Machine Translation Post-Editing Best Practices

Category: Translation          Written by: Daqeeq          Date: 10 Mar 2022

Daqeeq says….

Machine Translation Post-Editing Best Practices

Machine Translation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it promises faster and cheaper translation than traditional translation but on the other, it could lead to disastrous results if used unsupervised. To solve this issue and to upgrade machine translation, the term MTPE was coined, so what does it mean?

Machine translation, although advancing in the speed of light, still has a long way to go to achieve equal quality with human translators, as it lacks many elements, foremost of most of which are the level of accuracy, different quality for different languages, poor understanding of context, and sometimes useless outcome altogether.

Although human translation provides high-quality translation, with the huge demand and the ever-booming of the digital world, human speed can’t match the increasing demand.

To solve the aforementioned problems, MTPE was introduced. It is the combination of machine translation engines speed with large documents with the skill of experienced translators who post edit the outcome of the machine.

First of all, not all types of texts agree with machine translation, for example. This type of translation tends to fail with texts that have complex grammar, long sentences, or sarcasm. Therefore, preparing your text for machine translation is essential for success.

After preparing the text, the MPTE process can begin, and there are 2 types of post-editing strategies: Light Post Editing (LPE) and Full Post Editing (FPE).

With LPE machine translation, the outcome is edited only with necessary modifications to make sure that the outcome is understandable.

With FPE, a thorough revision must be applied to avoid any errors, taking into account elements such as style, grammar correctness, and cultural considerations. In short, FPE should be invisible; meaning the reader shouldn’t notice that this is a translation.

We at Daqeeq, choose between LPE and FPE based on the project and client’s needs to ensure the satisfaction of all parties involved.

MTPE is rather a new approach and still under experiment with guidelines being built depending on the evolution of machine translation and the market needs.

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