| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | being paid only for the words you correct, not all of the words you check and read... Thread poster: Heather Fremont
|
|---|
Heather Fremont 
United States
Local time: 12:31
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Hello,
I am new to the world of machine translation, having focused on literary translation and copyediting for many years.
I have just begun working with a very large LSP. We agreed on a rate of three cents per word for proofreading. However, when I was sent a file, I was given an extremely low price based on the match percentages. For a job of 1738 words, I am only paid the full three cents for the words with low match percentage. However, in the notes for the job, I am sp... See more Hello,
I am new to the world of machine translation, having focused on literary translation and copyediting for many years.
I have just begun working with a very large LSP. We agreed on a rate of three cents per word for proofreading. However, when I was sent a file, I was given an extremely low price based on the match percentages. For a job of 1738 words, I am only paid the full three cents for the words with low match percentage. However, in the notes for the job, I am specifically told to check ad proofread all context and 100% matches as well. I am very confused by this. I come from a copyediting background where I am paid a certain rate per word regardless of how many of those words need corrections.
For a different language service provider I did similar proofreading/MTPE jobs and was paid per source word regardless of how many corrections I actually made.
Is it normal to be paid only for the words that actually need correcting, as opposed to being paid for all of the words that you take the time and cognitive effort to check and read? I cannot afford to read and check thousands of words and only be paid for correcting a few words....can anyone afford to do this??
I hope this makes sense. Thank you for your feedback. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I have been facing the same | Mar 15, 2023 |
Hello,
I have been facing the same with agencies in the past. Sometimes they told you to have a look to segments or words with high matching percentage to be sure that there's no error. But at the end they only pay you for those with low percentage you in the rate you agree with them.
So, I decided when I receive this kind of MTPE work to be paid normally regardless percentage of accuracy. If not, I decline the task, because as a professional I can't do such a work without having a ... See more Hello,
I have been facing the same with agencies in the past. Sometimes they told you to have a look to segments or words with high matching percentage to be sure that there's no error. But at the end they only pay you for those with low percentage you in the rate you agree with them.
So, I decided when I receive this kind of MTPE work to be paid normally regardless percentage of accuracy. If not, I decline the task, because as a professional I can't do such a work without having a look to the whole task and correct all the errors. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Try charging by the hour for those kinds of jobs | Mar 15, 2023 |
I think it may work better this way. If they don't want to pay you by the hour for proofreading/editing, consider declining the job. In the end, we're freelancers, we're supposed to charge fees (not rates, we're not dealing with taxi rides) for our professional services and we choose how we work.
| | | | | 'Brutto' words | Mar 15, 2023 |
Editing and proofreading (whatever they would mean for a specific LSP) must be paid by total word count. Any other word-based way is an insult. I have almost never charged by hours, so I can't comment on that. I don't do much editing nowadays, but it is (and always has been) paid by total number of words.
| | |
|
|
|
Nikolay Novitskiy
Russian Federation
Local time: 21:31
Member (2018)
English to Russian
| Correct all the words | Mar 15, 2023 |
Well, you may correct all the words Replace everything with synonims, make false corrections, etc. By the time they notice your opportunistic behaviour, you withdraw your earnings.
Greedy and incompetent agencies should be punished and squeezed out of the market.
[Edited at 2023-03-15 07:13 GMT]
| | | | | Charging a rate per hour | Mar 15, 2023 |
I think its better to charge agencies with an hourly rate than a rate per word.
In fact, they always try to make profit on us freelancers. Therefore, I decided to use these ki ds of methods to have both parties satisfied.
In case, they don't want or aren't ready to pay you an hourly rate, you just decline the job. Now we need to rethink the freelance translation job and be more professional.
| | | |
Hello,
I think I know which LSP you're talking about. They use the same pricing method for MTPE.
In my opinion nobody should accept these conditions.
If enough translators accept their rates and methods, the LSP will continue to look for more ways to pay translators less for their work.
| | | | Nikolay Novitskiy
Russian Federation
Local time: 21:31
Member (2018)
English to Russian
| Expropriation of the expropriators | Mar 15, 2023 |
I've read advices here - all my colleagues offer to "avoid such agencies". But I think we should strike first - accept such tasks, sabotage thm and make them suffer losses.
Because if you just "decline", there will be others who accept. But if we massively hurt them, they will never recover.
PS: they will suffer double losses. First when paying you, and then by losing a client.
[Edited at 2023-03-15 07:20 GMT]
| | |
|
|
|
| If you're a pro ... | Mar 15, 2023 |
Nikolay Novitskiy wrote: Well, you may correct all the words Replace everything with synonims, make false corrections, etc. By the time they notice your opportunistic behaviour, you withdraw your earnings. Greedy and incompetent agencies should be punished and squeezed out of the market. [Edited at 2023-03-15 07:13 GMT]
...you will not do this.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 18:31
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Won’t happen to me | Mar 15, 2023 |
since I don’t deal with MTPE or any editing projects at all. These are high-risk projects on many different levels.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 18:31
French to English
Nikolay Novitskiy wrote:
I've read advices here - all my colleagues offer to "avoid such agencies". But I think we should strike first - accept such tasks, sabotage thm and make them suffer losses.
Because if you just "decline", there will be others who accept. But if we massively hurt them, they will never recover.
PS: they will suffer double losses. First when paying you, and then by losing a client.
[Edited at 2023-03-15 07:20 GMT]
Except that they won't pay you for "massively hurting" them. They'll ask someone else to examine your work to see whether the corrections were all justified and then they'll turn round and say they're only paying you for justified corrections.
And what about your reputation as a translator?
The agency I worked at was a member of a society of translation agencies. They regularly used to share details of translators who they had had problems with. My former boss sabotaged one young girl's career completely despite him being completely in the wrong from both a moral and legal point of view.
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 18:31
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Their justification | Mar 15, 2023 |
Heather Fremont wrote:
Hello,
I am new to the world of machine translation, having focused on literary translation and copyediting for many years.
I have just begun working with a very large LSP. We agreed on a rate of three cents per word for proofreading. However, when I was sent a file, I was given an extremely low price based on the match percentages. For a job of 1738 words, I am only paid the full three cents for the words with low match percentage. However, in the notes for the job, I am specifically told to check ad proofread all context and 100% matches as well.
Being new to the industry of machine translation can be confusing because it basically is not a translation job, but instead the type that will feed AI-based programs to improve their output. With this said, the fact that you accept proofreading anything for 3 cents a word confirms the LSP's opinion that they don't have to pay decent rates to anybody for anything.
If they explicitly instructed you to proofread all the word, then they must pay you for the total word count or - as in your case - be in violation of your agreement.
You can almost always be certain that you will end up with the (financial) short end of the stick when you accept an MTPE project. If you can afford it, then it would be a smart business decision to void this type of work. As our collages have already stated, trying to hurt the agency will only backfire and ruin your career.
| | |
|
|
|
Nikolay Novitskiy
Russian Federation
Local time: 21:31
Member (2018)
English to Russian
Kay Denney wrote:
Except that they won't pay you for "massively hurting" them. They'll ask someone else to examine your work to see whether the corrections were all justified and then they'll turn round and say they're only paying you for justified corrections.
And what about your reputation as a translator?
The agency I worked at was a member of a society of translation agencies. They regularly used to share details of translators who they had had problems with. My former boss sabotaged one young girl's career completely despite him being completely in the wrong from both a moral and legal point of view.
You have a point, Kay.
But I know that agencies who pay peanuts pay the same peanuts to those who examine you. More than that, they often have silly requirements like "write a comprehensive feedback on each error you spot"...
Now imagine yourself in a role of an LQA specilist: you are paid an hourly rate and you see many errors. You have already accepted the task. Will you spot all the errors and spend much more time then you are paid for? No. You will rather label the translation quality "acceptable", mark some obvious errors and forget about it. No one wants to be a hero for the cost of their own money.
And still you are right, Kay. That's why I suggest to sabotage in a smart way. Hurt the style! Make translation correct but uncomprehensive. Invent other smart ways of sabotage. Argue and deny when they spot your mistakes, at least! And don't forget about the solidarity with you comrades when you are a reviewer for such an agency.
As for reputation loss... I have never seen things like this. They will blacklist you, of course - and that's all. They can't sell or transfer your personal data to other agencies. And even if they will - these guys are not your clients.
At the same time, boutique agencies and direct clients you work with will tell quite the opposite Because they will have the best translation ever
[Edited at 2023-03-15 09:21 GMT]
| | | | Jo Macdonald
Spain
Local time: 18:31
Italian to English
+ ...
| Some dirty tricks to watch out for | Mar 15, 2023 |
• Calculating LOTS of words (like 10,000) per day/hour at your agreed hourly rate = a per word rate of 0.02-0.04
• Not paying for reps in “revision” jobs that are really PEMT jobs
• Agreeing to a rate of say 0.06 for PEMT then applying a PEMT discount to that rate = a per word rate of 0.03-0.04
All of the above and other dirty tricks like this are signs of a company I personally do NOT want to work with, because I would not make a living as a professional ling... See more • Calculating LOTS of words (like 10,000) per day/hour at your agreed hourly rate = a per word rate of 0.02-0.04
• Not paying for reps in “revision” jobs that are really PEMT jobs
• Agreeing to a rate of say 0.06 for PEMT then applying a PEMT discount to that rate = a per word rate of 0.03-0.04
All of the above and other dirty tricks like this are signs of a company I personally do NOT want to work with, because I would not make a living as a professional linguist and imo they are more interested in exploiting people than in a quality service. If you want to take responsibility and sign off on cheap, rushed jobs while not earning enough to pay the rent, go for it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 18:31
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
| A double discount? | Mar 15, 2023 |
Jo Macdonald wrote:
• Agreeing to a rate of say 0.06 for PEMT then applying a PEMT discount to that rate
This seems really odd. If you have already agreed on a MTPE rate, there can't be another discount.
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » being paid only for the words you correct, not all of the words you check and read... | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
More info » |
| | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
