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Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is | convertion using your average hourly output

Zea_Mays — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 08:18:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: convertion using your average hourly output

[quote]Astrid Elke Witte wrote:

What is the yardstick for converting all that lot into a "number of words"? Just interested to know, that's all. [/quote]

My approach would be: Multiplying the total time worked by my average hourly translation output, dividing the total time worked by the number of working days in hours (the standard workday is 6-8 hours on average), and then dividing the potentially translated words by the number of working days.
So, let's assume you translate 250 words per hour on average. If you worked 30 hours on various tasks, this would result in potential 7500 translated words in total. Then, depending on how many hours you work per day, the result would be 1500 words per day with 6 hours per day, and 2000 words with 8 hours per day.
Total time worked: 30 hours
Your hourly output: 250 w/h
Theoretically translated words: 30 h x 250 w/h = 7500 w
Average daily words for a 6-hour day: 30 h : 6 = 5 days = 7500 w : 5 = 1500 w/day
Average daily words for an 8-hour day: 30 h : 8 = 3.75 days = 7500 w : 3.75 = 2000 w/day

Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is | Other activities

Lieven Malaise — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 22:18:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: Other activities

[quote]Astrid Elke Witte wrote:
Presuming that most translators handle a job from start to finish, how do you calculate a "number of words" if you start by scanning an illegible file, producing an OCR salad from a .jpg that somebody scanned in a warped or wavy manner on a phone, slowly typing up the mess at 800% magnification, or, indeed, how do you even calculate a "number of words" across the tasks of pre-formatting (as just described), translating, researching, editing, reviewing, finalising and post-formatting? What is the yardstick for converting all that lot into a "number of words"? Just interested to know, that's all.[/quote]

If you work for translation agencies there are almost no other activities. Just CAT tool files that need proper translation and proper tag positioning.

As far as crappy source texts are concerned: if the quality is too bad, it's simply return to sender or a significant rate increase to cover for the extra work.

Translation, editing, researching and reviewing are obviously incorporated into the word rate.

Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is | How do you manage to convert all the other activities into a piecework rate for number of words?

Astrid Elke Witte — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 21:20:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is
Poster: Astrid Elke Witte
Post title: How do you manage to convert all the other activities into a piecework rate for number of words?

Presuming that most translators handle a job from start to finish, how do you calculate a "number of words" if you start by scanning an illegible file, producing an OCR salad from a .jpg that somebody scanned in a warped or wavy manner on a phone, slowly typing up the mess at 800% magnification, or, indeed, how do you even calculate a "number of words" across the tasks of pre-formatting (as just described), translating, researching, editing, reviewing, finalising and post-formatting? What is the yardstick for converting all that lot into a "number of words"? Just interested to know, that's all.

Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is | Other

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 10:08:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: Other

At the moment, my today’s output is 0 as I haven’t started working yet (got up very late today). :wink:

I have never bothered to calculate my actual output, but on average what I can get done in a day it’s between 2,500 and 3,000 words (no CAT tools), though occasionally I have translated much more than that: it all depends on the subject matter and on the language pair. I must also say that some days if I do more than that my brain starts to shut down, my fingers get tangled up and I make silly mistakes, so I prefer to try to pace myself.

At the moment, as I am working on a large project, I set myself a daily translation quota (2,000 words), leaving room for other customers, and I work until my quota is met. I'm my own boss and occasionally I work way, way, way more hours than I did when I was working as staff translator, but that’s my choice and I always find ways to compensate myself…

[Edited at 2025-09-04 11:38 GMT]

Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is | About 3800 words

Lieven Malaise — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:46:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: About 3800 words

Based on 365 days minus weekends, holidays and days off, with MTPE, editing and proofreading converted to conventional translation words, my average daily output in the year 2024 was about 3800 conventional translation words.

The reality of my daily working life is of course more diffuse, with days with a much higher or much lower output, with sometimes work during the weekends etc.

Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is

ProZ.com Staff — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:10:04 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: My average output in words per day at the moment is
Poster: ProZ.com Staff

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "My average output in words per day at the moment is".

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