Date: March 22, 2015
Client: Cai Jing Magazine
Project #: 20150322caijing
Requested by: Professor Adam Wooten From: Emily, Isabel, Isabella
Project Specification
This project is designed and developed by LanguageCapital as per request from Cai Jing, a Chinese (Mandarin) financial magazine facing popular readers, to translate three short articles on microfinance and microinsurance from English (US) into Chinese (PRC). Emily, Isabel, and Isabella, all native Chinese (Mandarin) speakers, will each be responsible for translating one article and editing each other’s translation to ensure accuracy, verity, and fluency. SDL Trados will be used throughout the project, including file preparation, TEP process, and finalization.
Timeline
The project is divided into five phases: Plan, Setup, Production, Finalize, and Delivery. Detailed schedule for each phase is outlined as follows:
|
Task |
Schedule |
|
Plan |
Mar.20 – Mar.23 |
|
Setup |
Mar.24 – Mar.25 |
|
Production |
Mar.26 – Apr.1 |
|
Finalize |
Apr.2 – Apr. 3 |
|
Delivery |
Apr.6 |
More specific descriptions of each phase will be discussed in later sections of this SOW.
Cost
The cost listed below is based on the Trados assessment performed before the production phase. TEP is charged by the word count, while the other services are charged by the hour. As for project management, a minimum hourly charge is applied here.
|
Charge Item |
Quantity Unit |
Unit Rate |
Amount |
|
File Prep |
0.5 Hour(s) |
$50 |
$25.00 |
|
TEP (100% & ICE) |
81 Word(s) |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
|
TEP (Fuzzy) |
131 Word(s) |
$0.11 |
$14.41 |
|
TEP (New) |
488 Word(s) |
$0.22 |
$107.36 |
|
Mechanical QA |
0.5 Hour(s) |
$50 |
$25.00 |
|
Project Management |
1 Hour(s) |
$50 |
$50.00 |
|
Total: |
$221.77 |
||
Resource
·Manpower
This project requires a project manager, who is in charge of overseeing the effective execution of the project, facilitating the communications between translators and keeping the overall project on track. Due to the intense timeline and the complexity of the project, three translators will be needed for the successful completion of this project, each responsible for around 200 words. The three translators will also edit each other’s work to ensure that the translation is correct, consistent and coherent. At last, the project manager will act as the final proofreader to make final adjustments and polish the work.
·Cost
The project manager will be paid on an hourly basis, the work of whom includes project setup, file preparation, project coordination, quality assurance and delivery; fees to the translators will be calculated according to word count; editors and proofreaders will also be paid hourly. Thus the probable cost for the overall completion of the project would be $221.77 as specified above.
·Time
The overall amount of time, including project plan, setup, file preparation, translation, editing, proofreading and finalization is estimated to span 17 days.
·Tools
The major tool that will be used in this project is SDL Trados, in which the project setup, translation memory and term base creation, filter customization and pseudo translation, translation and quality assurance will be complete. Other supplementary tools to be used include SDL MultiTerm, Excel, Word, Google doc and Gmail. Among these, Word will be used in the initial extraction and format adjustment of source texts. Excel and SDL MultiTerm will be used for preparing terminologies and setting up term base. Google doc will be used for project members to share and edit files. Gmail is used for the project manager and translators to send translation package to each other during the TEP phase.
Preparation Phase
Before translation, an analysis will be conducted to understand the workload and scope of the project. First of all, a quick check of the three files is needed to have a general understanding of the translatable texts (for example, the comments client made, the footnotes, track changes, etc.). Then the second step is assessing the articles with the help of Trados. File type settings can also
be adjusted to create appropriate filters for the project. This step is to make sure that all translatable segments that need to be included are ready to be translated and the unnecessary parts are excluded.
Translation Memory from previous projects will be used in order to maintain consistency and speed up the progress. No term base was created in previous projects, so a term base will be created before translation. This gives translators a guidance when facing fixed phrases or terms. Then, the “Analyze Only” option will be used to provide a clearer picture of the matches in this project. With the help of cross-file repetition check, better idea of the workload and a better plan of the production can be achieved. When all these are done, production phase is ready to begin.
Production Phase
Once all the files are prepared, and project TM & TB has been set up, the project will enter the production phase. In SDL Trados, the Project Manager will first create a project that includes three short articles, a TM which was previously created for the client, and an empty TB, and then send the files in packages to translators respectively.
·Translation
Translators will open the package and find the file they are assigned to translate, and files are opened in the Editor window for translating. The files are automatically segmented, and translators can type their translations in the target language segments, confirm the segment and move on. When translation is done, translators may create packages and send them for review.
·Editing
Reviewers will open the packages for review, and the files are automatically opened in the Editor view. Reviewers will use Track Changes feature to make suggestions to the translation.
This will allow translators to compare suggestions to the original text later. Reviewers can also add comments to further explain the problem and choose severity levels to indicate the nature of the problem. After having reviewed the whole file and marked each segment as either approved or rejected, reviewers will send updated packages back to translators.
·Proofreading
As translators have made all the necessary changes and generated the translated documents, they can then send the files to the proofreader. The proofreader will perform the final review and then send the files back to the project manager in a return package.
·Mechanical QA
After files are exported from Trados, they will go through another step of mechanical QA before delivery. This step helps to check the layout and format of the translated Chinese file and make sure that it is consistent with the source English file. The issues to be checked in mechanical QA include:
- Punctuations
- Layout and format
- Translatable and untranslatable texts
- Term Usage
Finalization Phase
After all the files have been translated and reviewed, the next step is to finalize the project. The basic steps include updating translation memories, generating translated files and sending the deliverables to the client by the agreed deadline. The first two steps can be done with the help of Trados.
·Update Main Translation Memories
After collecting all the reviewed translations, the project manager can open the project in Trados and select Batch Tasks in the Projects view and then choose Finalize to move on to the finalization stage. In the Batch Processing wizard, when proceeding to the Settings page, the project manager can customize Translation Memory updates such as how Trados is expected to deal with new translation units that have the same source segments as existing translation units in the “If target segments differ” section, and which kind of segments should be added to the translation memory in “Segment status” section. Clicking Finish will update the main translation memory.
·Generate Target Translated Files
Translated files are generated automatically in the finalization stage. The target files can be found in the target language subfolder of the project and are saved with their original filenames.
·Deliver Translations Package to the Client
When the translated files have been saved in their original file format, the project is almost completed and ready for delivery. The project manager can clean up the files and folders and make sure that everything is renamed in an appropriate manner. A project package including all the deliverables should be prepared and send to the client as required.
Deliverables
·Source Files
·Target Files
·Updated Term Base ·Updated Translation Memories
·Style Guide
·Pseudo translated Files
Emily Du @ MIIS 