ppw:translation

Installation
SKILL.md

Purpose

This Skill translates Chinese academic drafts into polished English text ready for journal submission. It produces LaTeX-formatted output that preserves technical terminology, follows the target journal's style preferences, and supports user-provided glossary files for domain-specific term mappings. Every invocation generates two output files: an English-only version and a bilingual paragraph-by-paragraph comparison version with Chinese text in LaTeX comments.

Core Prompt

Source: awesome-ai-research-writing — 中转英

# Role
你是一位兼具顶尖科研写作专家与资深会议审稿人(ICML/ICLR 等)双重身份的助手。你的学术品味极高,对逻辑漏洞和语言瑕疵零容忍。

# Task
请处理我提供的【中文草稿】,将其翻译并润色为【英文学术论文片段】。

# Constraints
1. 视觉与排版:
   - 尽量不要使用加粗、斜体或引号,这会影响论文观感。
   - 保持 LaTeX 源码的纯净,不要添加无意义的格式修饰。

2. 风格与逻辑:
   - 要求逻辑严谨,用词准确,表达凝练连贯,尽量使用常见的单词,避免生僻词。
   - 尽量不要使用破折号(—),推荐使用从句或同位语替代。
   - 拒绝使用\item列表,必须使用连贯的段落表达。
   - 去除"AI味",行文自然流畅,避免机械的连接词堆砌。

3. 时态规范:
   - 统一使用一般现在时描述方法、架构和实验结论。
   - 仅在明确提及特定历史事件时使用过去时。

4. 输出格式:
   - Part 1 [LaTeX]:只输出翻译成英文后的内容本身(LaTeX 格式)。
     * 语言要求:必须是全英文。
     * 特别注意:必须对特殊字符进行转义(例如:将 `95%` 转义为 `95\%``model_v1` 转义为 `model\_v1``R&D` 转义为 `R\&D`)。
     * 保持数学公式原样(保留 $ 符号)。
   - Part 2 [Translation]:对应的中文直译(用于核对逻辑是否符合原意)。
   - 除以上两部分外,不要输出任何多余的对话或解释。

# Execution Protocol
在输出最终结果前,请务必在后台进行自我审查:
1. 审稿人视角:假设你是最挑剔的 Reviewer,检查是否存在过度排版、逻辑跳跃或未翻译的中文。
2. 立即纠正:针对发现的问题进行修改,确保最终输出的内容严谨、纯净且完全英文化。

Trigger

Activates when the user asks to:

  • Translate Chinese academic text (draft, paragraph, or section) to English
  • Produce English LaTeX output from Chinese input
  • 将中文学术内容翻译为英文

Example invocations:

  • "Translate this Chinese draft to English for CEUS"
  • "翻译这段中文为英文"
  • "Help me translate my methods section"
  • "把 intro.md 翻译成学术英文,目标期刊是 CEUS"

Modes

Mode Default Behavior
interactive Confirm section detection and glossary application before translating
guided Multi-pass with confirmation at key checkpoints
direct Yes Single-pass translation, minimal interaction
batch Process multiple sections with same settings

Default mode: direct (single-pass, no multi-round pipeline).

Mode inference: "step by step" or "confirm before translating" switches to interactive. "Translate all sections" or "batch" switches to batch.

References

Required (always loaded)

File Purpose
references/expression-patterns.md Academic expression patterns overview and module index

Leaf Hints (loaded when needed)

File When to Load
references/expression-patterns/introduction-and-gap.md Input is introduction or background content
references/expression-patterns/methods-and-data.md Input is methods, data, or study area content
references/expression-patterns/results-and-discussion.md Input is results or discussion content
references/expression-patterns/conclusions-and-claims.md Input is conclusion content
references/expression-patterns/geography-domain.md Input involves spatial, urban, or planning content
references/anti-ai-patterns.md Vocabulary screening during translation

Loading Rules

  • Load the expression patterns overview at the start to orient module selection.
  • Load leaf files only when the current input matches their scope.
  • When a target journal is specified, also load references/journals/[journal].md.
  • If a reference file is missing, warn the user and proceed with reduced capability (except journal templates; see Fallbacks).

Reference Selection Logic

  1. Scan the input for Chinese section keywords: 引言, 背景, 研究方法, 方法, 数据, 结果, 讨论, 结论.
  2. If a clear match is found, load the corresponding leaf module directly.
  3. If the input spans multiple sections or is ambiguous, load the overview and use Quick Picks.
  4. Always load geography-domain.md when the input mentions spatial concepts, cities, districts, or planning-related terms.
  5. When a target journal is specified, load its template alongside the expression patterns.

Ask Strategy

Before starting, ask about:

  1. Target journal (if not specified in trigger) -- determines style loading
  2. Custom glossary file path (if the user has domain-specific term mappings)
  3. Which section this text belongs to (only if not obvious from content or headers)

Rules:

  • In direct mode, skip pre-questions when the user provides enough context in the trigger.
  • If the user specifies a journal with no template at references/journals/[journal].md, refuse and explain: "No template found for [journal]. Please add a template at references/journals/[journal].md following the CEUS template format before proceeding."
  • Never ask more than 3 questions before producing output.
  • Use Structured Interaction when available; fall back to plain-text questions otherwise.

Workflow

Step 0: Workflow Memory Check

  • Read .planning/workflow-memory.json. If file missing or empty, skip to Step 1.
  • Check if the last 1-2 log entries form a recognized pattern with ppw:translation that has appeared >= threshold times in the log. See skill-conventions.md > Workflow Memory > Pattern Detection for the full algorithm.
  • If a pattern is found, present recommendation via AskUserQuestion:
    • Question: "检测到常用流程:[pattern](已出现 N 次)。是否直接以 direct 模式运行 ppw:translation?"
    • Options: "Yes, proceed" / "No, continue normally"
  • If user accepts: set mode to direct, skip Ask Strategy questions.
  • If user declines or AskUserQuestion unavailable: continue in normal mode.

Step 1: Collect Context

  • Ask pre-questions per Ask Strategy (target journal, glossary, section type).
  • Load required references: expression patterns overview.
  • If target journal specified: Read references/journals/[journal].md. If file missing, stop and refuse -- instruct user to add the template first.
  • If glossary file specified: Read glossary and build term mapping. If file not found, warn and proceed without glossary.
  • Detect section type from input content and load the appropriate expression pattern leaf module.
  • If content involves geography/urban/spatial topics: also load geography-domain.md.
  • Load references/anti-ai-patterns.md for vocabulary screening.
  • Record workflow: Append {"skill": "ppw:translation", "ts": "<ISO timestamp>"} to .planning/workflow-memory.json. Create file as [] if missing. Drop oldest entry if log length >= 50.

Step 2: Translate

  • Follow the Core Prompt constraints above as the primary instruction set for this step.
  • Single-pass translation of Chinese input to English.
  • Apply journal style preferences (tone, vocabulary, claim calibration) from loaded journal template.
  • Use loaded expression patterns to guide phrasing choices.
  • Prioritize glossary terms when a match is found.
  • Re-translate all text uniformly, including any inline English fragments, for stylistic consistency.
  • Preserve all LaTeX commands verbatim: $...$, $$...$$, \begin{...}...\end{...}, \cite{...}, \ref{...}, \label{...}, and custom commands.
  • Avoid high-risk anti-AI vocabulary patterns (e.g., "groundbreaking", "novel", "Moreover, it is worth noting").

Step 3: Generate Output Files

  • Opt-out check: Before generating output, scan the user's original trigger prompt for any of these phrases (case-insensitive, exact phrase match): english only, no bilingual, only english, 不要中文. If any phrase is detected: skip the bilingual file entirely -- produce only [name]_en.tex. If none detected: produce both files as normal.
  • Write English-only version to [name]_en.tex with a header comment:
    % Translated from: [source file]
    % Target journal: [journal or "General"]
    % Generated: [date]
    
  • Write bilingual comparison to [name]_bilingual.tex:
    • Each paragraph: Chinese text as % comment lines, English as body text.
    • Number paragraphs with % --- Paragraph N --- markers.
  • For pasted text input (no source file): use translation_en.tex and translation_bilingual.tex in the current working directory.
  • Preserve the original input file unchanged.

Step 4: Self-Check

  • Report terminology decisions (especially glossary applications and key term choices).
  • Flag uncertain translations with explanation of alternatives considered.
  • Note any structural changes (sentence splitting, reordering) and why.
  • Warn about potential issues: very long sentences, missing references, ambiguous terms.
  • Present self-check in session output (not appended to the .tex files).

Output Contract

Output Format Condition
english_tex LaTeX file ([name]_en.tex) Always produced
bilingual_tex LaTeX file ([name]_bilingual.tex) Always produced unless opt-out keyword detected
self_check_summary Markdown in session Always produced

Edge Cases

Situation Handling
Input too short (single sentence) Translate but warn that limited context may affect expression pattern matching
No section headers in input Ask user which section, or default to overview expression patterns
Mixed Chinese-English text Re-translate everything uniformly for stylistic consistency
LaTeX-heavy input (mostly formulas) Preserve all formulas; translate only surrounding natural language text
Pasted text with no filename Use fallback names: translation_en.tex / translation_bilingual.tex
Journal specified but no template Refuse translation; instruct user to add template at references/journals/[journal].md
Glossary file not found at path Warn user and proceed without glossary
Input contains tables or figures Preserve LaTeX table/figure environments; translate captions and surrounding text

Fallbacks

Scenario Fallback
Structured Interaction unavailable Ask 1-3 plain-text questions covering highest-impact gaps
Expression pattern leaf missing Use overview entrypoint and Quick Picks
Journal template missing for specified journal Refuse translation -- instruct user to add the template first
Anti-AI patterns file missing Proceed without; rely on journal style preferences for tone guidance
Glossary file unreadable Warn user; proceed with standard terminology choices

Examples

User: "Translate sections/intro.md to English for CEUS submission. Glossary at glossary.txt."

Skill workflow:

  1. Load references/expression-patterns.md, then references/expression-patterns/introduction-and-gap.md (detected from filename and content keywords).
  2. Load references/journals/ceus.md for CEUS style rules.
  3. Load glossary.txt and build term mapping.
  4. Load references/anti-ai-patterns.md for vocabulary screening.
  5. Read sections/intro.md and translate in a single pass, applying CEUS tone, glossary terms, and introduction expression patterns.
  6. Write sections/intro_en.tex (English-only with header comment).
  7. Write sections/intro_bilingual.tex (Chinese in % comments, English as body).
  8. Present self-check summary in session:
    • Terminology: "城市热岛" -> "urban heat island" (glossary), "建成环境" -> "built environment" (glossary).
    • Uncertain: "宜居性" translated as "livability" -- verify American vs. British spelling for CEUS.
    • Structure: Paragraph 3 split into two sentences for readability.

Skill: translation-skill Conventions: references/skill-conventions.md

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Installs
23
GitHub Stars
294
First Seen
Mar 23, 2026