Kelly Harrison

About Me

My name is Kelly Harrison and I'm a qualified freelance Spanish > English translator, proofreader, editor and hispanophile.

I'm native to the UK but also lived in Ithaca, New York, for three years.

I have always been fascinated by language and still have the well-thumbed and dog-eared copy of Wicked Words by Terry Deary, my favourite book as a child and probably what kick-started my love of all things linguistic.

An avid traveller, I have journeyed extensively throughout Spain. I have hopped between the Canary Islands; road-tripped across Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia; and walked the Camino de Santiago, hiking over 500 miles across northern Spain from St Jean Pied-de-Port in the Pyrenees to Finisterre, Galicia: one of the best experiences of my life. I also spent a year living in Pamplona, Navarre, teaching English.

I am a keen pianist and really like gerbils.

Translation
Proofreading & Editing
Localisation

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Spanish > English Translation

I mostly translate from Spanish into UK English, my native tongue; however, I also regularly translate into US English.

Main working fields

These are my main areas of specialisation, though this list is by no means exhaustive.

Legal

Court and police documentation, laws and legislation, affidavits and witness statements, certificates and apostilles, wills and final testaments, power of attorney documentation, tenancy agreements, contracts, land registry extracts.

Medical

Discharge summaries, clinical analyses, patient information leaflets, autopsy reports.

General

Academic transcripts, degree certificates, webpages, articles, AGM minutes, open letters, press releases.

Proofreading & Editing

Correct spelling, grammar and punctuation are very important to me and I find the correction process to be extremely satisfying! I pride myself on being able to spot typos, misused heterographs and incorrect punctuation on the first pass.

I proofread both texts written in English and those translated from Spanish to English. In the latter instance, I can also check the translated text against the original Spanish to ensure that the English is accurate and fluent.

Localisation

Localisation involves adapting the language of a text to meet the needs and expectations of a particular readership. I localise texts written in US English to UK English, my native tongue.

Please contact me for a quote.

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Qualifications
Projects
Testimonials

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Qualifications

IoLET Diploma in Translation (Spanish-English)
Chartered Institute of Linguists | 2011

Considered the gold standard for translation qualifications, I was awarded the DipTrans in early 2011, achieving a distinction in Unit 03.

PG Cert Principles and Practice of Translation (Spanish-English)
City University, London | 2011

I attained a distinction in this theoretical and practical translation course.

MA (Hons) Spanish with Linguistics (With Integrated Year Abroad)
University of St Andrews | 2009

I graduated with a First Class degree and spent my year abroad teaching English in Pamplona, Spain. My honours dissertation was entitled "The Onomastics of Navarre".

Projects

While many of the jobs I undertake are one-off tasks or short-term enterprises, I also work in ongoing collaboration with numerous clients.

Below is a selection of the projects with which I have been involved since I started freelancing:

Translation of various legal and immigration documents for a US non-profit organisation.
Localisation of science and maths courses for primary-aged students from US to UK English for a major US education company.
Translation of Venezuelan author Israel Centeno's column Night Watch for online magazine Sampsonia Way.
Revision and editing of author Marc Torra's book The Art of Finding Ourselves.

Testimonials

Kelly has worked as a translator for my organization for several years. Her translations are always of the highest quality. We send her our most difficult documents for translation, including complex legal documents, because she is one of the very best translators we have ever worked with. She is timely, reliable, and consistently produces excellent work. She is a delight to work with, and I am truly grateful to have found such a skilled, reliable translator whom I can always count on.

American Gateways

Kelly worked with us and a major client for the last year, most of which time she was the only person on the project. The client loved working with her and had nothing but good things to say about her work. We would definitely recommend Kelly for any educational localisation work into UK English!

Wordbank Ltd

High quality in the translation. Very responsive and proactive volunteer. Great communication. A pleasure to have collaborated with Kelly Harrison!

UNV Regional Office, Panama

[Kelly] has done an excellent job within the agreed timeframe. She has demonstrated professionalism, flexibility and good communicate skills. I would definitely be willing to collaborate with her again.

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Five stars. Kelly did an awesome job. I gave her a text to revise. Half of it had already been revised by somebody else. I asked her if she could revise the second half. She revised the whole text, finding many mistakes on the first half that went unnoticed by the other editor, by the translators that wrote it and by myself. It was indeed an excellent job and I hope she can offer me her assistance again in the future.

Marc Torra, Writer

Great job translating complex, philosophical texts. Punctual and communicative!

Sampsonia Way

Kelly did the proofreading (English) of a report on the impact of volunteerism in preventing violence and promoting peace in the Caribbean (150+ pages). The service provided was excellent. Very professional and of high quality. Met all deadlines and was highly respondent to emails.

UNV Regional Office, Panama