Academic Translation Guide
Table of contents
- Overview / Overview
- 1. Translation Principles / Translation Principles
- 2. Common Chinglish Corrections / Common Chinese English Corrections
- 3. Section-Specific Guidelines / Translation Guidelines for Each Chapter
- 4. Tense Usage Summary / Tense Usage Summary
- 5. Translation Workflow / Translation Workflow
- 6. Quick Reference Patterns / Quick Reference Templates
- 7. Domain-Specific Notes / Domain-specific notes
- Checklist / Checklist
A guide to Chinese-English academic translation – from Chinese draft to English paper
Overview / Overview
This guide helps translate Chinese academic drafts into English papers that meet international journal/conference standards. Core Principles: Accuracy > Fluency > Simplicity
1. Translation Principles / Translation Principles
1.1 Core Principles / Core Principles
| in principle | illustrate | Example |
|---|---|---|
| accuracy | Technical terms must be accurate and cannot be paraphrased | convolution → convolution (not rolling) |
| consistency | The same term is unified throughout the text | Don't mix method/approach/technique |
| Simplicity | Avoid redundant expressions | ❌ in order to → ✅ to |
| objectivity | Avoid subjective evaluation words | ❌ very good → ✅ effective |
1.2 Academic Tone / academic tone
❌ 避免:
- 口语化表达 (a lot of, kind of, stuff)
- 绝对化表述 (always, never, perfect)
- 情感化词汇 (amazing, terrible, exciting)
✅ 使用:
- 正式学术词汇 (significant, substantial, considerable)
- 谨慎限定词 (generally, typically, approximately)
- 客观描述 (effective, efficient, accurate)2. Common Chinglish Corrections / Common Chinese English corrections
2.1 Redundant Expressions / redundant expressions
| ❌ Chinglish | ✅Academic English | illustrate |
|---|---|---|
| in recent years | recently | simplify |
| more and more | increasingly | simplify |
| play an important role in | is crucial for / contributes to | simplify |
| make a contribution to | contribute to | simplify |
| have a great influence on | significantly affect | simplify |
| in order to | to | simplify |
| due to the fact that | because / since | simplify |
| a large number of | many / numerous | simplify |
| in the field of | in | simplify |
| it is worth noting that | notably | simplify |
2.2 Verb Improvements/verb improvements
| ❌Weak Verb | ✅ Strong Verb | Context |
|---|---|---|
| use | employ, utilize, leverage, adopt | Method usage |
| get | obtain, achieve, acquire, derive | Get results |
| make | construct, develop, generate, create | build |
| do | perform, conduct, execute, carry out | implement |
| show | demonstrate, illustrate, indicate, reveal | exhibit |
| give | provide, offer, present, yield | supply |
| have | possess, exhibit, contain | have |
| put forward | propose, present, introduce | propose |
2.3 Structure Improvements/structural improvements
| ❌ Chinese Structure | ✅ English Structure |
|---|---|
| This article proposes a... | We propose... / This paper presents... |
| First...then...finally... | First,... Subsequently,... Finally,... |
| Achieved by... | ... is achieved by/through... |
| is better than | Compared with..., ... outperforms... |
| Experimental results show... | Experimental results demonstrate that... |
3. Section-Specific Guidelines / Translation Guidelines for Each Chapter
3.1 Abstract / Abstract
结构: Background → Problem → Method → Results → Conclusion
时态:
- 背景/现状: 现在时
- 本文工作: 现在时 (We propose...)
- 实验结果: 过去时 (achieved, obtained)
长度: 150-250 words (根据会议/期刊要求)
模板:
[Background] ... remains a challenging problem.
[Problem] Existing methods suffer from...
[Method] In this paper, we propose...
[Results] Experimental results on ... demonstrate that...
[Conclusion] Our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance.3.2 Introduction/Introduction
结构: Context → Problem → Limitations → Contribution → Organization
时态:
- 领域背景: 现在时
- 已有工作: 现在完成时 (have been proposed)
- 本文贡献: 现在时
贡献陈述模板:
The main contributions of this paper are summarized as follows:
• We propose a novel ... for ...
• We design a ... mechanism to address ...
• Extensive experiments demonstrate that ...3.3 Related Work / related work
时态: 现在完成时 + 过去时
- 领域发展: 现在完成时 (have been widely studied)
- 具体工作: 过去时 (proposed, introduced, developed)
过渡词:
- 同类工作: Similarly, Likewise, Along this line
- 对比: However, In contrast, Unlike
- 扩展: Furthermore, Moreover, Additionally
- 总结: Overall, In summary3.4 Method / method
时态: 现在时 (描述方法本身)
语态: 被动语态为主，主动语态描述设计决策
结构词:
- 整体描述: consists of, comprises, is composed of
- 步骤: First, Then, Subsequently, Finally
- 公式引入: is defined as, is computed by, is formulated as
公式描述模板:
where $x$ denotes the input, $W$ represents the weight matrix,
and $b$ is the bias term.3.5 Experiments / Experiments
时态:
- 实验设置: 过去时 (was conducted, were used)
- 结果描述: 现在时 (shows, demonstrates)
- 结果分析: 现在时
比较表达:
- 优于: outperforms, surpasses, exceeds
- 相当: is comparable to, is on par with
- 显著: significantly, substantially, considerably
- 略微: slightly, marginally
数值描述:
- 提升: improves by X%, achieves X% improvement
- 降低: reduces by X%, decreases X%
- 最优: achieves the best/lowest/highest3.6 Conclusion / conclusion
时态:
- 总结工作: 过去时 (proposed, presented)
- 结论陈述: 现在时
- 未来工作: 将来时 (will, plan to)
模板:
In this paper, we proposed ... for ...
Experimental results demonstrated that ...
In future work, we plan to extend ...4. Tense Usage Summary/Tense Usage Summary
| Section | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Abstract - Background | Present | ... is an important task |
| Abstract-Method | Present | We propose... |
| Abstract-Results | Past | achieved, obtained |
| Introduction-Background | Present | ... has attracted attention |
| Introduction - Contribution | Present | We propose... |
| Related Work-General | Present Perfect | have been proposed |
| Related Work-Specific | Past | proposed, introduced |
| Method | Present | consists of, computes |
| Experiments-Setup | Past | was conducted |
| Experiments-Results | Present | shows, demonstrates |
| Conclusion - Summary | Past | proposed, presented |
| Conclusion - Future | Future | will explore |
5. Translation Workflow/Translation Workflow
Step 1: Terminology Extraction / terminology extraction
1. 识别中文稿中的专业术语
2. 查阅 TERMINOLOGY.md 确定标准译法
3. 建立本文术语表，确保一致性Step 2: Structure Mapping / structure mapping
1. 分析中文段落结构
2. 调整为英文学术结构（主题句在前）
3. 确保逻辑连接词使用正确Step 3: Sentence Translation / Sentence Translation
1. 识别主干（主谓宾）
2. 处理修饰成分
3. 检查时态和语态
4. 简化冗余表达Step 4: Polish & Review / polish review
1. 检查术语一致性
2. 检查时态正确性
3. 检查 Chinglish
4. 检查学术语气6. Quick Reference Patterns/Quick Reference Templates
6.1 Proposing Method/Proposing method
latex
// 中文: 本文提出了一种基于...的...方法
We propose a novel [METHOD] based on [TECHNIQUE] for [TASK].
This paper presents a [ADJ] approach to [PROBLEM] using [METHOD].
In this work, we introduce [METHOD] that [BENEFIT].6.2 Describing Results/Describing results
latex
// 中文: 实验结果表明，我们的方法取得了最好的效果
Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves
state-of-the-art performance on [DATASET].
Our approach outperforms existing methods by [X]% in terms of [METRIC].
The proposed method achieves [VALUE] [METRIC], which is [X]% higher
than the best baseline.6.3 Comparing Methods/Comparison methods
latex
// 中文: 与传统方法相比，我们的方法具有以下优势
Compared with conventional methods, our approach offers
the following advantages: ...
Unlike previous methods that [LIMITATION], our method [ADVANTAGE].
While existing approaches [LIMITATION], we address this by [SOLUTION].6.4 Analyzing Results / Analysis results
latex
// 中文: 这是因为...
This improvement can be attributed to [REASON].
The performance gain is due to [REASON].
This is because [EXPLANATION].
// 中文: 值得注意的是...
It is worth noting that [OBSERVATION].
Notably, [FINDING].
An interesting observation is that [FINDING].7. Domain-Specific Notes / Domain-specific notes
Deep Learning Papers
- Model names remain original (BERT, GPT, ResNet)
- Hyperparameters use standard notation ($alpha$, $beta$, $lambda$)
- The loss function is represented by $mathcal{L}$
Time Series Papers
- The time index is $t$, and the sequence length is $T$ or $L$.
- Use horizon or forecasting horizon for forecast step size
- Use lookback window or historical window for historical window
Industrial Control Papers
- Control variables use standard notation ($u$ input, $y$ output, $x$ state)
- Emphasis on practical application scenarios and industrial significance
- Pay attention to statements related to safety and reliability
Checklist/Checklist
Once the translation is complete, please check:
- [ ] Terminology consistent throughout the text
- [ ] Use correct tenses
- [ ] No Chinglish expression
- [ ] No redundant vocabulary
- [ ] Appropriate academic tone
- [ ] Unification of formula symbols
- [ ] Chart title specifications
- [ ] Reference format is correct