Trans7 Germany Local time: 22:54 French to English
Jul 31, 2011
Hello,
Could any experienced revisers on here tell me how many words (a ball park figure will do) it is possible to revise in an hour? I've done a lot of revisions in the past, but haven't done many of late hence my question.
Many thanks.
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Natalie Poland Local time: 22:54 Member (2002) English to Russian + ...
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Hi
Jul 31, 2011
From 1500 to 2000 words per hour (1800 on average), however, this strongly depends on the quality of the translation.
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Katalin Horvath McClure United States Local time: 16:54 Member (2002) English to Hungarian + ...
How long is a rope?
Jul 31, 2011
Are you talking about bilingual revision, where you have to compare the source and the target, or monolingual revision of the target text?
What level of documentation is required for the revision? Do you need to just edit the text (no documenting), or mark up the errors with comments without correcting them, or make the changes and provide comments for each change?
What quality is the text you have to work on?
What is the field, how familiar are you with it?
The volume you can process per hour greatly depends on these parameters.
Katalin
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sokolniki United States Local time: 15:54 English to Russian + ...
A major international agency..
Jul 31, 2011
.. I do a lot of work for has an estimate of 1,000 words per hour of editing or QC. I am sure you take texts for revision (again, editing or QC?) which belong to your areas of specialization and a lot depends on the quality of translation. However a decent agency (this one, for instance) will agree to add extra time/money if you prove that you had to deal with the poorly made translation which required an extra effort/time (naturally, if the budget allows).
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Kevin Fulton United States Local time: 16:54 German to English
With Natalie and Katalin
Aug 1, 2011
You should always bill revision on an hourly basis, not by the word count. I generally work with highly-skilled translators and can review about 1000-1200 words/hour. Lately I've been getting texts that have been written (not translated) bu non-native speakers. Reviewing these texts requires 1500+ words/hour.
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Christine Andersen Denmark Local time: 22:54 Member (2003) Danish to English + ...
I always deliver two files
Aug 1, 2011
I charge by teh hour and deliver two files. One is a 'red' file with tracked changes showing everything I have altered, with notes if necessary, but not for obvious things. The other is 'clean', and IMHO ready and fit for purpose, but of course, the client can discuss or reject changes...
A by-product of this is that the tracked changes also indicate the time spent working on the file, although they do not, of course, record the time I spend reading the text on paper.
Academics who are used to reading their professional literature in a second language can often write well, but not always. Revising a text without a source can unexpectedly be a nightmare!
But it can also be a pleasure, and I have even filed several, with the permission of the authors, for future reference.
If I am working with a source file and comparing two texts, then 1000-1500 words per hour is a maximum.
I sometimes give the client a quote based on 1000 words per hour as a maximum. I say I will invoice for the time actually spent, and usually reduce it by at least half an hour, depending on the size of the text! The good ones appreciate this and come again.
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Trans7 Germany Local time: 22:54 French to English
TOPIC STARTER
Good questions
Aug 3, 2011
Katalin Horvath McClure wrote:
Are you talking about bilingual revision, where you have to compare the source and the target, or monolingual revision of the target text?
What level of documentation is required for the revision? Do you need to just edit the text (no documenting), or mark up the errors with comments without correcting them, or make the changes and provide comments for each change?
What quality is the text you have to work on?
What is the field, how familiar are you with it?
The volume you can process per hour greatly depends on these parameters.
Katalin
Thank you for your reply, Katalin. Apologies for not providing any further details. I was posting in a bit of a rush. You're perfectly right to ask all of the above questions.
Yes, I am talking about bilingual revision, with a source and target text, the latter being in my mother tongue.
I make the changes directly in the document and, as far as I know, I am not required to comment on each change, unless there is a very good reason to do so.
In this case, it is difficult to predict the quality of the text, but the translations from this agency are usually of a very high quality, but I'm always prepared for the worst!
Regarding the field, fortunately it is a subject field I am quite familiar with and I hope the translator is too!
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
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Trans7 Germany Local time: 22:54 French to English
TOPIC STARTER
Interesting
Aug 3, 2011
Christine Andersen wrote:
If I am working with a source file and comparing two texts, then 1000-1500 words per hour is a maximum.
It would seem that 1000-1500 words per hour is the average so I'll calculate the time needed based on that.
Christine Andersen wrote:
I charge by teh hour and deliver two files. One is a 'red' file with tracked changes showing everything I have altered, with notes if necessary, but not for obvious things. The other is 'clean', and IMHO ready and fit for purpose, but of course, the client can discuss or reject changes...
Interesting that you produce two documents, Christine. It sounds very professional. I must admit that I'd never thought of doing this plus the agency I work for has never requested it either - primarily for time reasons, I imagine. (Revising is paid by the hour, so if I were produce a corrected document, the client would end up paying almost double).
Thanks so much for all your answers. I am feeling more relaxed now about this big revision job!
[Edited at 2011-08-03 18:34 GMT]
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Christine Andersen Denmark Local time: 22:54 Member (2003) Danish to English + ...
No need to charge double for two files
Aug 3, 2011
Trans7 wrote:
[
Christine Andersen wrote:
I charge by the hour and deliver two files. ...
Interesting that you produce two documents, Christine. It sounds very professional. I must admit that I'd never thought of doing this plus the agency I work for has never requested it either - primarily for time reasons, I imagine. (Revising is paid by the hour, so if I were produce a corrected document, the client would end up paying almost double).
It only takes a few seconds to produce the second, 'clean' file. I simply save the 'red' file with tracked changes under a slightly different name or version number.
Then I accept all the changes (which can be done with two more clicks on the toolbar) and delete any notes, and turn off the 'track changes' function.
This can even be done with an uncleaned Trados file, and once the changes are accepted and Track Changes is turned off, the file can be cleaned to update the client's TM.
[Edited at 2011-08-03 20:30 GMT]
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JOHN PENNEY Brazil Local time: 17:54 Portuguese to English + ...
How much to charge for copy editing/proofreading?
Aug 31, 2011
Interesting discussion here. Does anyone have a ballpark price (in USD) by the word that I should submit for copy editing and proofreading documents from an international organisation?
[Edited at 2011-08-31 15:08 GMT]
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