At the moment, there are quite some people involved in The AEGEEan to ensure that we can publish our articles regularly, ranging from the editors and editor-in-chief to the IT responsible and from the HR responsible to journalists. A quite invisible yet very important part of the team consists of the proofreaders, who ensure that the articles you read come without mistakes and are as flawless as they could possibly be. It is about time we learned more about this essential part of the team!

Just like the journalists, proofreaders also have their own Editor. At the beginning of 2015 a new function was created especially for them: the Chief of Proofreaders (CoP), who is responsible for guiding our heroes behind the scenes and updating the internal documents like knowledge transfer and general proofreading rules. The first one to take up this position is Sabina Guja, member of AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca. Together with Antonija Parat, Connor Russell, Iliana Koumpli, Katharina Krüll, Katja Sontag, Maria Arends, Maurits Mink and Svenja van der Tol she also ensures that all the articles that are published look perfect. Time to get to know them a bit better, because we owe a lot to them!

Antonija Parat, Comité Directeur

When and why did you join the AEGEEan?

I joined The AEGEEan some time before Spring Agora Enschede 2012. When I joined the magazine, it was still pretty new, and I thought it was great to have this internal channel where our members can get different news from the Network and beyond, because it was kind of missing at the time. This is why I wanted to contribute to the magazine, to be a part of an initiative that is useful for our members.

What is your favourite part about proofreading?

I like to think about how to shape sentences to make them sound not only understandable, but also interesting and ‘alive’. Sometimes it is a challenge to shape the article properly, while also respecting the author’s style and making sure that you are not changing the meaning of the original article. I actually enjoy these types of challenges, brainstorming for solutions, trying out different versions of sentences etc. So this is very fun for me, although I guess it doesn’t sound so fun to everyone. Maybe it’s a language student thing [she laughs].

What are important qualities you think a proofreader should have?

I think it’s important to be detail-oriented: to go through the article many times, to check all facts, to make sure that the flow of the article sounds right etc. Also, naturally, it is important to have an appreciation for languages – to actually enjoy polishing the grammar, vocabulary, and style of articles.

Connor Russell, AEGEE-London

What made you decide to become a proofreader?

I am rare in AEGEE – a native English speaker. I always feel lucky at AEGEE events that everyone speaks my language, and in all honesty a bit guilty. I speak French and German but far from fluently. I guess this is my way of making a linguistic contribution.

What is your favourite part about proofreading?

Trying to understand what someone really means and writing it out naturally, rather than literally correcting what they have written.

What are important qualities you think a proofreader should have?

Thoroughness and precision but also creativity – it’s important to think of the different ways something can be phrased.

What is the funniest mistake you have seen?

‘The keys are in my friend’ – meaning my friend is carrying the keys. If this were literally true it would be very painful indeed!

Iliana Koumpli, AEGEE-Thessaloniki

What made you decide to become a proofreader?

Ever since I began my studies in the field of Translation I have always respected and enjoyed the part of proofreading and I have always wanted to be one of them! The satisfaction you receive when the final outcome is good and you know that you have contributed a little bit yourself cannot be described.

What is your favourite part about proofreading?

My favorite part about proofreading is the moment I spot something which could otherwise be difficult to spot and corrected. It shows me that I did well in my job.

What is the funniest mistake you have seen?

Once, while proofreading in my own language I spotted mistakes in the spelling that made that particular word similar to a swear word which should not EVER be seen written.

Katharina Krüll, AEGEE-Passau

When and why did you join the AEGEEan?

I started proofreading for the AEGEEan somewhere around Agora Patras because I liked the magazine but I could not dedicate time to writing myself.

What is your favourite part about proofreading?

I like that we contribute to making the content of the AEGEEan even better and that proofreading contributes to better understanding.

What is the funniest mistake you have seen?

Pretty much any mistake that can be related to the nationality of the author is very funny; meaning that sometimes people try to implement their own languages grammar rules to English which does not always work out well.

Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

What made you decide to become a proofreader?

Working in a great team makes you want to push this team forward. Even though I have to say that I like working as a journalist more, I think I can be of help for everyone when I also proofread. Since I am an English teacher, I hope my skills in the language are sufficient enough to be of use.

What are important qualities you think a proofreader should have?

Good English skills, of course. A knowledge about the differences between British and American English. Endurance and patience, and finally: One should like it.

What is the funniest mistake you have seen?

I only joined the team recently. But believe me, in the career of a second language teacher, you see a lot of funny mistakes. When my sixthgraders wrote about their job choices, I had to laugh a lot when one of them misspelled “cook”. I think you can guess what he wrote instead of the second “o”.

Maria Arends, AEGEE-Tarragona

What made you decide to become a proofreader?

The fact that I’m always bitching on spelling and grammar [she laughs].

What is your favourite part about proofreading?

The fact that you are helping someone to make their document/article look nicer and more readable.

What are important qualities you think a proofreader should have?

You should have a good command of English, you should like to read, and you should be willing to do some research (or ask other people about these strange sentence structures I was mentioning before). Furthermore, it would be a bonus to be a little bit of a perfectionist, so you don’t mind reading things over and over again in order to make sure it is actually correct.

Sabina Guja, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca

When and why did you join the AEGEEan?

I joined the AEGEEan in March 2013, and I did it because I wanted to be more active in AEGEE and also to try out working on the European level.

What is your favourite part about proofreading?

For sure getting to read the news before everyone else [she laughs].

What are important qualities you think a proofreader should have?

A proofreader should have first of all a good command of English, secondly patience and some imagination – you need these for the cases when an article proves to be a challenge and you need to understand what the author is trying to say, and sometimes slightly reformulate an idea, while keeping to the core of what is being said.

What is the funniest mistake you have seen?

I’m sure I once proofread an article written by Yoda.

Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

What made you decide to become a proofreader?

I’m already a private proofreader for my friends (sometimes unwanted, sometimes in exchange for chocolate) so I guess it was to be expected that I would become a proofreader for The AEGEEan too [she laughs]. I actually don’t remember how it exactly started anymore, but I probably couldn’t help myself correcting texts instead of only editing them up to the point where I was simply added to the proofreader team. I guess you can say I’m quite passionate about properly written texts.

What is your favourite part about proofreading?

As a proofreader, you are contributing to a perfect article, while improving your English a lot too. I’m not Super Grammar Woman (this should be a real superhero), so sometimes I’m not sure about things. When I google them, I always learn a lot more about for example grammar rules, which is always fun. Also, as a very curious person I like being one of the first to read a new article.

What is the funniest mistake you have seen?

I’m embarrassed to say this, but they would probably be my own, because I often tend to text people while being half asleep. Let’s say at those moments my eye for grammar is still asleep, which leads to very creative ways of writing words or making sentences.

Do you have a good level of English and would you like to join the team too? Write us an e-mail with your name, antenna and motivation. As Sabina summarises: “Joining as a proofreader is a great way to start, to get to understand how The AEGEEan works and to grow from there. You will also be joining a great team: active, motivated and professional!”

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Recently, the Language Working Group (LWG) started a project aimed at improving the level of English in publications of AEGEE. It’s called “Lingua” and offers a high quality translating and proofreading service to the whole Network. The AEGEEan interviewed the three initiators of the project, Adri López Smith, Isabel Sodric and Carlota Lifante to hear more about the idea and how this service works. These ‘three musketeers’ are working on splitting the different tasks at the moment, after the sending of an Open Call to the AEGEE-L mailing list, which resulted in a lot of people have already showing interest in getting involved.

The AEGEEan: Who came up with the idea of creating a pool of translators and proofreaders?

Adri- When I entered in the board of the LWG, I realized that there were some professional translators/interpreters and I told myself: why don’t we take advantage of this high-quality human resource to help locals with translations? A few days later, during ZarAgora, Isa and Carlota, after having seen some English mistakes in AEGEE’s official documents, approached me with a similar question: why don’t we try to improve the quality of external documents in AEGEE? Then I just tried to mix both ideas.

Carlota- I co-organized a congress at the faculty of Arts of the University of Alicante based on translators’ visibility. After that, Miguel Gallardo (Comité Directeur) told me I could contribute to a new point of view which would be very useful in the LWG. There were so many professional translators there and after chewing over it, Isa and I realized during ZarAgora that it would be such a great challenge for us to create and coordinate these translators. We could provide a high-quality service of translation and proofreading with the intention of reflecting a greater professionalism in the association. And, of course, we would need a third Musketeer who help us to win over some adversities.

What is the exact idea behind the project?

Carlota- The main idea is, while promoting a borderless, communicative and cooperative association, to offer a professional multilingual image and reflect the commitment of its members, who are making a great effort in order to carry out a Europe for youth.

Isa – I see this project as a way of taking care of the image of the association. In the same way that others have helped to show the world what AEGEE is by designing logos, websites or taking professional pictures, we can help as far as language is concerned to reach a higher quality in AEGEE documents.

Why are you personally interested in the topic?

Adri – Because I want to support antennae with a lower language knowledge.

Carlota – I grew up surrounded by translations, words, books, texts and languages and I learnt to appreciate all of this at a very young age. So when I was younger, whereas some dreamt of becoming a doctor, a firefighter or a singer, I dreamt of becoming an interpreter or, at least, a translator. Multiculturalism has gone with me all my life and the fact is that I do love what I do.

Why do you think this is important for AEGEE?

Carlota – As a vocational Translation and Interpreting student and as a (wannabe) translator and proofreader, I am very concerned with everything which is related to communication between cultures and cultural mediation issues. In order to provide a high-quality communication, you need professionals who are able to transfer the message properly. AEGEE is a European association and the professionalism of its members -who are working so hard in order to move forward- is (and it should be) deduced to every aspect. Documents, web pages, articles, e-books, presentations, Power Points, brochures and so on, are the main sources that reach the rest of the world, so these should reflect our competence, professionalism and expertise.

How do you plan to find and motivate proofreaders and translators to take part in the project?

Adri- From a formal point of view, this is the kind of work that a translator in training could add to their CV and therefore, this experience would be worth it for the rest of her/his professional career. So they should automatically be interested.

Carlota- And we will create a know-how manual in order to support members who are not professional translators or students of Translation to become familiar with word-processing tasks as well. They will have the opportunity to learn from people who are more experienced and to apply their knowledge in a practical way. In addition, we will also provide a record of the work each person manages based on the points below, so that people can be aware of their tasks, and so they have a clear overview of what they could put on therir CV.

1. Task Title (name of the document to translate or to proofread)

2. Task Type (translation or proofreading)

3. Source (source language)

4. Target (target language)

5. Word Count (translated words)

What are the next steps in the project?

Adri – Right now we are in the middle of the recruitment process (we already have more than 50 people!), but if you feel like being part of this team, do not hesitate to fill this questionnaire and we will contact you! We are also collaborating with The AEGEEan proofreaders and we are creating a manual or guideline (a know-how document) with some tips on translation/proofreading. Once all this is finished, we will inform all the Network on how this service is going to be operating exactly.

Carlota- There will come another Open Call to gather more interested translators and proofreaders, with a separation attending to working languages, and a distribution of translation and proofreading tasks. All AEGEEans want to translate or to proofread concerning AEGEE issues will always be welcomed. In addition, perhaps we will start a collaboration with current projects as I was talking to some of the project managers at the fair during the ZarAgora and they were pretty interested in translating their coming projects into several languages.

It will be interesting to follow this idea by the Language Working Group and Carlota ends the interview asking “Maybe it could be even a good initiative in order to attract new (translators or proofreaders) members to the association. Who knows?”

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København