Poll: How should we charge for post editing of machine translation?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Jul 29, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How should we charge for post editing of machine translation?".

This poll was originally submitted by Nadine Epstein. View the poll results »



 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 14:56
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Jul 29, 2018

I have never been asked until now, but if I was I would either refuse it (as I do with most proofreading jobs) or charge my full rate because for what I have seen and heard it's much more demanding than translating from scratch and more often than not requires a total rewrite…

Liena Vijupe
Platon Danilov
Nadine Epstein
Michael Harris
Shiva Amin
writeaway
Elaine Ruby
 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:56
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Refuse ALL Post Editing jobs to keep our industry healthy! Jul 29, 2018

The best option, in terms of keeping our industry healthy, is to refuse all PE jobs. Instead, use MT in your own CAT tool (if you want), which in a sense means you are also post editing, but charge your client your full rate. The less people agencies can find who are willing to do this kind of work the better, as it will only further contribute to the destruction of our industry. 90% of the time the MT output the agencies offer us is way worse than that currently offered by the better neural eng... See more
The best option, in terms of keeping our industry healthy, is to refuse all PE jobs. Instead, use MT in your own CAT tool (if you want), which in a sense means you are also post editing, but charge your client your full rate. The less people agencies can find who are willing to do this kind of work the better, as it will only further contribute to the destruction of our industry. 90% of the time the MT output the agencies offer us is way worse than that currently offered by the better neural engines anyway, so why give away a portion of your full rate so you can edit bad MT?

Michael

[Edited at 2018-07-29 10:10 GMT]
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Nadine Epstein
Shiva Amin
Elaine Ruby
Balvir Chand
Christiane Allen
Carlos Ilich
Angie Garbarino
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:56
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
In between, but closer to the regular fee Jul 29, 2018

I've been postediting machine translation for 35 years now and my client pays very well or I wouldn't do it.

Sometimes the drafts are quite good, though not always. Much depends on the quality of the source text.

[Edited at 2018-07-29 11:21 GMT]


Kimberly Wastler
 
Michael Harris
Michael Harris  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:56
Member (2006)
German to English
Normal fee Jul 29, 2018

Last year I took on a post editing job thinking it was a review job.
After starting, I sent it back with the remark that it was uneditable and since then I have kept my fingers from these sorts of jobs.


 
Elif Baykara Narbay
Elif Baykara Narbay  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 17:56
German to Turkish
+ ...
Regular fee (or higher) for sure... Jul 29, 2018

My fee reflects the price of the time I spend.

If the MT is clean (as claimed by companies), the project would take less time, so no fuss. If the job takes a longer time for any reason, I will still be paid by my regular rate.

I don't believe and probably never believe the reasoning that PEMT projects should be cheaper. No way!

PEMT is allegedly making things easier, that is quicker. This has nothing to do with the value of my time.


Kaisa I
Veronika Malíková
Jennifer Forbes
 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:56
German to English
+ ...
Why isn't per hour one of the choices? Jul 29, 2018

Post editing is editing/revision of a job done by somebody else, that "somebody" being a machine in this case. If a client hires a cheap translator who does a dreadful job, it will take longer to fix it, than to translate from scratch. Why make a difference if the "translator" was a machine?

The reason for the MT trend is for paying less. If translating costs $0.16/word, and editing/revision costs $0.04/word, then they get it done for a fraction of the cost, because the MT part i
... See more
Post editing is editing/revision of a job done by somebody else, that "somebody" being a machine in this case. If a client hires a cheap translator who does a dreadful job, it will take longer to fix it, than to translate from scratch. Why make a difference if the "translator" was a machine?

The reason for the MT trend is for paying less. If translating costs $0.16/word, and editing/revision costs $0.04/word, then they get it done for a fraction of the cost, because the MT part is free of charge. But if the translator is working 2X as long to fix a poor translation than it would take him to translate it, then even at his regular fee he would be earning 50% for the same amount of time's work. At 1/4 the price, he is earning a tiny fraction of his usual fee, for something that is unpleasant to do. This does not affect the client negatively, except perhaps in terms of quality - which he may not be aware of.

But if a poor quality translation takes twice as much to fix, and is charged accordingly, then the attraction disappears for the client. Why would he want to pay 2X as much for a lesser quality product? A per hour charge has the incentive that:
- the client is more interested in translations by a real translator
- the client has the incentive to only pass on quality translations done by MT, meaning that the MT itself is quality, and the type of text is suitable for that kind of translation
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Dr. Maria Szumanski
 
Anne Schulz
Anne Schulz
Germany
Local time: 15:56
English to German
+ ...
Charge by hour Jul 29, 2018

I have never been asked to edit a machine translation, but if I were I would probably discuss the desired level of quality (or cost-quality balance, or any cost caps) with the client and charge for the time required to bring the MT to that level.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 11:56
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Somewhere in between Jul 30, 2018

I know it's not a pleasant thing, and we keep refusing this kind of job. But we must be realistic and adapt ourselves to the new times and whats coming our way. This is a trend of the market. It's unavoidable, and those who keep struggling against it will be like those who are still struggling against the CATs. You can also ride a horse instead of driving a car and use a typewirter if you wish. But if you don't want to be obsolete, you don't go against market trends. You do your best to face it ... See more
I know it's not a pleasant thing, and we keep refusing this kind of job. But we must be realistic and adapt ourselves to the new times and whats coming our way. This is a trend of the market. It's unavoidable, and those who keep struggling against it will be like those who are still struggling against the CATs. You can also ride a horse instead of driving a car and use a typewirter if you wish. But if you don't want to be obsolete, you don't go against market trends. You do your best to face it as an opportunity and adapt yourself to it.
Now, we're NOT talking about Google Translator and the like, for sure. Post-editing involves well-developed TMs in specific areas and complex algorithms. If you have to rewrite the whole thing, it's scam, not post-editing.
So, the fair and feasible rate, both to us and to the client, will be half-way between translation and revision rates.
You can try to charge your regular translation rate, and you'll have no clients. That's not adapting.

[Edited at 2018-07-30 03:29 GMT]
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Natalia Pedrosa
Mar Brito
Sheila Grando
Amir Arzani
Eckhard Boehle
Ada Mirasol Navarro
Thiago Tacconi
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:56
French to English
by the hour Jul 30, 2018

I would only accept it if I could bill by the hour, and I would only quote if I were sure the agency would not balk at the number of hours I clock up.

I had to do it once, after being tricked into doing it. It was a painful experience. All the more so because most of the translation was a list of products for which there was an official translation on an official multilingual website, and all you had to do was fish the right term out from that website, no need to even use your brai
... See more
I would only accept it if I could bill by the hour, and I would only quote if I were sure the agency would not balk at the number of hours I clock up.

I had to do it once, after being tricked into doing it. It was a painful experience. All the more so because most of the translation was a list of products for which there was an official translation on an official multilingual website, and all you had to do was fish the right term out from that website, no need to even use your brain.

[Edited at 2018-07-30 07:33 GMT]
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Poll: How should we charge for post editing of machine translation?






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