Translators face the challenge not only of converting words from one language to another, but also of delivering polished, natural-sounding content that resonates with the target audience—sometimes under time pressure.

This demands more than just knowledge of both languages—it requires writing skills, accuracy, attention to detail, cultural understanding, creativity, time management, and much more.

Fortunately, there are various tools that help translators work faster, and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated and accurate.

However, research shows that machine translation still has its limitations. It has difficulty capturing the context, dealing with words with multiple meanings, and processing idiomatic expressions, cultural nuances, and technical terms. There are also studies that point to bias and discrimination in machine translation.

For these reasons, experts consider machine translation post-editing, also known as MTPE, to be essential for the production of professional translations. In this process, a human translator reviews and edits the machine-translated text to correct errors, ensure accuracy, and refine the overall text.

This is where InstaText comes into play as an editing assistant, helping translators with the content side of their translation projects and making the whole process faster, easier, and more efficient.

See also: Why we call InstaText an ‘editing assistant’

Before we get into the details of how translators can benefit from InstaText, let’s take a look at what InstaText is and is not and how it works.

What InstaText is and what it is not 

InstaText is not a translator, so you cannot use it to translate a text from one language to another. It is an editing assistant that uses advanced language technologies to analyze, process, and improve the text that the user enters.

So when you feed InstaText with a translated text, it improves it by enhancing clarity, readability, flow, style, tone, conciseness, word choice, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and more during the editing and proofreading process.

See also: InstaText: Most helpful for drafting, editing, or proofreading?

InstaText does not use generative AI, i.e. it does not write content from scratch, unlike AI content generators such as ChatGPT. It only enhances the unique voice, tone, ideas, and intent of the original text, rather than changing them. This is particularly important in semantic translations, where the translator wants to stay as close as possible to the semantic and syntactic structures of the source language.

At the moment, InstaText focuses on improving texts in English, but support for other languages may be added in the future.

InstaText’s benefits for translators

Now let’s take a closer look at how InstaText benefits translators:

1- Refining the text for better quality and fluency

Draft translations are sometimes overly literal renderings that do not necessarily have a natural flow. They may not contain the best choice of words, may not read smoothly, and may not be easy for the reader to understand.

InstaText helps you ensure that your text is clear and understandable, reads smoothly, and is correct in terms of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, while retaining the original meaning and the unique features of the source text, such as tone and style.

When you use InstaText, you can also view and track every single suggested change and accept or reject it in an interactive format. This gives you control over the text and allows you to express the details exactly as you wish, combining the speed and efficiency of technology with human expertise.

2- Adapting to target audience

Especially if English is not your first language, you may not be completely familiar with expressions, idioms, and slang used in the English language. InstaText helps you write like a native speaker by suggesting vocabulary and phrases that are natural in English. This ensures that your text is accurate and flows naturally, avoiding the impression of a raw, literal translation.

To better adapt your text to the target audience, you can use the customization features of InstaText, which allow you to:

• Choose between American and British English.
• Choose between formal and informal tone.
• Add individual words or word combinations to your personal dictionary so that they are not changed during editing—either because you prefer them or because they are part of industry jargon.

As mentioned above, you can also accept or reject InstaText’s suggestions, which gives you control over the text and ensures the accuracy of the details. 

3- Maintaining consistency

The fact that InstaText does not work with prompts, unlike generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, means that the quality and type of edits do not vary depending on the prompt, resulting in consistency and a cohesive final product. This is especially crucial for technical, legal, or academic translations. 

4- Ensuring originality and authorship

InstaText uses advanced language technologies, but not generative AI. This means that its edits are not generated by AI, which makes it particularly suitable for contexts where originality and authorship are required, such as academic writing.  

You may be wondering: Can a translation that has been generated by AI and then edited with InstaText still be labeled as “AI-generated”? 

Well, we cannot claim that your output will not be labeled as “AI-generated” for three main reasons: 

• Different AI detectors use different criteria to distinguish between human and AI-generated content. 
• Industry experts agree that AI detection tools are still far from accurate and reliable. 
• As the AI content space is constantly evolving, there are no fixed criteria or standards in this regard. 

However, we can assure you that if you create content with generative AI tools and then edit it with InstaText, the result will look, sound, and read more natural and human.

5- Saving time on editing and proofreading

Editing and proofreading can take hours, but InstaText automates this task and allows translators to focus on refining the text instead of worrying about small errors. It also makes it easier for translators to meet deadlines while delivering polished results. You can also use InstaText’s keyboard shortcuts to make your editing process even faster and more efficient.

6- Editing where you write

InstaText’s browser extension enables you to edit texts directly in Google Docs, Gmail, and many other apps and platforms, without losing focus or switching tabs. Copy and paste is not required.

7- Facilitating team collaboration

You can also use InstaText to download the improved text as a Word file with or without Track Changes or share the link to the edited version with your colleagues for team collaboration.

8- Improving your writing skills over time 

Writing skills are crucial if you want to deliver high-quality translations. InstaText not only helps you edit your text, but also improve your English language skills, especially your writing skills.

How does it do that? InstaText offers you editing suggestions that you can accept or reject. By paying attention to these edits and accepting or rejecting them thoughtfully, you can improve your overall English skills over time. It has also been found that mindfully engaging in writing improves cognitive skills such as critical thinking, creativity, memory and more, which in turn can make you a better translator. 

See also: How editing with InstaText improves both your writing and cognitive skills

InstaText: A valuable investment for translators 

If you are not yet a user and are looking for a cost-effective, efficient solution to speed up your work process without compromising on quality, we recommend you give InstaText a try for free. If you are already a user, we hope you can benefit even more from InstaText by exploring its features here.

“I am a translator and proofreader by profession and have tried many editing tools. It’s not an exaggeration to say that all the other apps I’ve used so far don’t come close to InstaText. It is literally innovative and revolutionary and has taken the editing game to a new level, leaving other competitors in the dust.”

— Dr. Ghodrat Hassani, Researcher in Translation Studies

“InstaText is an excellent program that helps me to finally write good English in my scientific papers. It is very user friendly and allows you to manipulate the text the way you want. The final sentences will sound great!”

— Dr. Dražen Jurišić, University Professor

“The degree to which InstaText gets it right, and significantly improves not just spelling and grammar, but style also is astonishing. The speed at which it does so is a massive benefit.”

— Paul Jenkins, Publisher