Editorial process

1. Translation

· Our translators are native speakers, language lovers and Christians disciples.

· They follow strict translation guidelines to produce what we call “effective French”: a non-academic French that is understandable on the first read (which is not always the case!).

· We do not only translate the text, but also the author's intention. Impact is the key concept: impact must be the same in the target language. You can have a correct translation, but it will have diminished the effect intended by the author in his original language. What would a Frenchman have written? This is the question to ask.

· In the age of machine translations with artificial intelligence, our team offers you specific and typical structure in the language that a robot cannot (yet) produce.

English, for example, is fond of repeated words, passive mode phrases, subject infinitives, adjectives, and adverbs, while effective French requires the active voice, fewer adjectives and stronger verbs. The robot may give some satisfactory translation, but we aim for more excellence: our goal is to render a result as if it had been written by a French person for French people.

2. Reviewing

This is a key step: someone compares the translated version with the original version.

It must be another person for the sake of retrospect (to prevent an unbiased review of the text).

The translator mostly works to be loyal to the author, but the reviser works with the reader in mind. We need both.

3. Editing and proofreading

Having been in the business since 2006, I will personally proofread and edit the text.

– Applies professional editing guidelines of contemporary writing (typo rules, lexicon, grammar, conjugation).

– Applies style sheets if necessary (useful for the next layout step —e.g. InDesign importation). I'm a stickler for Word style sheets and other details that ensure the text should be ready to get processed by your graphic artist for the layout process.

– Uses a professional spellchecker throughout the text.

– Does researches about bibliographic references (if necessary) and implements them in right format.

In addition to correct formatting, I will apply a first editorial proofreading. I will also point out substantive issues, when necessary, to identify passages that may be difficult to understand (or that would cause unnecessary controversy).

– Highlighting potential issues due to “cultural translation”.

Once this work is done, the editor should be able to only validate the arbitration issues and send the whole work for its own layout process.