MTPE Series: How to Post-Edit Machine Translation
The internet is full of information about machine translation: how it is built, how fast it is improving, and speculation on where it will take us.
However, it can be difficult for freelance translators to find practical advice. How does a freelance translator actually get started offering machine translation post-editing?
How do translators choose or evaluate raw machine translation (raw MT)?
How much do they charge for their services?
How do they manage client expectations?
And how do translators make sure that they are adhering to the industry’s best practices?
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Machine Translation Post-Editing: More Complex Than You Might Think
The truth is that machine translation post-editing is a uniquely challenging service: it is very different from editing human translation, and very different from translation.
In fact, many excellent translators are not very effective post-editors.
Why?
Because post-editing is a skill that must be honed, just in the same way that you once honed your translation skill.
At Meridian, we have been working to create more useful content specifically for freelance translators, including a course for beginner post-editors.
This post will be part of a series on the same topic.
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What makes MTPE a uniquely challenging task?
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1. A post-editor must be able to ascertain whether raw MT is suitable for post-editing.
Not all text is suitable for post-editing. Many texts take longer to edit than they would to simply translate from scratch.
Being able to recognize texts that are ideal candidates for MTPE is a skill that must be trained, in order to avoid frustration (on the post-editor’s side) and disappointment (on the client side).
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2. A post-editor must be able to manage client’s expectations with respect to light and heavy post-editing.
How do you measure translation quality? There is no standardized, quantitative measure for translation quality. That is why it can be difficult to ensure that a translation client is satisfied with the level of editing performed.
Post-editors must develop strategies for setting expectations and continually soliciting feedback to make sure that their services remain effective.
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3. Effective post-editing makes use of shortcuts
To be an effective post-editor (in terms of your speed, quality, and profitability) you must learn to use shortcuts.
As you gain experience with post-editing, you will recognize common recurring errors that you can address with generalized shortcuts in order to drastically cut your post-editing time.
You can learn more about post-editing shortcuts in our course.
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How can a freelance translator get started offering machine translation post-editing services?
Just like with translation, the best way to get started with post-editing is to start practicing!
The ability to post-edit accurately and effectively is a skill to be honed. This is both in terms of developing your eye for errors as well as preparing your repertoire of shortcuts.
As with translation, we always recommend either starting with a course and/or with a mentor. A mentor can help you catch the errors you missed, or help you determine the perfect balance between under-editing and over-editing.
There are multiple online courses available that teach machine translation post-editing, however make sure you are clear on your goals for the course.
Many available online courses are geared more towards the theory of how machine translation is built and how it works, and less towards the practical or business aspects of how to work with MT as a freelance translator.
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Here are our recommended courses:
Meridian Courses: Machine Translation Post-Editing for Translators and Project Managers
This is a practical course geared towards freelance translators who would like to add MTPE as a service. This covers everything from how to source the right MT, how to charge, best practices for editing, and how to build your shortcuts.
This is slightly more biased towards the theoretical and does not address business practices in detail, but gives a very thorough overview of the different kinds of machine translation system systems.
How to Make Machine Translation Work for You (in Spanish)
A very helpful one-hour webinar focusing on shortcuts as well as business practices.
More resources are listed in our course!
We hope this blog post helps you get started as a machine translation post-editor! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below, and don’t forget to subscribe for more updates.
This is indeed very challenging not just with the process as well as the pricing. You can not easily tell if your TM can provide accurate translations or if you’ll need to do all translation from scratch which will be the bases for the pricing.
I wondered how a post-editor would set their rates differently from a translator, since there seems to be a lot of overlap. I was hoping to learn more about this and it seems there are courses on Meridian about this exact topic. In fact, I just enrolled in the course and will start taking it soon
As a post-editor, you’ll need to consider the tone and style of the final translation since raw MTs can’t choose which tone/style is appropriate to use for certain topics/subjects. Learning more about MTPE is a good start for this and Good thing that Meridian course is available.
Interesting article. I didn’t know much about MTPE before but now I have gotten a better grasp of the concept. I wondered what was the point of MTPE but now I realize it’s a different skillset from translating!