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.

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

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.
If a clear match is found, load the corresponding leaf module directly.
If the input spans multiple sections or is ambiguous, load the overview and use Quick Picks.
Always load geography-domain.md when the input mentions spatial concepts, cities, districts, or planning-related terms.
When a target journal is specified, load its template alongside the expression patterns.

Ask Strategy

Before starting, ask about:

Target journal (if not specified in trigger) -- determines style loading
Custom glossary file path (if the user has domain-specific term mappings)
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 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.

Step 2: Translate

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

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
`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:

Load references/expression-patterns.md, then references/expression-patterns/introduction-and-gap.md (detected from filename and content keywords).
Load references/journals/ceus.md for CEUS style rules.
Load glossary.txt and build term mapping.
Load references/anti-ai-patterns.md for vocabulary screening.
Read sections/intro.md and translate in a single pass, applying CEUS tone, glossary terms, and introduction expression patterns.
Write sections/intro_en.tex (English-only with header comment).
Write sections/intro_bilingual.tex (Chinese in % comments, English as body).
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

translation-skill