Do you think that proofreading/editing rates should be the same?
Thread poster: Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:01
Spanish to English
+ ...
Jun 23, 2019



 
Colleen Roach, PhD
Colleen Roach, PhD  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:01
French to English
+ ...
Rates should probably depend on project Jun 23, 2019

Barbara: I just looked at your profile -- quite impressive! And I'd love to read more about the French Resistance, a topic I'm quite interested in. (The father of a good friend was some sort of officer in the Resistance in Dijon, and I spent several holidays with this wonderful family. I have buried in my belongings, somewhere, a book on the resistance in that area he gave me). Anyway, just as you seem to vary your translation rates depending on the project, I would wager that this is what a goo... See more
Barbara: I just looked at your profile -- quite impressive! And I'd love to read more about the French Resistance, a topic I'm quite interested in. (The father of a good friend was some sort of officer in the Resistance in Dijon, and I spent several holidays with this wonderful family. I have buried in my belongings, somewhere, a book on the resistance in that area he gave me). Anyway, just as you seem to vary your translation rates depending on the project, I would wager that this is what a good many people here will also suggest you do for proofreading and editing.

As many people have pointed out, though, what seems to be happening a lot with the abundance of machine translations (as you probably know) is the following: to save money an agency may put a translation through the machine-process. Then, they may farm this out to translators to "fix up," and call it "proofreading." For this, they can pay a very low rate when, in fact, some translators say it should be priced at the rate of a regular translation (whatever you charge) because it is just as much work. Some people on the forum here, when this topic of "rates for proofreading" comes up say that they just flat out refuse to take such assignments because the time involved seems to be too much.

Most people who do get involved in these projects, here, though do seem to agree on a couple of points; 1) charge an hourly rate; 2) always ask to see a sample of what you would be "proofreading" so you can see what it involves. If when you get the text you realize that you are going to have to carefully go over the source text and then the bad machine translation, the time you spend may actually end up being MORE than if you had just been assigned a translation.

I myself used to do quite a bit of just "straight" proofreading for printers in NY City who catered to investment bankers and big financial Wall St. Firms. This was about 20 years ago, and even going through an agency (and it could be assumed they made what I made), I still would get about $17 an hour. But that was a long time ago. And this really was straight proofreading.

Editing is another animal, and there are wide variations, depending on whether you are just making stylistic changes, correcting grammar, assuring consistency in a single document for certain items (acronyms, etc.). If there's a lot of what is essentially rewriting, then it would of course take more time. But again, I think the main thing would be to: look at the text and see how long 3 or 4 pages would take. Then, come up with a price based on what you think meets your qualifications, the deadline, etc.

Sorry -- realized that I didn't really answer your question! NO, I don't think rates for proofreading and editing should be the same; the latter is usually regarded as work being done at a "higher level" than proofreading, and should be paid accordingly.



[Edited at 2019-06-23 23:57 GMT]
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 14:01
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Only if they are calculated by the hour Jun 24, 2019

Proofreaders and editors, whether they are the same people in practice or not, are trying to make a living.

How they calculate the fee for a particular job is up to them, but firstly, it should be the proofreader or editor who sets, the rate, not the customer, and secondly, it depends on how much work is required in each case.
If the client will agree to a reasonable hourly rate, and pay for the number of hours the job actually takes, then it makes no difference whether the t
... See more
Proofreaders and editors, whether they are the same people in practice or not, are trying to make a living.

How they calculate the fee for a particular job is up to them, but firstly, it should be the proofreader or editor who sets, the rate, not the customer, and secondly, it depends on how much work is required in each case.
If the client will agree to a reasonable hourly rate, and pay for the number of hours the job actually takes, then it makes no difference whether the time is spent proofreading or editing.

Straight proofreading jobs these days seem to be rare, unless you really mean post-editing without access to the source text. In that case I regard it more as a nightmare than proofreading. It is impossible just to 'tidy up' texts like that and get a meaningful result. They may be grammatically correct, but total gobbledegook all the same.
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Sabrina Bruna
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:01
French to English
. Jun 24, 2019

Rates will vary wildly from one person to another based on how much they dare to ask for, how talented they are, how much experience they have.

Personally, out of all the work I have done and can do, what I like best is translating. Anything I'm asked to do that takes me from my favourite way of earning my living has to pay me enough to make it worth it. So I recently raised my hourly rate to make sure that whatever I do per hour brings me more money than translation. Otherwise I r
... See more
Rates will vary wildly from one person to another based on how much they dare to ask for, how talented they are, how much experience they have.

Personally, out of all the work I have done and can do, what I like best is translating. Anything I'm asked to do that takes me from my favourite way of earning my living has to pay me enough to make it worth it. So I recently raised my hourly rate to make sure that whatever I do per hour brings me more money than translation. Otherwise I resent having to do the other stuff. Even if I'm not turning down translations to do this work, because if I don't have work it doesn't matter, and I can get on with other stuff like gardening and sewing.

If that means I'm asked less frequently to do proofreading or editing or transcriptions or any of the tedious tasks I would be entrusted with during quiet periods at the agency where I used to work, so much the better. If a client does still ask me to do something, I will at least be motivated by the money to do a decent job.
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:01
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Yes (I charge per hour) Jun 24, 2019

I charge exactly the same rate per hour for proofreading and for editing. While proofreading of a given text may take less than an hour, the editing of that very same text can take three or four times more. The market being what it is, my proofreading and editing assignments are few and far between, but I’m not complaining as I prefer translating…

CARLOS LEON
 


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Do you think that proofreading/editing rates should be the same?







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