What we don’t do

Not all things to all people.

Good work sometimes begins with the decision to turn down an assignment. We do not promise what we cannot reliably deliver, and we do not accept work when a lack of context, an unrealistic deadline, or price as the sole criterion makes careful work on the text impossible.

Not ours

  • Interpreting
  • Fiction and literary translation
  • Private texts, official records, and certificates
  • Certified translations and transcription
  • Translation into target languages other than German and English
  • Assignments whose subject matter we cannot assess reliably

We also work on text fragments only when we have enough insight into the overall project. An individual sentence can be linguistically correct and still be wrong in context.

Price and quality

We base our quotes on the task and the work involved. Assignments awarded solely on the basis of the lowest bid are therefore rarely a good fit.

We compete on the quality and reliability of our work, not on price.

AI and machine translation

No repair jobs.

We do not edit externally generated AI content or raw machine translations. AI-assisted tools can be useful in our own work. In those cases, we make the choices, verify the results, and take responsibility from the outset. Revising someone else’s opaque output after the fact is a different proposition.

No panic projects

Rush assignments are possible. Impossible deadlines remain impossible.

Especially with new clients, there must be enough time to clarify the subject, purpose, and working arrangements.

Design and technology

Support, not production.

We do not offer design, typesetting, or programming as stand-alone services. But we stay with our texts through layout, technical implementation, or publication and step in if linguistic or functional problems arise at that stage.