Helping you to express what you mean

I not only translate psychology articles, I edit them as I go along. What do I mean by this? I mean that I notice small contradictions in the text, redundancies, things that may be missing, etc. and I make notes of these aspects in the margin of the document for the author’s consideration. Almost all the authors (I’d say about 99.99%) are very grateful for my remarks.

When authors write their articles, they are often in a hurry to complete them and do not read the finished article carefully, nor do they hand it to a colleague to check for discrepancies or deficiencies. They often assume that because they know what they’re talking about, it must be perfectly clear to the reader. It is therefore important for a neutral person to read the article from start to finish with a critical eye to detail.

I also compare the references cited in the reference list with those quoted in the article, checking for typos, discrepancies in dates, correct format, missing references, etc. This is a somewhat boring chore that authors often leave till the last minute, when they are pressed for time. However, a correct reference list is of the utmost importance, and an inaccurate or incomplete reference, in the words of Bruner (quoted by the American Psychological Association), “will stand in print as an annoyance to future investigators and a monument to the writer’s carelessness” (my italics).

In addition, when I review an author’s English manuscript, I notice things that are very difficult for the author to spot, such as misplaced or missing punctuation marks, misspelt words, etc. I reword sentences that are incomprehensible to someone who does not speak Spanish (i.e., they are written in “Spanglish”). I help the authors to weed out the “flourishes” that some of them are so fond of and that add nothing to a scientific paper (on the contrary, they set editors’ teeth on edge!)