A publication of SH3, Inc.
Spring 2011
Did You Know?
“OK” is one of everybody’s favorite
expressions. Also spelled “okay,” it
is sprinkled liberally throughout our
daily communications and has even
been adopted in many other languages
besides English.
Allan Metcalf has written a book
about the derivation of this term, The
Improbable Story of America’s Greatest
Word. Metcalf describes how the editors
of the Boston Morning Post enjoyed
coming up with clever abbreviations in
the 1830’s, including “o.k. (all correct)”
which appeared in the newspaper in
1839.
Metcalf believes the term has grown in
popularity because of its neutrality. By
saying OK, you are signaling agreement
without approval or criticism. Whatever
it is, it’s not great or terrible, it’s “just
OK.” Metcalf’s book may be purchased
at Amazon.com.
Inside:
Words We’re Sick Of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Free Advice on Writing Clearly . . . . . . 4
A.Word.A.Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Another Translation Faux Pas . . . . . . . 4
Late To Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
I Wish I’d Said That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Doing More for Less
Reducing translation spending while maintaining quality
T
rue story: A few years ago,
the authoring staff of one of our
customers asked what they could
do to reduce translation costs. We
recommended four steps: 1) editing text
to reduce word count; 2) re-purposing text
where possible; 3) simplifying page layout;
4) adopting FrameMaker as their publishing
program.
Following through on all of these
suggestions took some time, but it was
worth the wait. The average cost of
providing print-ready translation of this
company’s manuals went from $75 a page to
$25 a page. Multiply that times hundreds of
pages in eight to ten languages, and it adds
up to real money.
When cost reduction becomes a goal,
the first thought is often to find a cheaper
translator, which is easy to do with the
resources available over the Internet. But
will it be a bargain when operator safety
or customer satisfaction suffers? Instead
of searching for a less expensive translator,
there are many steps you can take to get
more bang for your buck.
(continued on page 2)
Doing More for Less
(continued from page 1)
In this brief article, we’ll share many ways
to reduce translation cost through editing
and simplifying layout. Best of all, cleaning
up your documents will make them more
translation-friendly, which will result in
better translations.
Be brief; brevity has a direct impact
on the price you pay.
The standard method of pricing
translation is to charge by the word – the number of words to be translated is
multiplied by a rate per word for a particular
language. There are several other steps that
are added into the overall price, but word
count is an important factor. Reducing
content lowers cost. Edit, edit, edit.
Store and recycle content.
Think boilerplate. If certain portions of
your documents never vary (for example,
the warranty or the “How to Get Help”
section), translate them once and store the
translation for future recycling. Content
management systems are a high-end
method of doing this; you can realize
the same benefit by “modularizing” your
information.
You are in the
driver’s seat
when it comes to
translation costs.
Learn about translation memory
and how it can save you money.
If your company is working with a
professional translation service, make
sure they are running translation memory
(TM) software. Professional translators
use translation memory to help store
and retrieve translated sentences, which
results in discounted pricing and faster
translation. The more consistent you make
your documents, the more your cost will be
reduced. Technical manuals are a perfect
application because of their repetitive nature.
TM does not run in publishing
programs like InDesign or FrameMaker,
2 – SH3.com
so you should expect to pay a “file prep”
or processing fee that covers the time to
refine text files for translation. In the case
of advertising and marketing pieces, you
will probably not see substantial discounts
because of the creative nature of the
materials. However, the use of TM offers
advantages for all types of documents in
consistency and terminology management.
Keep revisions to a minimum to
avoid ongoing translation expense.
Alterations add time and expense.
Changes made by your in-country reviewers
may also affect the price, especially if
reviewers get “red ink syndrome” and rewrite the entire document. Communicate
the cost of revisions to all those involved,
including in-country reviewers.
Obviously there are cases where you must revise a document, but resist the
impulse to tweak the rest of the text with
stylistic changes when making those
necessary revisions. Stylistic changes can
add up quickly.
Avoid minimum charges by
grouping small projects together
and waiting to submit documents
until they are final.
A minimum charge for each language
is standard practice for professional
translators. Small translation projects (a single paragraph or a few miscellaneous
phrases) require just as much care and
handling as lengthier translations. Waiting
to submit your document until it has been
finalized and combining several small
requests will help you avoid minimum
charges.
Give the translators enough time
to do their job.
You’re in a hurry. By the time a request
for translation comes along, the product
is on the dock ready to ship. But rushing
translators is not a good idea; quality
suffers and costs go up. Rush charges cover
overtime fees – anywhere from 25% to
50% of the total. Whenever possible, plan
ahead and do what you can to work with the
translators’ schedule.
Use the best publishing software
for technical manuals.
During the translation process your
translation company works with your
source files to extract the text, translate it
in a translation-memory environment and
then re-create the original format. Some
publishing programs are more translationfriendly due to automated features and
filters, therefore the resultant costs are
low. Other programs require more manual
intervention and the costs are higher. This
is where your choice of publishing software
can have a real impact on translation cost.
Of the available off-the-shelf publishing
software, FrameMaker is the most
translation-friendly, followed closely by
InDesign. These two programs align with
translation memory software efficiently,
support a range of character sets and
include many automated features. On the
other end of the spectrum are programs
like PageMaker, Quark and Word for
Windows that require manual intervention
so the costs are higher. When manuals
run anywhere from 50 to 500 pages, the
difference can be dramatic – from a few
hundred to a few thousand dollars more
or less. Some customers have switched
publishing programs after analyzing
formatting costs.
Authoring in XML is another possibility.
An appropriately structured XML file
contains only tagged text. File prep is greatly
reduced and there are no formatting costs
because composition is done as an automatic
process on the customer’s end. Of course,
there is a significant investment of time and
expense in adopting XML publishing and
that should be considered before making
the leap.
Simplify layout, plan for
expansion and follow good
typesetting practice.
Another cost driver in many translation
projects is the complexity of the layout. The
more intricate the original layout, the more
time is required to duplicate it in a second
language. A few points about layout:
•Plan for text expansion. Translation into
many European languages results in 25%
to 50% more words. Leave white space
and use a large font size.
•Simple layouts with standard font
choices are best. Special text effects,
narrow columns and unique fonts make
formatting translated text more timeconsuming. Simplify and save money.
•Use styles or master pages wherever
possible.
•Place text in the publishing program, not
on images created in another program
and imported into the document. Or
leave text off of illustrations and place
explanatory text in a legend below the
illustration.
•Include metric measurements throughout
your document, in the order you want
them to appear in the translated manual.
You can have a major impact
on translation cost.
Some companies have turned to low-cost
translators as a way of stretching the budget.
Amateurish translation is usually the result
when price is the only factor. A better
alternative is to evaluate translation needs,
and simplify what you translate.
Following the tips in this article can
make a difference in the cost of your
translations. Reducing the number of words
to be translated, maximizing the impact of
translation memory and simplifying layouts
will reduce translation spending and stretch
your budget.
In the end, translators can only translate
what they are provided; they cannot
shorten or re-vamp the text, or revise a
complex layout. When it comes to the cost
of translating, you are very much in the
driver’s seat. n
•Place as much of the text in one text flow
as possible; it is time-consuming to work
with dozens of small chunks of text.
SH3.com – 3
Short Subjects
Overused and
abused; words
we’re sick of
Clearly we are annoyed by many of
the buzzwords that are creeping into
our daily life. In the last issue of the
TransLetter, we featured results from
an Accountemps survey of the most
annoying business buzzwords. That list
included “leverage” and “it is what it
is.” Here are the results of two recent
polls on the same topic:
• Marist College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
asked 1020 adults to submit the
most annoying word or phrase.
“Whatever” was the clear winner,
with 39% of the respondents
naming it first on the list.
• In second place was “like,” where
it’s used in conversation (“I was, like,
whatever...”).
• Lake Superior State University (Sault
Ste. Marie, Michigan), issued its
36th annual “List of Words Banished
from the Queen’s English for Misuse,
Over-use and General Uselessness.”
The clear winner was “viral,” as in
“the news went viral.” One writer
fumed, “This linguistic disease of a
term must be quarantined.” Viral
was also on the Accountemps list of
annoying buzzwords.
• Lake Superior State’s list also
included these terms which infuriate
many: “Wow factor,” “A-ha
moment,” “BFF” and “Man up.”
Free Advice on Writing Clearly
The European Union publishes thousands of documents annually. With many of
those documents being translated into the official languages of its 27 member countries,
wordiness and bureaucratese became a real problem. In response, the EU published “How to write clearly,” a guide for authors. This white paper is available online at http://ec.europa.eu. Search for the publication by name and download a free copy.
A.Word.A.Day Reaches One Million Subscribers
Congratulations to Anu Garg of Wordsmith.org who announced the one-millionth
subscriber to his daily missive, A.Word.A.Day. Anu started his word-of-the-day e-mails
in 1994 as a grad student. He has persevered with enthusiasm and wit through 17 years,
deciphering more than 4,000 words in 2.2 billion e-mails. The longest word featured was 45
letters, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The shortest word – 2 letters, aa. Another Translation Faux Pas
A regional business publication recently learned a hard lesson about online translation
sites. The February 2011 issue of Utah Business featured an article by Adam Wooten,
vice president of the Globalization Group and a well-known member of the localization
community. Adam’s article, “Lost in Translation: Preserving Brand Strength in Foreign
Markets,” discussed the importance of quality translation and specifically warned against
machine translations as a substitute for professional translation.
When the article was published, Wooten noticed that the magazine had added a colorful graphic with some Chinese characters. The Chinese rendering was supposed to say
“Lost in translation” but actually said “Lost Tokyo.” It turns out that the magazine had used
a free translation website to obtain the Chinese. Apparently they had not read Mr. Wooten’s article.
Late to Work? Better Come Up with a Good Excuse
Careerbuilder.com conducts some interesting research on everyday work situations. The
latest poll asked employers what excuses employees use for being late. Some of the more bizarre:
•“My cat attacked me.”
•“I didn’t get any sleep because my boyfriend’s wife threw me out of the house.”
•“My karma is not in sync today.
•“I knew I was going to be late, so I figured I’d go ahead and stop to get donuts for
everyone.”
In the real world, bosses might not have a great sense of humor when it comes to being late.
The poll showed that 32% of employers had fired an employee for tardiness.
I Wish I’d Said That…
e-mail: [email protected]
Editor: Jackie Smith
©copyright SH3, Inc., 2011
www.sh3.com
4 – SH3.com
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel laureate (b. 1918)
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between
lightning and the lightning bug.” – Mark Twain, American author and humorist (1835-1910)