# Do we edit/review people's work?



## VenusEnvy

I'd like to be clear on what is and what is not allowed in the forum.

In the English forum, are we permitted to post papers/assignments, asking that others edit/correct them?


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## timpeac

I think in general it is ok, but due to the large amount of space and work involved and limited value to other forum users we ask people who are kind enough to do so to make such corrections by PM or email to the originator rather than post corrections in the forum.

However, I would like to nuance something since you bring the subject up. Pure "homework premarking" (eg before another teacher or other assessor marks it) is not in the spirit of the forum. It is fine to help people understand their errors, offer answers to specific queries and discuss difficulties. However, questions along the lines of "please read this and correct all the errors" are not to be encouraged. This is for several reasons -

After passing through the many helpful and intelligent members on these forums a piece of homework is unlikely to leave without meriting a top grade. That won't help the student when it comes to exam times, won't help the teacher identify any problems the student may have and is not fair on his or her classmates.

It is not always easy to identify such situations and there are many grey areas so we don't have a rule as such on this, but common sense should help us to avoid becoming a homework service. So in relation to your question, if the essay in question was a whole translation or an essay written in a foreign language set by a teacher purely to test the student's language skills then it would not really be appropriate for us to criticise it. However, having been marked by the teacher if there are still corrections the student doesn't understand they would be more than welcome to use us as a resource to try to understand their errors.

Another potentially grey area is translations for business reasons. Generally these are not allowed, although again common sense comes in and a personal request for a short translation for, say, an advert for your chalet in the countryside may get through.


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## VenusEnvy

Tim: Thanks so much for clearing this up. Like most matters here, I suppose this "rule" is taken on a case-by-case basis. 

I'm sure this thread will be useful to others, curious about this forum's functions. 

Much appreciated!


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## Eugin

timpeac said:
			
		

> Another potentially grey area is
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> translations for business reasons
> 
> 
> 
> . Generally these are not allowed, although again common sense comes in and a personal request for a short translation for, say, an advert for your chalet in the countryside may get through.
Click to expand...

Hi Tim!!! thanks for all this useful explanation!! 

Please, could you be so kind so as to enlighten me a little bit more on what "translations for business reasons" would be like?? 
I am afraid I coul be infringing this item since I have been recently asking help with the translation of an agreement of license and distribution of products, and now I don`t know if that is considered business as well....  

Thanks a lot in advance!!!!
Cheers!!


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## timpeac

Eugin said:
			
		

> Hi Tim!!! thanks for all this useful explanation!!
> 
> Please, could you be so kind so as to enlighten me a little bit more on what "translations for business reasons" would be like??
> I am afraid I coul be infringing this item since I have been recently asking help with the translation of an agreement of license and distribution of products, and now I don`t know if that is considered business as well....
> 
> Thanks a lot in advance!!!!
> Cheers!!


 
Hi Eugin

It's just that we - all of us - provide help and support for each other for free here. It's a non-profit part of word reference. Therefore we don't see why other businesses should make a profit out of the goodwill on these forums when they should be going to professional translators.

However, here we are really thinking great chunks of, say, operating instructions, that these businesses should really go and pay professional translators for. A few queries in the course of your business life is fine (I'm not sure of the extent of what you have been doing, so maybe you should contact one of the Spanish mods by PM with any further queries). I would add that we are not a professional organisation (although some of our members may also be professional translators) and as such if I were you I would go to a professional translation service with things such as license agreements to ensure that they are translated 100% correct!! Wordreference accepts no liability for any mistranslations.


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## Eugin

Great Tim, thanks for explaining!!
For your information, I am a Public (Professional) Translator and I work at a laboratory that manufactures medicinal products. They wanted me to translate a license agreement and I asked some queries here about my translation, but just to check that I was doing the things correctly.
It was not my bussiness, it was only part of my job...

So, then, can I rest assured that I was not infringing WR`s rules with all my queries???

Still curious to know...


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## timpeac

Eugin - I'll consult with my co-mods and get back to you.


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## lauranazario

Eugin said:
			
		

> Great Tim, thanks for explaining!!
> For your information, I am a Public (Professional) Translator and I work at a laboratory that manufactures medicinal products. They wanted me to translate a license agreement and I asked some queries here about my translation, but just to check that I was doing the things correctly.
> It was not my bussiness, it was only part of my job...
> 
> So, then, can I rest assured that I was not infringing WR`s rules with all my queries???
> 
> Still curious to know...


No you are not infringing any rules, Eugin... especially if you are referring to the English-Spanish Specialized Terminology (ST) forums, which were created to be a place where people with very specific terminology needs (like the ones one might encounter when dealing with a business-oriented translation) could  seek help from other people with industry-specific knowledge.

Of course, in ST we will not allow anyone to post a whole business paper or legal agreement or clinical study because we're not here to do anyone's job for them... and that, in essence, is should be the same governing principle when we encounter a student who posts an essay or something that looks or feels like "homework": we should encourage that student to attempt first and then we can help with any particular difficulty. To me, anyone who says he/she has difficulty with the whole thing that was posted is simply not trying hard enough and is looking for an easy way out (having others do the work for him/her).

Which brings me to what Timpeac said... if a language student is given homework by the teacher, and after having done the homework he/she posts it here for us to "fine-tune it", are we doing the right thing if we decide to help out? I believe that's a question that can only be answered on an individual basis. I, for one, do not see it being too different from a student taking his homework to Mom or Dad for one final check before handing it in the following day. 
Now, is Mom's or Dad's (or WR's) help "wrong" or "right"? I guess it all comes down to a personal judgement call --for me, I take it on a case-by-case basis, but I simply REFUSE to do anyone's _full homework (or work assignment)_ for them. I can only hope more Foreros would think along those same lines. 

Saludos,
LN


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## el alabamiano

Thet's the same thing I thunk, Mrs. N., considering I always got D's & M's when I went to skool.

D= didn't do it right
M= moron


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