Tips for translation clients


  1. Provide us with a fixed contact partner for the whole duration of the project so any queries we may have can be quickly answered. We normally bundle questions and send them in a single email to avoid disturbing clients repeatedly.

  1. Send us a list of any “internal terminology” that your company uses so that we can incorporate these into your translation.

  1. Clarify everything that is hard to read before you fax texts to us.

  1. Always resist the temptation to send us unfinished drafts. This always leads to confusion for everyone involved.

  1. Please do not forget to set aside enough time for the translation in your project planning. If it takes a team of three copywriters, managers, accountants etc. five days to compile a text, no translator on earth will be able to produce a quality translation in one day.

  1. Please try to inform us about future projects well in advance. If you know that the German version of your brochure will be finished in two weeks time and you will need an English translation quickly, please let us know as soon as possible. This will help us to plan our resources well in advance so that we can start with the translation immediately, reducing your time to market. However, although we regard ourselves as one of the most flexible teams of translators around, if you call us at 6 p.m. on a Thursday and tell us you have 30 pages of text to be translated by Friday at 9 a.m. this will obviously lead to difficulties. We have experienced many similar situations in the past and have almost always been able to find a solution but bear in mind that it will cost you a lot of money to get 30 pages done overnight. The more time you give us, the cheaper it will be.

  1. Never assume that urgent emails have arrived just because they have left your mailbox. If your translation is urgent please call to inform us that an email is on the way so that we can react accordingly. It is not uncommon for mails to get lost or arrive 5 hours after they were sent.

  1. A translation order has to be confirmed in writing by Barnett Translations for it to be regarded as accepted. For more information, please read our General Terms and Conditions.

  1. When sending an order using our Internet order forms, please fill in all the boxes. This prevents us having to call you to obtain the required information.

  1. When sending translations to us for proofreading, don’t forget to send the original text as well.


Another tip: Please take the time to read the article ‘Translation – Getting it right’ which you can download by clicking on the link in the menu on the left. The article was written by Chris Durban, a fellow translator, and is full of useful information for people responsible for buying translations. We highly recommend it.

Suchmaschinenoptimierung, Programmierung und Usability-Design von Netzor.de