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Writing for Machine Translation(MT)Presentation Overview:

• Introduction to Writing for MT

• The Rules

• Summary

Introduction to Writing for MT

• Definition: Writing a document in a style that assists a Machine Translation engine in parsing and accurately translating the document

• Golden Rule: Keep your language clear and concise

• The following rules and examples are based on the Clout™ Rule Set and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style

The Rules

Rule 1. Avoid Mispellings Misspellings!!

• The most basic rule of all!!

• A Machine Translation engine cannot accurately translate misspelled words

• Always proofread your data before running it through a Machine Translation engine

The Rules

Rule 2. Keep Sentences Clear and Concise

• Avoid conjunctions (and, which, but, etc.)

• Avoid using more than one clause

• Keep your sentence word count below 25 words

• Ensure that each sentence is grammatically complete. That means that you must have a capital letter, at least one clause, and an ending punctuation

The Rules

Rule 3. Use a Simple Grammatical Structure• Do not overcomplicate sentences.

Example: Show that you can organise your thoughts by using a simple sentence structure in your texts.

You, in your texts, to show that you can organise your thoughts, should use a simple sentence structure.

The Rules

Rule 4. Use the Active Voice• Use the active voice to cut out vagueness and ambiguity. It is difficult for Machine

Translation engines to translate vague phrases and those with multiple meanings.

Example:“My first time building a KantanMT engine will always be remembered”

It is unclear in the above phrase who will always remember you building your first KantanMT engine - is it you, someone else, or the whole world?

“I will always remember building my first KantanMT engine”

The Rules

Rule 5. Recycle Segments• Write a phrase that you can recycle throughout your documentation. A Machine

Translation engine can recognise and accurately translate repetitive phrases.

Example:You could use the following list within several sections of the same document,“Follow these three steps to build your KantanMT engine: • 1. Gather your training data• 2. Build the KantanMT engine• 3. Translate your clients’ files”

The Rules

Rule 6. Remove Needless Words• Remove words that do not contribute to a sentence’s meaning.

Example 1:KantanMTKantanMT Machine Translation

Example 2:HeHe is a man who

The Rules

Rule 7. Avoid Clichés/Colloquial Phrases• A Machine Translation engine may not convey the correct meaning of clichés/colloquial

phrases and their meaning may not make sense to international users.

Example 1:It is easy to build a KantanMT engineIt is a piece of cake to build a KantanMT engine

Example 2:KantanMT engines can translate documents very fast KantanMT engines can translate documents at the speed of light

The Rules

Rule 8. Use the Definite Article• Specify nouns using “the”.

Example: Train the KantanMT engineTrain KantanMT engine

The Rules

Rule 9. Repeat Nouns instead of Pronouns • This improves the clarity of sentences.

Example:“You must build the KantanMT engine before using the KantanMT engine to translate client files.”

“You must build the KantanMT engine before using it to translate client files.”

Summary

And that’s it!! Pretty easy right? Follow these simple but important rules and you will benefit from:

• Shorter post-editing times• Faster translation outputs• MT friendly documentation• Lower costs• Happier clients!!!

For more info on KantanMT, visit www.KantanMT.com or follow our Blog at machinetranslation.wordpress.com