Acierto - Discussion of Rates

To be able to appreciate fairly priced translation work, you first have to know that a translator who applies “average” rates needs to produce (translate, review and edit) a minimum of between 8 and 10 full pages per day to make an adequate living, maintaining a work pace compatible with normal physiological and psychological limits.

Moreover, an excellent translator handling a text of average technical difficulty can only process slightly over 1 full page an hour (counting time spent in preparation, research, actual translation and revision). It is clear, then, that only relatively large contracts are in the translator's interest, since the time to physically prepare the material, do the documentation work and technical research, as well as the final editing required, is in no way proportionate to the volume of material to be produced. A translator's productivity, expressed in pages per day, increases in proportion to the size of the document he or she is working on: a three or four page document will require the same amount of preparation as a thirty or forty page job, with a substantial drop in relative productivity.

It is thus clear that if you are seeking good value for your money, you should avoid haggling over price. If the translator is forced to provide a lower price, knowing that the translation processing time cannot otherwise be decreased, he or she will end up omitting or skimping on the “hidden” activities of preparation, documentation and checking -- which are at the core of ensuring quality work – as well as the editing process, which is essential to quality control.

For the translator, the amount earned is only meaningful in terms of the amount of time it takes to earn it. Thus, going for the lowest price involves ending up with lower quality, simply because the translator has to earn a living and logically will not devote a lot of time and effort where the return is meager in comparison.

A lower cost can only be obtained by:

• reducing the amount of material to be produced (that is, when it is not necessary to translate everything);
• speeding up the pace of translation (when it is not necessary to transcribe and format the translation job);
• replacing the human translator with an automatic translation tool (when an approximate or mediocre translation is acceptable);
• lowering your expectations as to finished quality (when a quick literal or rough translation is enough).

Therefore, when you are choosing a service provider, look to the one who can guarantee you what you need, remembering that “you get what you pay for.”