ABSTRACT
Revisers’ practices, as well as translators’ decision-making, are based on their attitudes towards and expectations about what the community expects from their work. We need to understand not only the attitudes and expectations of revisers, but also what translators believe revisers expect of them. Since such beliefs have not been studied much from a descriptive perspective, particularly in scientific-technical contexts, this chapter adopts survey methodology to report on the attitudes and expectations of professional revisers and translators working in the area of English-to-European Portuguese biomedical translation. Based on an analysis of data elicited by questionnaire from 71 professionals, we identify attitudes and expectations of revisers about the competence and working practices of translators, and translators’ attitudes and expectations about revisers. Results show that while revisers mainly express negative attitudes and expectations about translators, referring to superficial self-revision practices and lack of communication, translators believe that quality is subjective, and that revisers mostly introduce preferential changes in their revisions. These findings contribute to creating a fuller picture of the relationship between revisers and translators, and they enable us to better understand professional biomedical revision and translation practices.
