Clients often ask us why they need the services of a proofreader if the translator should be doing a good job, reviewing their own work before submitting it to the client and thus the work should be flawless. Truth is, we all make mistakes. And more often than not, we need a second pair of eyes to review our work and detect the errors that we cannot detect ourselves. Human beings have a tendency to overlook their own mistakes, simply because it is within our limitations to do so.

Here are 11 reasons why you need to hire a proofreader when having work translated or even when writing in your mother tongue:

A client came to us some time ago, for proofreading needs. They sent us a menu that was originally in Latin American Spanish and its translation into American English (carried out elsewhere). We immediately detected that the translation had been filtered through a machine. We do not proofread machine translations, and we let the client know. They decided not to pay for the full service (human translation + proofreading).