Poll: Do you consult Wikipedia articles in your work as a translator? Inițiatorul discuției: ProZ.com Staff
|
|---|
| | | |
All the time. Occasionally you might have to double-check something but in my fields it is a mine of useful information. And handily it always seems to be top of the search results. A fantastic resource.
| | | | DianeGM 
Local time: 03:20
Membru (2006)
din olandeză în engleză
+ ...
I find it is generally useful as a first port of call, to get a general idea, etc. but I wouldn't rely on it as a sole reference. But there is so much potential reference material out there online there's no need to.
| | |
|
|
|
| Wikipedia or other sources | Jun 9, 2015 |
Double check and cross check any source, Wikipedia or otherwise. I consider it risky not to.
[Edited at 2015-06-09 09:04 GMT]
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 20:20
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
| Oh, Wikipedia! | Jun 9, 2015 |
Even though Wikipedia articles come on top in many searches, I tend to ignore them. I prefer to go to actual reference materials (published papers, catalogs, brochures, medical or technical articles).
I also stay away from translated articles. Most Spanish translations published on the Internet leave much to be desired (Spanish is one of my languages).
At the best of times, some Wikipedia articles offer a broad sliver of knowledge. These are crowd-reviewed, not peer-rev... See more Even though Wikipedia articles come on top in many searches, I tend to ignore them. I prefer to go to actual reference materials (published papers, catalogs, brochures, medical or technical articles).
I also stay away from translated articles. Most Spanish translations published on the Internet leave much to be desired (Spanish is one of my languages).
At the best of times, some Wikipedia articles offer a broad sliver of knowledge. These are crowd-reviewed, not peer-reviewed articles, done by volunteers. Some of these volunteers are actual professionals (architects, doctors, chemists, etc.) but that doesn't mean they know how to write properly.
I consider it my job to do a proper research, check all sources and credentials. Then I make the decision. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Muriel Vasconcellos
Statele Unite
Local time: 17:20
Membru (2003)
din spaniolă în engleză
+ ...
| Wikipedia is my first stop | Jun 9, 2015 |
But it's not my one-stop shop.
Today I found a glaring error in an article I was reading, but that's rare (at least for me to find one). I find that the articles in my fields of specialization are usually very helpful. They are structured to provide a good overview of the subject, and they usually tell me what I want to know. I especially trust the medical articles, as they are quite thoroughly vetted by colleagues. My point is that the articles meet my needs for translation work an... See more But it's not my one-stop shop.
Today I found a glaring error in an article I was reading, but that's rare (at least for me to find one). I find that the articles in my fields of specialization are usually very helpful. They are structured to provide a good overview of the subject, and they usually tell me what I want to know. I especially trust the medical articles, as they are quite thoroughly vetted by colleagues. My point is that the articles meet my needs for translation work and usually anything more would be TMI (too much information, distracting me from the task at hand). ▲ Collapse
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ucraina
din engleză în rusă
+ ...
As a rule crowd-sourcing is rarely trustworthy, reliable, or complete enough (not to mention different material in different languages), for various authors make different accents; yet as far as I prefer seeing different variants/approaches, I occasionally use wiki to grasp or refresh the idea, because there're useful links too.
| | |
|
|
|
Thank you for all the comments.
I asked this question because some years ago I translated as a volunteer a wiki webpage (no longer online). To be honest, what was wiki was not the contents but the translation itself. I had to make changes as the organisation updated the web, as usual. But there was not a moderator, so one day I found out that somebody else had "re-translated" my texts with huge errors (I thought it was made with an automatic - and free - translator).
Fu... See more Thank you for all the comments.
I asked this question because some years ago I translated as a volunteer a wiki webpage (no longer online). To be honest, what was wiki was not the contents but the translation itself. I had to make changes as the organisation updated the web, as usual. But there was not a moderator, so one day I found out that somebody else had "re-translated" my texts with huge errors (I thought it was made with an automatic - and free - translator).
Furthermore, I have heard many people saying that a lot of Wikipedia's articles are, let's say "biased" towards one specific school or think-tank.
So I always think of it as the last resort, which makes me to overlook the first result of (almost) every search and jump straight into the second or third one.
It is only when everything has failed that I give Wikipedia a chance. But I'm thinking if I'm not being unfair towards the people that are spending their time writing such articles.
[editing = mispelling]
[Edited at 2015-06-09 14:53 GMT]
[Edited at 2015-06-09 14:53 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ventnai
Spania
Local time: 02:20
din germană în engleză
+ ...
| Wikipedia snobs | Jun 9, 2015 |
For my work, Wikipedia is a pretty good source of information as a starting point and also helps with background information. Of course, you should always check information but I'd do that with any other source. I think you'll find that scientific and technical information in English or German is checked by peers. You can't always dismiss it out of hand. I would not rely on it for information about famous people, but that's not my line of work anyway.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 20:20
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
Ian Jones wrote:
For my work, Wikipedia is a pretty good source of information as a starting point and also helps with background information. Of course, you should always check information but I'd do that with any other source. I think you'll find that scientific and technical information in English or German is checked by peers. You can't always dismiss it out of hand. I would not rely on it for information about famous people, but that's not my line of work anyway.
One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Two things I use Wikipedia for are movie/TV series plot points and biographies of actors.
| | | | Anna Katikhina
Statele Unite
Local time: 17:20
din engleză în rusă
+ ...
| If the customer wants it... | Jun 9, 2015 |
I have a couple of customers who ask me to rely on Wikipedia, so for them I do... But when discrepancies are obvious, I make a note.
Other than that, never trust Wikipedia...
| | |
|
|
|
Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 20:20
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
| Why would a customer want that? | Jun 10, 2015 |
Anna Katikhina wrote:
I have a couple of customers who ask me to rely on Wikipedia, so for them I do... But when discrepancies are obvious, I make a note.
Other than that, never trust Wikipedia...
I've never been directed or asked by a customer to rely on a specific reference, be it a dictionary, a manual or Wikipedia, not even when I worked as an in-house translator. I fail to see why a translator would submit to that request. Are there special reasons for that in your case?
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: Do you consult Wikipedia articles in your work as a translator? | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
| | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
