"Hey, why did you give me a less then perfect rating for all those short translations I just did" - I was recently asked. He was right to be concerned, there is no set rule for rating translations which are:

a) Extremely short translations - when, say, only one or two lines, out of, for example, 10 or more must be translated.
b) Zero-character translations

I answered this person's question, to the best of my ability, and decided to post my ideas regarding such a matter.

The following are the rules that I follow. I don't think they are perfect, but perhaps they're reasonably fair:

1) In short translations, that is translations where only 10% of the lines need translating (i.e. one out of 10 lines), the line(s) must be translated absolutely flawlessly in order to get a rating of 5.

2) In short translations, that is translations where only 10% of the lines need translating (i.e. out of 10 lines), if there is a minor error (one that could usually be overlooked), the translation should get a rating equaling the translator's average rating, cast as an integer (i.e., 4.4=4, 4.5=5).

3) In zero-character translations, the translation should get a rating equaling the translator's average rating, cast as an integer (i.e., 4.4=4, 4.5=5).

These rules, specifically numbers 2 and 3, keep the average rating reasonably stable, thus not hurting (nor unfairly helping) a translator when translating the documents described above. Exceptions to these rules can be applied depending on each individual's performance.

The point is, reaching an increased pay rate or a managerial position by doing a bunch of one-liners is not fair to other people. Such rewards should be based on knowledge, not on being lucky enough to find and reserve the easiest documents to translate.

Anyway, if I at some point decide to give up my managerial position, that's how I would like to be rated.

If anyone has any suggestions, corrections, or comments regarding this matter by all means post them. If the way I do things is in disagreement with the way everybody else does them, that would also be unfair.