Frequently Asked Questions

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You will find below answers to the questions we are most frequently asked. Please do not hesitate to contact us directly for further explanations.

You can send us your document in complete confidentiality by email to info@expressum.eu with the document as an attachment.

If the document is in Word® format, in recent versions of Word® you will notice the number of words in the status bar at the bottom of the page. In earlier versions, the word count function is in “Statistics” in the “Tools” menu. If your document is in another format (pdf, html, php, asp, etc.) you can just upload it on our website or attach it to an email and send it to us and we will get back to you with a quote.

The document’s layout and formatted style will remain unchanged. We know how every scientific journal has its own guidelines and how long it takes to format an article to meet these guidelines. Except in the case of website translations, we work on the original document, transcribing the text directly without changing the layout.

We work mainly on specialised documents where arguments are structured in a precise, dense and complex fashion. Our translations often include a few specific questions to avoid misinterpretations. The translator will need the author’s feedback on these questions to go forward especially if these are recurrent points found throughout different chapters of a book.

It is also reasonable for the author to raise certain points or comment on the translation. A translation of a scholarly work is an opportunity to collaborate on an intellectual level with your translator, especially in the context of long scientific articles or books.

Long texts (50.000+ words) such as books, conference proceedings, scientific journals, festschrifts, etc., are usually translated and delivered in segments and invoiced individually. However, the quote for the entire work will not change. These segments, or steps, generate a more thoughtful and flexible collaboration between the author and the translator.

It is important to note that once a book has been entirely translated, we will re-read and eventually edit for no extra charge the entire work to harmonize the text, ensuring the same expressions and turn of phrases are found throughout the text.

Copy-editing consists in checking the spelling, punctuation and grammar as well as correcting stylistic errors and ensuring consistency, clarity and accuracy in a text. We may also sometimes request the original document if it was translated from another language to check inconsistencies. We do not offer substantive editing (complete rewriting of the paper), or proofreading (examination of the final draft of a document after it has been edited to ensure there are absolutely no errors).

External links on the subject: thewriteoneblog.com and The Expert Editor.

We only translate French to English and English to French. Our translators only translate into their mother tongue.

Translation prices can vary significantly. Urgent needs will increase the price whereas large volumes of text or recurrent translation needs will fetch lower prices.

We apply a minimum fee for small jobs to cover the costs of managing the project. Conversely, we will apply a significant discount on a larger volume of text, and the price per word will reflect this volume.

In the case of recurrent needs and in the hope of creating partnerships (such as scientific journals published annually), preferential rates may be negotiated.

The time-factor is linked to the length of the document and our availability. The average delivery time is based on a rate of 2500 translated words/day (roughly 10 to 12 pages for 8 hours of work). Obviously, if you have an urgent need for the translation, we may be able to offer you a faster solution.

When you request the translation of a conference paper, please let us know whether you would also need an audio recording of the translated text. In French, the accent is academic French. In English the accent is that of an academic British speaker with a clear pronunciation. The audio recording format is the common .mp3 format which you can listen to on any audio digital device (ipod, mp3 player, etc.) or simply your computer.

You retain all intellectual rights to the translated text as the author of the original text.

Expressum means in Latin : to mold or form one thing in imitation of another ; hence to copy, express, represent; especially to express in words, describe, to articulate, to translate.

Here are a few examples of machine translations of scientific texts that were submitted to us for proofreading (Google translate, Linguee, Deepl, etc.).
Example 1 : “Young Athenians used to dance arm in arm as a training for war.” 
(Original: les jeunes Athéniens pratiquaient une danse en armes comme entraînement pour la guerre)
“arm in arm” would be “bras dessus, bras dessous” in French. But it is actually a war dance (the Pyrrhic): the “dancers” simulated a fight between hoplites and carried weighty military equipment. This is a far cry from the three-beat waltz.
Example 2 : “The Colorado beetle or spear carrier is a perfect example of weighting…”
(Original : Le Doryphore de Polyclète ou porteur de lance est un exemple parfait de pondération)
 
Once again, a serious mistranslation by the machine translation: it is not an insect but Polykleitos’ Doryphoros. Furthermore, the usual translation of the Doryphoros into English is “spear-bearer” and not “carrier”. Finally, “weighting” is a misnomer in this context because it is not a question of the distribution of the mass of a body but a metaphor. The correct text therefore reads: “The Doryphoros of Polykleitos or spear-bearer is a perfect example of balance.”
Example 3 : “The therapists, despite their name, were not physicians but servants of a god…” 
(Original : Les thérapeutes, malgré leurs nom, n’étaient pas des médecins mais des serviteurs d’un dieu)
This is a serious misunderstanding because “therapist” in English means a psychotherapist. The reference here was to the “Therapeutae”, a religious sect described by Philo of Alexandria in his work on contemplative life.