would you proofread under these conditions? Thread poster: Alexandra Lindqvist
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Dear colleagues,
A while back one of my clients sent me a new CAT-grid (see below) for one of their project types. A couple of days ago I did a minor proofreading job for them and the CAT-grid was used on it! It never occurred to me that the CAT-grid would also apply to proof reading, but as a look at the e-mail from this customer it actually says that it applies for “all projects” of this type.
Repetitions 20 %
100% Matches 10 %
9... See more Dear colleagues,
A while back one of my clients sent me a new CAT-grid (see below) for one of their project types. A couple of days ago I did a minor proofreading job for them and the CAT-grid was used on it! It never occurred to me that the CAT-grid would also apply to proof reading, but as a look at the e-mail from this customer it actually says that it applies for “all projects” of this type.
Repetitions 20 %
100% Matches 10 %
95% - 99% 30 %
85% - 94% 30 %
75% - 84% 30 %
50% - 74% 100 % ▲ Collapse
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Plain and simple: NO! (but I do refuse most of the proofreading jobs I am offered...)
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I can understand if 100% are locked and you don't have to read them (=you don't get paid for them), but otherwise, no way
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| Possible misstake? | Jul 7, 2011 |
Actually this is excel files so now segment are locket per say. So yeah this seems rather bad. But I have also started to ask myself if the purchase order was just wrongly written. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
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Jan Willem van Dormolen (X) 
Netherlands
Local time: 13:48
English to Dutch
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| Review always per hour | Jul 7, 2011 |
Reviewing per word rate is in itself a bad practice, as word count has nothing to do with how much work the review will need. I only do reviews per hourly rate.
But per word rate AND a CAT-grid? That's plain idiotic.
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| Humans don't work like CAT tools | Jul 7, 2011 |
When proofreading you can't spring over a sentence without seeing it. You spend time reading it anyway. If you start skimming, you will miss errors that should be corrected.
If there is an error to be corrected in a segment that is repeated, it still has to be located and corrected. Or does the client think it is good enough if you only correct the error the first time it occurs?
I have a couple of clients who offer me 20% of the translation price for proofreading, and ... See more When proofreading you can't spring over a sentence without seeing it. You spend time reading it anyway. If you start skimming, you will miss errors that should be corrected.
If there is an error to be corrected in a segment that is repeated, it still has to be located and corrected. Or does the client think it is good enough if you only correct the error the first time it occurs?
I have a couple of clients who offer me 20% of the translation price for proofreading, and I go along with this because
1. They pay good rates, so the 20% is not bad.
2. I know their translators are carefully screened, and the proofreading required will mean correcting a few small typos and possibly a little rephrasing, but not much.
Otherwise I charge by the hour for proofreading, or I turn down the job!
[Edited at 2011-07-07 12:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 12:48
Member (2007)
English
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At the very least, all words to be ignored would have to be clearly highlighted. Perhaps there are texts where it would be possible to work like that, although I have never found one.
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| Never heard of that before | Jul 7, 2011 |
Strange!
I either charge per hour or 50% of my normal translation rate.
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B D Finch
France
Local time: 13:48
French to English
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You can't shut down to 25% of your reading time, attention and judgment and so should not be expected to make a similar change in your rates.
I have a gripe with this sort of thing for translation too, as some segments are so small that they do not necessarily lend themselves to being translated the same way each time they occur. Agency-supplied TMs are often not reliable either.
[Edited at 2011-07-07 14:47 GMT]
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Elisabete Cunha
Portugal
Local time: 12:48
Member (2006)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I always charge by source word or by the hour. I only accept to work with Trados discounts for translation work, never proofreading.
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 13:48
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Definitely not! | Jul 7, 2011 |
In fact, such an offer would only serve to tell me how little this customer values my time - sufficient reason to turn the job down.
Proofreading is proofreading - which takes time. It doesn't matter how many repetitions there are in the text, it still needs to be read. Therefore, I always charge by the hour.
This is a clean-cut case of price dumping. At its worst.
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Mark Hamlen
France
Local time: 13:48
French to English
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Most "proofing" jobs are rip offs. But this is patently absurd. For example "rose" (the flower) and "rose" (got up) are not repetitions. Not to mention words with various meanings depending on context.
I have systematically refused to proof other people's work for some time now.
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| Never heard of that! | Jul 7, 2011 |
Proofreading with a word rate is always based on a flat rate per word, no CAT discounts. This is well understood by the approx. 20 agencies I work for on a regular basis.
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