Writing for translation
Using Mloovi is a great way to read and understand the world’s blogging output. Mloovi is also a great tool to offer on your blogsite, to get your message out to a much wider audience.
Currently we are employing a so-called ‘machine’ translation. That is, the translation spurted out of the end of Mloovi has been performed automatically by a computer. The upside is that the translation is free, and quick to achieve. The downside (sometimes) is that the translated text may be difficult to read.
At a future point we aim to offer higher-quality human translations to premium registered users but, until that day, there are some things you can do to achieve a better translation.
The concept is simple: by using something called ‘controlled language’ we can drastically reduce mistranslations and awkward sentence results.
What do we mean by ‘controlled language’? Simply that the author should treat text as if it were a precision instrument, and not a stream of thought. Good technical authors already employ these methods: they standardise, simplify, correct and reduce their text.
Clearly, every language will require a unique set of rules, if we were to consider a complete solution. However, there is a core set of guidelines that apply to most world languages…
- Ensure that your spelling is correct.
- Use plain language. For example…
Good: drive the car
Bad: facilitate the locomotion of the motor vehicle - Use short sentences, of around 25 words or less.
- Keep to one idea per sentence. For example…
Good: Writing clearly and plainly will make machine translation more reliable. A reliable translation will be more easily understood.
Bad: Clear and plain writing makes machine translation more reliable, and therefore it will be more easily understood. - Use proper, complete sentences when you write. For example…
Good: Would you like cream in the coffee?
Bad: Cream? - Use consistent language when expressing the same ideas. For example…
Good: I travel to work by car when it rains.
I travel to work by bicycle when it is sunny.
Bad: I travel to work by car when it rains.
When the sun shines, I cycle to work. - Repeat a noun rather than use a pronoun. For example…
Good: Put a stamp on the letter before posting the letter.
Bad: Put a stamp on the letter before posting it. - Use active rather than passive sentence forms. For example…
Good: My father will post a Christmas card to you.
Bad: A Christmas card will be posted to you. - Use articles to identify nouns. For example…
Good: Drive the car.
Bad: Drive car. - Do not use Yoda-speak! Construct your sentences in a logical, progressive manner. For example…
Good: Use a vacuum cleaner to collect dust from your carpet to make it clean.
Bad: By the use of a vacuum clearner, to make a carpet clean, collect dust from it. (Hmmmm. Carpet clean, you will…)
Please remember that these are only guidelines: this kind of rigour does not suit some styles of writing. In fact, if I were to apply these rules to this blog I would have to tear down much that has been written. In doing so, I would lose the conversational tone of the blog – and that’s a price too expensive to pay!
So, controlled language works particularly well for technical documents, news items and pithy, factual pieces. It won’t work well if applied to stories or poetry, or ranting commentary! However, by bearing these recommendations in mind, you can be selective and still achieve a better translation.
For more information on the notions of controlled language, and CLOUT in particular, visit here.
Next time I’ll discuss the difference between ‘controlled language’ and ‘controlled authorship’.
In addition to the rules that you have supplied, I suggest two more rules:
* Use a word with its primary meaning. For example, do not use ‘around’ to mean ‘approximately’.
* Do not use idioms. For examples, do not use ‘out of the blue’ to mean ‘unexpectedly’.
The best guidelines that I have seen for writing clear source text are in ‘The Global English style guide: writing clear, translatable documentation for a global market’ by John R Kohl, 2008 (ISBN 978-1-59994-657-3). For a review of the book, see http://www.techscribe.co.uk/ta/global-english-style-guide.htm. (Although the book’s title contains the word ‘documentation’, the guidelines apply to most business texts.)
Hi Mike, thanks for the information – very helpful!