How to Get Machine Translation Post-Editing Right
Using machine translation for a first draft and having professional translators edit it to the required quality.
Dana Whitfield
At a glance
- Standard ISO 18587 covers post-editing of machine translation output
- Light and full post-editing different levels of quality and effort
- Terminology glossaries improve consistency
- Risk legal, medical and marketing text needs careful review
Why it matters
Why it matters: Post-editing can speed up translation, but unedited machine output can mistranslate meaning, terminology and tone.
Best practice
- Choose the post-editing level for each content type
- Provide glossaries and style guides
- Use native speakers for review
- Keep human translation for sensitive content
- Measure quality with sample reviews
Common pitfalls
Watch out for:
- Publishing raw machine translation
- Using MT for legal or medical content without expert review
- Inconsistent terminology across languages
- Skipping cultural review of marketing copy
When to call in a specialist
Bottom line Bring in help when localizing large volumes of content or sensitive material.
Where this comes from
- ISO — ISO 18587 Post-editing of machine translation output
- W3C — Internationalization techniques: authoring HTML and CSS
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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