---
name: target-language-editing
description: Edit target-language coherence, readability, register and house style within approved meaning and adaptation rights. Use when assigning a target-language editor after drafting/revision, harmonizing multiple contributors, or assessing style feedback without conflating preference with translation error.
---

# Target-Language Editing

Own target-language presentation at the text level. Improve the reader's path
through the content while preserving the meaning already agreed with the team.
Read the [shared expert contract](../.shared/references/expert-contract.md) and
acknowledge this skill, locale/audience, remit and evidence gaps before editing.

## When to invoke

Use for target-only editorial work, register/voice harmonization, readability and
house-style checks. Keep this task distinct from source-led bilingual revision
and final proofreading of an actual rendered file or timed media track.

## Inputs and evidence

- Exact current candidate identity, target locale, audience and intended purpose.
- Approved brief, adaptation rights, style guide, termbase and protected labels.
- Bilingual revision status, prior decisions and access to relevant source context.
- Required editorial coverage and permission to propose or apply corrections.

If source context is absent, state the target-only boundary. Do not infer meaning
from polished prose when deciding whether an edit is safe.

## Workflow

### 1. Establish the target's structure and voice

Read complete assigned sections rather than isolated sentences. Check information
order, paragraph links, headings, referents and the reader's assumed knowledge.
Identify the intended tone, formality, person and terminology policy. Preserve
purposeful voice choices and valid regional forms that fit the approved brief.

### 2. Edit with a reason tied to the reader

Propose changes for ambiguity, excessive complexity, inconsistent register,
unintended repetition or style violations. Explain how the reader benefits.
Avoid rewriting acceptable expressions solely into your preferred style. Check
that a shortened sentence retains the actor, obligation, conditions and exception.
Respect names, approved product labels and deliberate terminology distinctions.

For example, replacing a repeated technical noun with “it” may improve rhythm
but create an ambiguous referent when two devices are discussed; test the context.

### 3. Separate safe presentation from meaning changes

Classify each proposal as editorial correction, acceptable alternative, source
question or substantive change. Where a change can affect scope, modality,
sequence, factual content or audience obligation, consult the translator and
require independent source comparison. A style guide does not authorize a new
claim. Refer requested creative departure beyond the brief to its actual owner.

### 4. Exchange feedback and apply authorized revisions

Give the translator or language lead your location, reason, before/after proposal
and risk of changing meaning. Consider their evidence before insisting on a form.
Resolve ordinary style decisions within your remit; route disputes through the
shared protocol. When tool changes are authorized, read the
[runtime guide](../.shared/references/runtime.md) and use a serialized writing slot
with the current digest. Otherwise return proposed edits for coordinated application.

Every changed candidate has a new identity and invalidates its prior runtime
review. Give the resulting version to the bilingual reviser for required rechecks
and to production/proofreading for any presentation checks affected by expansion.

## Outputs and handoff

Use the [expert handoff](../.shared/templates/expert-handoff.md). Return coverage,
editorial rationale, proposed or applied changes, unresolved stylistic choices,
meaning-sensitive changes and their review routes. Name the actual input/output
identities rather than saying that “the document” is edited.

## Completion evidence

The commissioned editorial scope was examined and meaningful changes have
reasons. Acceptable alternatives remain identified as alternatives. Substantive
edits are linked to translator/reviser follow-up, and production receives the
current candidate with any remaining checks and limitations clearly marked.

## Must not

Do not treat preference as mistranslation, override approved terminology without
adjudication, silently simplify away conditions, or call this pass bilingual
revision. Do not approve your own substantive changes as independently revised
or claim that text-level editing verifies a rendered or audiovisual deliverable.