Academic translation, post-editing, and Chinglish correction guide
SKILL.md
Academic Translation Guide
Translate and polish research manuscripts between languages with a focus on academic register, domain-specific terminology, and common pitfalls for Chinese-English academic writing.
Machine Translation for Academic Texts
Recommended MT Engines for Academic Use
Engine
Strengths
Weaknesses
Best For
DeepL
Excellent European languages, natural output
Limited Asian language pairs
EU language papers
Google Translate
Broadest language coverage
Less polished academic register
Quick drafts, rare languages
ChatGPT / Claude
Context-aware, follows style instructions
May hallucinate terminology
Post-editing, term-aware translation
Tencent TranSmart
Strong Chinese-English technical
Limited other languages
CN-EN STEM papers
Baidu Translate
Strong Chinese-English
Less natural English
CN-EN drafts
MT Post-Editing Workflow
Pre-process: Clean the source text. Remove figure captions, table contents, and equations (translate these separately).
Translate: Run through your preferred MT engine.
Light post-editing (PE): Fix factual errors, terminology, and grammar without rewriting.
Full post-editing: Rewrite for fluency, cohesion, and academic register.
Domain review: Have a subject-matter expert verify technical terminology.
# Example: Light post-editing checklist
- [ ] Technical terms are correct and consistent
- [ ] Numbers, units, and chemical formulas are accurate
- [ ] Negation is preserved (a common MT error)
- [ ] Subject-verb agreement is correct
- [ ] Hedging language is appropriate ("may" vs "will")
- [ ] Citations and references are intact
Installs
0
Common Chinglish Patterns and Corrections
Word-Level Issues
Chinglish
Correction
Explanation
"in recent years" (overuse)
"recently" / omit
Direct translation of "近年来", used excessively
"play an important role"
varies by context
Direct translation of "起着重要作用", often vague
"more and more"
"increasingly"
Direct translation of "越来越"
"discuss about"
"discuss"
"discuss" is transitive in English
"research on" (as verb)
"investigate" / "study"
"Research" used more as noun in English
"the experiment result shows"
"the experimental results show"
Adjective form + plural
"according to" (overuse)
"based on" / rephrase
Direct translation of "根据"
Sentence-Level Issues
Problem: Topic-comment structure (Chinese) vs. Subject-verb-object (English)
Chinglish: "This method, its advantage is that it can process large datasets."
Correct: "The advantage of this method is its ability to process large datasets."
Problem: Missing articles (a, an, the)
Chinglish: "We propose method to solve problem."
Correct: "We propose a method to solve the problem."
Problem: Redundant phrasing
Chinglish: "In this paper, we propose a novel new method..."
Correct: "We propose a novel method..." (or "a new method")
Chinglish: "The purpose of this study is to study..."
Correct: "This study investigates..."
Problem: Overuse of passive voice
Chinglish: "It was found by us that the results were improved by the new method."
Correct: "We found that the new method improved the results."
Academic Register Conventions
Formal vs. Informal
Informal
Formal Academic
"a lot of"
"numerous" / "substantial"
"get"
"obtain" / "achieve"
"big"
"significant" / "substantial"
"show"
"demonstrate" / "indicate"
"think"
"hypothesize" / "propose"
"look at"
"examine" / "investigate"
"pretty good"
"satisfactory" / "promising"
"kind of"
"somewhat" / "to some extent"
Hedging Language
Academic writing requires appropriate hedging to avoid overclaiming:
Too strong: "This proves that X causes Y."
Hedged: "These results suggest that X may contribute to Y."
Too strong: "It is certain that..."
Hedged: "It appears likely that..." / "The evidence indicates..."
Too strong: "All researchers agree..."
Hedged: "There is broad consensus that..." / "Most studies suggest..."
Translation of Domain-Specific Terms
Building a Terminology Glossary
For each paper, maintain a bilingual glossary to ensure consistency:
| Chinese Term | English Term | Domain | Notes |
|-------------|-------------|--------|-------|
| 深度学习 | deep learning | CS/AI | not "depth learning" |
| 损失函数 | loss function | ML | not "lost function" |
| 显著性 | significance | Stats | statistical significance |
| 显著性 | saliency | CV | visual saliency (different!) |
| 鲁棒性 | robustness | General | not "robust nature" |
| 过拟合 | overfitting | ML | not "over-fitting" (no hyphen) |
| 特征提取 | feature extraction | ML/CV | |
| 基准测试 | benchmark | CS | not "base test" |
Using LLMs for Terminology-Aware Translation
prompt = """Translate the following Chinese academic abstract to English.
Requirements:
1. Use formal academic register
2. Maintain these specific translations:
- 注意力机制 -> attention mechanism
- 自监督学习 -> self-supervised learning
- 下游任务 -> downstream task
3. Do not add information not present in the original
4. Preserve all citation markers like [1], [2]
Chinese text:
{source_text}
"""
Quality Assurance Checklist
After translating and editing, verify:
All technical terms are correct and consistent throughout
Article usage (a/an/the) is correct
Subject-verb agreement is correct
Tense usage follows disciplinary conventions
Hedging language is appropriate
No Chinglish patterns remain
Numbers, units, and equations are accurate
References and citation markers are intact
Abstract length meets journal requirements
Register is consistently formal
No direct translations of Chinese idioms or four-character phrases
