Differences in Normal and Rush turnaround time for translation projects
It is very common in my job, that I receive a request to have some documents translated as soon as possible. In addition to the translation request, many times the client also requests 2 different turnaround times; a normal one and one based on a Rush basis. What do we as a Translation Agency have to do to meet the client´s request and how might this affect the quality of the translation?
In order to understand how the Translation Industry works, here are some important numbers to give you a good idea of what translators, editors and proofreaders can achieve per business day; a translator can translate on average about 2,500 words in one business day. An editor can edit (compare the translated text with the source text) around 5,000 words and a proofreader can do a final proofing of a translated document of around 10,000 words in 1 business day.
The translation process here at Trusted Translations, http://www.trustedtranslations.com/ is made up of our 3-step translation process: translation, editing and proofreading. This is used for a normal turnaround time, as well as to ensure the highest quality translation. In some cases, when we have clients who require to have their document translated faster than the normal turnaround time, we call this translation project a Rush translation project. What happens here is that more translators and editors need to be involved, in order to be able to process a higher word volume in a shorter time period. The risk in this process is inconsistency,as the more translators and/or editors involved in one single project, the higher the chances of inconsistent use of terminology / style, since each one of them has their own personal sytle.
What did we learn regarding the big difference between normal and rush turnaround? The quality of a translation can be secured when offering a normal turnaround time, whereas when we need to shorten the turnaround in order to meet the client´s deadline, the quality of the translation will suffer. Please always make that very clear to your client, when he or she requests a rush turnaround.
I noticed that in most cases I receive “super-express” orders on Fridays afternnon. I guess that the client in such cases has already asked several freelancers, but they refused. Am I the only one working at the weekends?