Turnaround Policy: As an independent individual translator serving a number of different clients, I must allow for the possibility of receiving up to four overlapping assignments from different clients at the same time. This does in fact occur from time to time. Thus, the guidelines here represent maximum turnaround times designed with that contingency in mind. In practice, however, it is frequently possible for me to deliver a translation in a shorter time, particularly in the case of longer assignments.

Scheduled Assignments Versus Base Volume: The difference between base volume and extra volume is important in connection with the per-character translation rate but not delivery times. The difference between Scheduled Assignments and Unscheduled Assignments is important in connection with delivery times but not rates. In other words, when assignments are made in a more regular fashion both in terms of frequency and length, the easier it will be for the client to include a larger share of Total Volume (t ) in Base Volume (b ) and thus to minimize Extra Volume (t-b ), thereby minimizing the per-character translation rate and translation costs. Meanwhile, the greater the share of assignments which are Scheduled Assignments, such as monthly reports, the shorter will be the turnaround and the more the client will be able to benefit from my rate structure.

Estimating Maximum Turnaround: Turnaround times are set forth in the above table. To estimate maximum turnaround time for unscheduled assignments, count the number of Japanese characters in the source document (using the MS Office word count feature, for example) and divide by 1,000. The result is the maximum number of days the translation will require (not including the day of assignment) and therefore the number of days that must be allowed for the translation to be completed.