Post-editing of machine generated translation is editing and proofreading of the text, resulting in a coherent, understandable, and usable contents for the client. Any translator can use electronic resources. Yet, the responsibility for the quality of the output lies with the translator, who understands the original and verifies the translation. Thus he provides that translation would be correct in meaning.
Many clients believe that this is the only way all translators and translation agencies operate, and they accordingly make a conclusion that the first stage - machine translation - can be performed for free on their own and a translator would be involved just for post-editing the translation they got. Editing is cheaper than translating, that`s true, but isn`t there a drift of concepts?
If the client translated the text himself and sent it for editing, why do translators reluctantly agree to take on this work? The difference in the services of "verifying translation" and "proofreading and editing text" is obvious for the linguist, but not always for the client. And since, when ordering "editing", the client means "checking", then when receiving completed material, the quality of the translation results under dispute, to which the translator has nothing to do.
Many common and popular text topics are very well translated by machine intelligence, but there will always be some peculiarities incorrectly interpreted. And this is the major problem when it comes to important and decisive content - to detect errors, you need to check the full text.
