When and how to revise?

Abstract

The translation production team that consists of a translator and a reviser can be investigated as a specific kind of (sub)system of socially distributed cognition, a cognitive dyad; this system is defined as only including the translation professionals who are directly involved in the drafting of the translation. Based on interviews with translation professionals, I argue that this fine-tuned cognitive dyad gets its form not only as a result of its participants’ characteristics, but also under the influence of other factors, some of which vary from one project to the next, leading to the flexible formation of the reviser’s task in particular. The three most important project-specific influencing factors are the text genre, the translator’s experience and competence, and the client’s needs and requirements. While genre and the client’s needs and requirements seem to have a markedly similar impact, mainly influencing the internal task configuration of the cognitive dyad, the translator’s experience and competence often leads to non-revision. Trust is an important element in this process.