Re: Humor 'n' more

[Max Wyss <prodok -at- PRODOK -dot- CH>]

Sarah,

I would be glad if my logic were faulty. But then, why do threads popping
up in FLEFO on Compuserve on how to handle clients who do ask for a
reduction when the translated text is shorter after editing ... Or all
those discussions about different word count methods. If source word count
would apply, these discussions would not happen, wouldn't they?

It could be different in the MT world, however.

Grumblingly about the logic in the translation business <g>.


Max Wyss
PRODOK Engineering AG
Technical documentation and translations, Electronic Publishing
CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland

Fax:  +41 1 700 20 37
e-mail:  mailto:prodok -at- prodok -dot- ch    or    100012 -dot- 44 -at- compuserve -dot- com


Bridging the Knowledge Gap ...

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_____________



>Hi Max,
>Slightly faulty logic there -- the translator
>is paid on a per-word basis according to
>the number of source words -- not target
>words. So, if there are 1000 words in the
>source, and the translator is paid 10 Euro
>cents per word, he/she will receive 10,000
>Euro cents for the translation, no matter how
>many words end up in the translated text.
>
>That's why translators get paid per word,
>and technical writers don't.
>
>Best
>Sarah
>sarahc -at- indigo -dot- ie
>
>At 21:43 17/06/98 +0200, Max Wyss wrote:
>>Translations are treated like a commodity. You say, the translator is
>>paid by the thousand words. Why aren't the technical writers paid by the
>>word? why aren't the programmers paid by the number of bytes of
>>executables?
>
>