Marie-Pierre Lessard

PAIRS: English to standard French or Canadian French
DIALECT: Canadian French (native)
EXPERIENCE: 12 years as a freelancer
OUTPUT: 2000 source words/day (technical translation); 2500 source words/day (general translation)

EDUCATION

1993-1997 Honours B.A. (Translation), University of Ottawa, Canada
• Disciplines: general & technical translation, administrative & technical writing, translation theory, terminology, linguistics.
• Specialties: computers, ecology, airport systems, economics, politics, Canadian history, psychology.

1991-1993 DEC (Arts and Literature), Cégep Beauce-Appalaches, Canada
• Disciplines: philosophy, French and French Canadian literature, art history, psychology.

LOCALIZATION EXPERIENCE

• Web pages - with Word, Excel, TagEditor.
• Help files in RTF format - with Word, TWB.
• Software strings - with Word, Excel, TWB.

FREELANCE EXPERIENCE

Since 1997 Sumatexte

Functions: to provide general and technical translations under minimal supervision, and to work within a team on larger projects.
Fields: business & administration, human resources, marketing; directions for use, user manuals, warranties, catalogs, product literature; construction, engineering, tools and machinery; chemistry, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs); and many other fields of industrial and commercial activity (hotel and car rental industry, manufacturing, home entertainment, computer supplies, cosmetics, consumer goods, law, finance, etc.).
Production: 20,000 words/month for several years.

Since 2000 Albany TransComm International

Functions: to produce ready-to-publish technical translations.
Fields: directions for use, MSDSs, chemistry, maintenance, engineering.
Examples: in the summer of 2000, I translated an Access database of over 20,000 words in 2 weeks (MSDSs), and a glossary of chemical names.

Since 2002 SDL International

Functions: to translate in the fields of marketing, information technology (IT) and legal documents.
Examples: user manuals (software, electronics); large projects (+/- 10,000 words); revision of a TM database, and proofreading of a PDF file.

Since 2001 A number of contract providers

OSH: occupational safety and health catalog (40,000 words) - gloves, eyewear, storage, spill control, confined spaces.
Business: HR (work descriptions, management policies); travel reservations; e-stores; online help.
Technology: HVAC systems (heating, ventilating and air conditioning); office electronics; audio/video systems; software strings; automobile tools and accessories.
Other: multiple projects within the broad fields already mentioned.

REFERENCES

Contact information and additional references are available on request.

1. Harold W. Vadney
Albany TransComm International

"We have pleasure in commending the performances of Ms Lessard, who for the past two years¹ has collaborated with Albany TransComm International as lead-translator in the French language on sensitive projects for our mature multinational accounts in the specialty fields of chemistry and industrial products, regulatory affairs, health and safety, biomedicine. Ms Lessard's performance is exemplary in terms of her extraordinary attention to detail, her quality-awareness, her research skills and her overall professionalism. She has proved herself to be one of our most valuable assets in terms of language skills and project administration. On the basis of our past and ongoing relationship, we feel she merits our recommendation without reservation.

Should you have any further questions regarding Ms Lessard's performance,
please do not hesitate to contact us."

2. Suzanne Courtemanche
Sumatexte

"Marie-Pierre has been working with us for a number of years now and I am always impressed with the quality of her work. She knows how to use the resources on hand and on the Internet. She also respects deadlines, a very important point in translation. I would recommend her to anyone."

3. Daryl Wong
Transnet System

"Excellent performance, good response, meets our deadlines."

4. Albane Margerand
Senior Project Manager (2001-2003)
SDL International, UK

"Marie-Pierre has been our lead Canadian French translator for the last 2 years² for the translation of technical/electronic instructions manuals with very tight turnaround times. She has always worked very diligently, is very accurate, asks questions when necessary and always respects deadlines, going the extra mile in reviewing documents as well. Marie-Pierre is a highly valuable translator that I recommend for her thoroughness and professionalism."

5. Robin Hardy-King
Clarity Translations

"Clarity Translations has made a speciality of the translation of MSDS and Marie-Pierre Lessard has translated some 25 MSDS from English into French for us in the last 6-8 months³ for customers in the US and UK.

In the course of our collaboration, she showed an excellent understanding of and documentation on the requirements of MSDS within the EU, in particular on the use of standard phrases.

On a personal level she has shown herself to be conscientious and cooperative. Her work is always well-presented and free from errors."

¹ Two years in 2002.
² Two years in 2003.
³ One year in 2004.

• Idiom WorldServer
• PowerPoint
• SDLX Translation Suite
• STAR Transit
• TRADOS
• Wordfast
• Others
  
  MS Office 2000: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher.
  
  CAT Tools
  
  SDLX Translation Suite 2003 Service Pack 1.
  TRADOS Freelance Edition 6.5 and 7.1: TWB, TagEditor, T-Windows.
  Wordfast Pro, Idiom Workbench.
  Transit 3.0 Satellite PE.
  
  Utilities
  
  Termium 96, dtSearch 7, LogiTerm 3 Professional, OCR software, and Acrobat Reader 9, which has commenting capability for editing.