Set it in Stone

It should go without saying that the texts you send to a translator must be absolutely final. At this stage, this is no longer work in progress. From a translator’s point of view, you could do little worse than updating them after they have started working on them.

Such a spanner thrown in the work means much of their time and energy has been wasted. Apart from the frustration, it is confusing and exhausting to go over the same texts again and again. As standard, a translator goes over a text 3 times before they deliver it to you: to translate, to check and to proofread. If they have to re-read and think about this text any further, they may struggle to stay focused and are likely to read what they think is written rather than what really is written. This means that, despite their best efforts, the quality may suffer – a stressful thought for us linguists who tend to be pretty meticulous. And of course, you will be charged for the extra hours spent. On top of that, their availability may be limited due to other projects in their schedule. Delays, quality at risk, extra cost, risk of losing the translator mid-project… Is it worth it?

Get it right first time: only send your documents for translation once you are 100% happy with them. At that point, consider them set in stone. This will ensure the project can be completed on time, on budget and to the best possible standards.