In our last post, How to Write for MT, we showed you how you can improve your Machine Translation output by keeping to a few simple rules when writing content for Machine Translation.
Companies often present these rules to their writers within style guides. A style guide is a set of rules/standards that a company’s writers adhere to when writing and designing documents. Style guides are essential for companies who have a team of writers producing their documentation.
When writing for Machine Translation, a clear and concise style guide can help to cut translation and post-editing times, and perhaps most importantly – cost. In this blog, we are going to look at the benefits of using style guides, and how style guides can be useful when writing for Machine Translation.
Consistent formatting…
Companies can use a style guide to make sure that their documentation is formatted consistently. A style guide can tell writers how to format every feature of a document including the title page, table of contents, typeface, paragraphs, graphics etc. This means that writers just have to worry about the quality of their content. Good quality content, as we have discussed in earlier posts, produces better Machine Translation outputs.
Recycling content…
A style guide is very useful for generating content that can be recycled throughout a company’s documentation. If there is a topic that writers must cover repeatedly, a company style guide can tell writers exactly how to write and structure this topic. Writers can then copy and paste this content into the relevant document segments.
Follow these three steps to build your KantanMT engine:
1. Gather your training data
2. Build the KantanMT engine
3. Translate your clients’ files
Check out our last blog, How to Write for MT, we used the same quote there too. Not only does recycling content save time for your writers, but a Machine Translation engine can accurately translate this content because it may process it hundreds of times.
Post-editing…
A style guide can save a great deal of time when editing documents post-translation. For example, if there is an error within a segment that a company’s writers have recycled throughout a document, a post-editor can quickly correct the issue using KantanMT’s Post-Editing Automation (PEX) technology. Because the segment has been recycled, the post-editor knows that he/she does not have to manually check each individual use of the segment within the Machine Translation output for errors.
Cost savings…
All of the benefits contribute to this final one – and that’s saving money! An effective style guide that writers adhere to can save hours of labour for both writers and post-editors. This means that high quality Machine Translations are ready for publication at a faster and more affordable rate.
So what’s our advice?
Well, if you don’t have a style guide in place – get one in place. Machine Translation is a process and the quality of one step affects the quality of the next. Consistent and well-structured data will produce consistently accurate Machine Translations.
To find out more about Machine Translation and how well written documents can improve your Machine Translation outputs, go to KantanMT.com and sign up to our 14 day free trial!