Proofreading Field Thread poster: Betsabe Fresco
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Betsabe Fresco 
United States
Local time: 23:15
English to Spanish
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I have a proposal to start proofreding for a translation company here in US, but I do not know much about the number of words or pages per hour acceptable for proofreading. This company wants me to complete the job of 30 pages in 3 hours at a rate of $23.00 per hour. Any suggestions or comments will be very appreciated. Thank you.
| | | | Rosa Maria Duenas Rios (X)
Local time: 23:15
| I would not accept it. | Jun 16, 2005 |
Stranslator wrote:
I have a proposal to start proofreding for a translation company here in US, but I do not know much about the number of words or pages per hour acceptable for proofreading. This company wants me to complete the job of 30 pages in 3 hours at a rate of $23.00 per hour. Any suggestions or comments will be very appreciated. Thank you.
I have reasonable experience in proofreading. If I have a good quality text, I can proofread approx. 6,000-7000 words per day (8 hours). This is approx. 3-4 pages per hour. Thirty pages in 3 hours seems unrealistic to me, and I am not sure if anyone can do a thorough proofreading at such speed. The rate I charge is $35 US per hour.
| | | | Betsabe Fresco
United States
Local time: 23:15
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you!!! | Jun 16, 2005 |
Thank you so much Rosa Maria...you are right...I thought so too...30 pages in 3 hours?...It is questionable.
Thanks again for your answer. It helps me a lot.
| | | | Jana Teteris
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:15
Latvian to English
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| 1,000 words per hour | Jun 16, 2005 |
The standard calculation for proofreading (at least in Europe) is 1,000 words per hour, which averages out at around 3-4 pages per hour.
If asked to quote on a per word basis, I usually charge 1/3 of my translation rate - or a per hour rate (which coincidentally is 1/3 of my translation rate).
[Edited at 2005-06-16 12:53]
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Ken Cox
Local time: 05:15
German to English
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If the translation is good enough to be proofread at 10 pages an hour, it probably doesn't need proofreading except for the sake of form. And there's always the risk (with some agencies) that what they actually mean is revision of a poor translation, or in the worst case revision of a machine translation. Needless to say, that can take as long or longer than actually translating the original text.
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The minimum wage in USA is $7.35 per hour. 30 pages takes 10 hours. At minimum wage that would be $73.50! They offer $69.00! Need I say more?
| | | | Lia Fail (X)
Spain
Local time: 05:15
Spanish to English
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| a recent experience | Jun 16, 2005 |
I think you are referring to reviewing a translated text, right?
Recently I reviewed 8,500 words, reasonably technical, but not anything that wouldn't easily be found on the WWW (pharm-med field)
Note that to edit 8500 requires reading AT LEAST 8500 x 3-4, i.e. the ST, the TT, then the TT in isolation, and theoretically, the revised TT on paper. That amount of words, read intensively, alone takes up many hours, never mind making any changes.
It took me 13 ... See more I think you are referring to reviewing a translated text, right?
Recently I reviewed 8,500 words, reasonably technical, but not anything that wouldn't easily be found on the WWW (pharm-med field)
Note that to edit 8500 requires reading AT LEAST 8500 x 3-4, i.e. the ST, the TT, then the TT in isolation, and theoretically, the revised TT on paper. That amount of words, read intensively, alone takes up many hours, never mind making any changes.
It took me 13 highly concentrated hours to do 3 readings ST + TT x 2, and it really needed a final read on paper - becuase I had made a lot of changes - but I hadn't been allocated time enough.
The key issue is the quality of the translation, but once you begin to detect a 'don't care' attitude, or very literal translation, as I frequently do, then you have to double-check every single little thing and/or rewrite a lot.
For that 8500 word text, I should have been allowed about 16 hours, i.e. 500 words an hour. In my experience, that's about what the averagely technical-averagely translated text takes. And it's very difficult to edit more than 1200 words an hour, and that's an excellent piece of writing that's probably not technical...it boils down to reading time.
30 pages in 3 hours, 10 pages an hour, and a page could be 200-400 or more words, so even at the lowere calculation, 200 words x 10 pages = 2000 words.... forget it!
[Edited at 2005-06-16 22:21] ▲ Collapse
| | | | invguy
Bulgaria
Local time: 06:15
English to Bulgarian
Well, I come from a low-income market, but offering $2.3 for proofreading a page is outrageous. That's a lot less than a cent per word!
Not to speak that processing 10 pages an hour means you have 6 (six!) minutes to read, comprehend, AND eventually correct a whole page. Given 30 lines/page, that's 30 secs per line, or 3-4 secs/word...?!?!? Even if this was physically possible, you'd be perfectly entitled to charge a super urgency rate, which would *definitely* exceed the rate you'v... See more Well, I come from a low-income market, but offering $2.3 for proofreading a page is outrageous. That's a lot less than a cent per word!
Not to speak that processing 10 pages an hour means you have 6 (six!) minutes to read, comprehend, AND eventually correct a whole page. Given 30 lines/page, that's 30 secs per line, or 3-4 secs/word...?!?!? Even if this was physically possible, you'd be perfectly entitled to charge a super urgency rate, which would *definitely* exceed the rate you've been offered.
What do they actually want you to do - just take a quick peek and put in the odd missed comma you spot? If so, then 69 bucks for 3 hours is OK, I guess... 
Clients always get what they pay for. ▲ Collapse
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Betsabe Fresco
United States
Local time: 23:15
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER
Thanks to all of you.
I really appreciate your responses. It is nice to know that you guys are always there to help others.
Now, I have a clear idea about this field.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 05:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Read aloud time times three | Jun 17, 2005 |
Stranslator wrote:
I have a proposal to start proofreding for a translation company here in US... This company wants me to complete the job of 30 pages in 3 hours at a rate of $23.00 per hour.
Monolingual proofreading takes less than twice as long as it would take you to read a text out loud. Bilingual proofreading might take thrice the read-aloud speed, or longer.
Remember that by the time the job has reached proofreading stage, no drastic changes in the text is called for... unless the client is confusing "proofreading" with "editing".
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