The advancement of neural network technology and artificial intelligence has significantly impacted the translation industry, with Machine Translation (MT) increasingly utilized across various content types. While MT can produce translations of acceptable quality for personal use or internal communication, content intended for commercial, industrial, medical, scientific, and educational purposes often necessitates substantial refinement.

Machine translation editing (post-editing) is the adaptation of an automatic translation generated through specialized machine translation technologies to align it with the source text in terms of meaning, style, and layout. This process also entails correcting grammatical, syntactic, and punctuation errors.

Machine Translation Post-editing (MTPE) is carried out by professional translators tasked with identifying and rectifying linguistic, semantic, and other errors, as well as ensuring the consistency of translated phrases and terms. Despite technological advancements, the quality of machine translation remains incomparable to human translation. Machine translation, or raw MT, may contain numerous inaccuracies that, if left uncorrected, could have significant repercussions, particularly in fields like medicine or law. Hence, post-editing replaces the translation stage in the three-stage concept of “translation, editing, proofreading”.

Advantages of Ordering Machine Translation Post-editing
with Kenaz Translation Agency

Peculiarities of Machine Translation

Machine translation’s primary advantage and immediate objective is accelerating the translation process. While some content types may experience significant time reductions, others may require extensive rework, and some materials may prove unsuitable for MT application altogether.  Given the potential errors and inaccuracies inherent in machine translation, more than merely editing and proofreading materials translated in this manner may be required. Core skills of an MT post-editing specialist include:

• professional knowledge of the source language, 
• native-level proficiency in the target language,
• expertise in the relevant industry or at least two years of translation experience.

Content Suitable for Machine Translation

Machine translation content, as well as the specialist handling it, must meet several requirements:

• Coherent, uniform, and error-free text
• Absence of semantic and grammatical errors, complex constructions, and idioms that may be misinterpreted

Light post-editing (Light PE) technology may be suitable for internal company materials, such as manuals, instructions, and reference articles, characterized by their voluminous nature, simple vocabulary, and internal employee orientation. However, specialized materials containing professional terms or promotional content intended to attract an audience should be entrusted to professional translators or undergo full post-editing (Full PE) after applying MT.

General Content Suitability for MT Based on the Domain

Stages of Working with MT Post-Editing

Differences Between Machine Translation Post-Editing
and Professional Translation

Professional translation typically encompasses all stages of TEP—Translation, Editing, and Proofreading. When an editor receives a completed translation from a linguist, their task primarily involves assessing the overall presentation, checking for stylistic, spelling, and punctuation errors, and evaluating the translation holistically. In this scenario, the specialist doesn’t have to possess an in-depth understanding of the source language. This service is known as Editing and Proofreading.

The primary distinction between machine translation post-editing and professional translation editing is that the linguist must possess professional-level proficiency in both languages. This proficiency is necessary to evaluate the accuracy of the machine-translated content, compare it with the original text, rectify any inaccuracies, and ensure terminological consistency.

A step-by-step flowchart of translation processes

While this aspect has yet to receive significant attention in educational settings, numerous international certification programs are available for post-editors seeking to assess and validate their skills. All Kenaz linguists engaged in machine translation post-editing undergo training and certification through SDL.

What are MT Engines and How do They Benefit Companies?

Machine Translation relies on specialized technologies known as MT engines. These systems are trained using human-generated translations and are adept at efficiently converting texts from one language to another.

There are three types of MT systems:

Basic: Trained on generic texts, suitable for translating straightforward, non-technical content. 

Industry-specific: Tailored for translations within specific industries, capable of handling technical texts and utilizing industry-specific terminology.

Custom: Specialized and trained for specific projects, offering the highest level of effectiveness.

Each engine corresponds to one language pair, meaning companies seeking to build or purchase an MT engine must do so separately for each language. To utilize and train these systems effectively, companies should have a history of using human translation and providing high-quality translations for initial setup. If done properly, the translation process can be accelerated by 2–3 times, but in practice, even a 50 % increase in speed significantly reduces the overall project duration.

Why Can’t Google Translate Serve as an Alternative to a Custom MT Engine?

Google’s online translator is designed for general comprehension of text in another language, covering various topics. While suitable for personal use, Google Translate often produces text that distorts meaning or overlooks important details, making it unsuitable for business purposes. Consequently, the quality of translations from Google Translate is inferior to that of niche-targeted MT engines.

How to Order Machine Translation Post-Editing?

MT editing is a bilingual service requiring the customer to provide text in its source and target languages. For untranslated materials suitable for machine translation, customers can order the appropriate service, along with post-editing, from Kenaz. This approach saves time and money and yields translations that meet industry quality standards.

With over 15 years of translation experience spanning various industries, including specialized MT programs, Kenaz offers clients the option to create custom MT engines for self-translation within their organizations.