DOs and DON'Ts in Comment Writing

Please DO…	Example
…describe how the target deviates from source (rather than the other way around)	“wild” added to “horse” “horse” translated as “wild horse” ENG source only reads “horse”, not “wild horse”
…make sure that the location of your intervention is clear	“True” and “False” left in English in the table heading
…use back-translations whenever useful, and ALWAYS in the case of mistranslation	“donkey” translated as “monkey”
… advise, if your comment is FYI only	FYI: in Zedish “with backbone” and “vertebrate” have the same root word, which makes the correct answer obvious. Unchanged by Ver
… ALWAYS advise whether or not you made an intervention	OK now / Unchanged by Ver Text caption not fully visible. Ver was unable to change \\ Text caption not fully visible
… use impersonal and neutral approach	“Verifier feels… Changed by Ver(ifier)” “I think…” “I changed”
Please DON’T…	Example
…describe what it reads in the source (but rather how the target deviates from source)	In ENG source it reads “book” Not “booklet” “book” translated as “booklet”
… describe the issue through the action performed by you	Ver changed “house” to “building” “building” translated as “house”
… write comments that are not understandable to reviewers that do not understand the target language	“քըցխ” changed to “իընշւխյւզգ” (Which term is the comment referring to? Who made the change? Why?) “building” translated as “house”
… refer to other projects	Ver prefers the answering categories as used in TIMSS Ver suggests categories “ZZ”, “YY”, “WW” for better equivalency to source
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