useful if you have the time… How many times have I wanted to be more meticulous with translating/proofing a text with the deadline nigh?
Thanks, Reed! Interesting thoughts there. I prefer TTS because I can use headphones–I work in a co-working office so it’s not really an option to read out loud–and I would surmise that reading your own translation out loud has some of the same issues as reading it in your head (i.e. you *say* “cold chain” even though you wrote “gold chain,” because that’s what you *think* it should say). But I agree that reading out loud would definitely help, and you’re definitely correct that any QA methods have to be logistically workable in terms of time and energy.
I thank you, Corinne, for this tip! Since we talked about it the other day, I have used it several times and think it is a great idea. Can’t believe I didn’t think of it before – but sometimes, we don’t realize how good technology has become in certain areas. As Susie notes above, even in the short time I have been using it, it caught errors every time, so it really does work. Love it!
Thanks! Yes, I do think that sometimes, we’re so accustomed to “a hot new tool” that we forget that relatively old-school tools can have new applications. Glad you liked the tip!
I’ve been reading my translations out loud for some years now (I work from home, so no issues there). For me at least, it works great for both grammatical and stylistic errors – just like you said, it makes you slow down and your ears catch more than your eyes. But I have never seriously thought about asking my computer to read the text to me; I think I’ll try it out now just to see how it compares to my own reading. It could definitely be a big help for longer text. Thanks a lot for the tip!
Thanks! Let us know how you think TTS compares to reading out loud; I’d be interested to know.
I think it will always be a mix, As already mentioned, text-to-speech with old school proofreading on paper will always bring the best results. It’s great to have more tools at your disposal, of course. Thanks for the interesting post.
Sure! Glad you enjoyed it!
This is such a good idea, definitely worth to give it a try. I sometimes think about asking someone to read my work back to me but giving the nature of most of the texts I translate there would not be many voluntaries!!
This is a great idea. I am exactly as you describe yourself and I do miss little things at times. And as for the homophone errors, spell and grammar check can find those, so that solves that problem. Thanks for the head’s up!
Thank you for the article! I have been using that good old-fashioned text to speech technology too (EN>FR). Balabolka works in French, and probably for any language, as long as you download the voice corresponding to the language you want to hear. And it is free, should anyone be interested.
However, I don’t use it to read the target text but I’ll have a try!
I use this technique to hear the source text in English and make sure the French target is accurate.
It feels like having someone else reading the text allows me to better concentrate on the target review and to be more efficient…
I have used text to speech for proofreading for a long time. If the language is set to French then I get a French person reading in English which is always amusing as is the English accent on French texts. I use the Microsoft product and it works reasonably well. I also use it to dictate letters and emails, etc.
Recently I have been trying Dragon for speech to text and visa versa. It has advantages over the Microsoft version, one of which is that you can speed up the reading for a second pass. Dragon also works, after a fashion, in Trados. I started using this as I suffer badly from tendinitis. I can confirm segments (after writing a script) and dictate my translation. Corrections are more difficult. The program works better in word documents. I have not yet found anything better though for working in a CAT.
The biggest problem with Dragon, IMHO, is that it grabs a lot of memory. My PC grinds almost to a halt. On the help forums they suggest only opening the file you need and Dragon to speed things up. That is not really practical with translation as I always have Trados, Linguee, IATE and the client’s website at a minimum.
Maybe speech to text is a whole other subject you could tackle?
Thanks, Louise! Very interesting examples. I don’t use Dragon, but I have heard the same thing from other people: that it’s a major memory pig if you run it on what most of us would consider a standard computer setup. Speech to text is definitely an interesting topic; because I work at a co-working office, I rarely use it (the other people in the office would probably run at me with knives after about five minutes). But even the rudimentary dictation feature in MS Word is helpful for certain things; I recently translated a huge batch of school transcripts for one of my clients. The files don’t work in a TM program at all, and retyping the numbers is excruciating, so I dictated them. If you have RSI problems, I would imagine that Dragon is a lifesaver. Thanks for your comment!