When and how to revise? Building a cognitive dyad of translator and reviser through workflow adjustment

The translation production team that consists of a translator and a reviser
can be investigated as a specific kind of (sub)system of socially distributed
cognition, a cognitive dyad; this system is defined as only including the
translation professionals who are directly involved in the drafting of the
translation. Based on interviews with translation professionals, I argue that
this fine-tuned cognitive dyad gets its form not only as a result of its partici-
pants’ characteristics, but also under the influence of other factors, some of
which vary from one project to the next, leading to the flexible formation of
the reviser’s task in particular. The three most important project-specific
influencing factors are the text genre, the translator’s experience and compe-
tence, and the client’s needs and requirements. While genre and the client’s
needs and requirements seem to have a markedly similar impact, mainly
influencing the internal task configuration of the cognitive dyad, the transla-
tor’s experience and competence often leads to non-revision. Trust is an
important element in this process.