Bilingual revision and quality reasoning
Revision is more than correcting spelling in a fluent target text. A sentence can read naturally and still assign an action to the wrong party, omit a qualification or reverse an obligation. Begin by comparing the target with the source proposition by proposition. Distinguish omissions, unjustified additions, mistranslations and terminology problems from target-language grammar or presentation defects. A monolingual read can detect awkwardness but cannot by itself establish that the source meaning was preserved.
Use a deliberate sequence. First identify the document's purpose, audience and applicable reference material. Next check meaning, names, numbers and relationships. Then address consistency, register, organization and grammar. Finally inspect punctuation and formatting. The sequence is a working method, not a claim that every named quality standard mandates exactly these steps or that one severity scale applies to every project. A project's error categories and scoring rules must be established explicitly.
A revision should repair meaning without overediting accurate language into the reviser's personal style. When several translations are defensible, compare their suitability for the brief and explain substantive differences. An unnecessary change can introduce a new error or erase an intentional ambiguity. Conversely, a small word can matter greatly: replacing may with must, dropping not or changing before to after can alter an entire instruction. Assess impact in context rather than judging seriousness by the number of letters involved.
Technology can assist comparison and terminology control, but a stored match is not an approval of the current meaning. A sentence reused from another document may have a different actor, definition, date or neighboring condition. Machine-generated fluency likewise does not establish accuracy. Protect confidential material under the applicable authorization and workflow; a convenient external service is not automatically an approved destination for a client's document.
Keep an issue log with the source, draft, proposed correction and reason. Record unresolved questions rather than hiding them behind polished prose. For example, revenue rose by 15 percent cannot become revenue rose by 15 percent year-on-year unless that comparison basis is established. A useful final read asks whether the recipient can understand the intended information and act on it without acquiring obligations, certainty or factual claims that the source did not contain. Timed full-text practice and justified revision notes develop skills that recognizing one good answer among four options cannot fully demonstrate.