The Day I Noticed Something Off
I produced the same article in Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and English at once, and only the Traditional Chinese version came out short. When I opened it, one example and the final step from the Korean body were simply gone. The translation bot had decided, on its own, that this was probably enough. Counting the last four weeks of records, omission reports like this ran at about 5 a week.
The Cause Was My Request
I had pasted the Korean original and written only 「translate this」. With no standard for length or structure, the bot judged by what read well. The bot was not lazy. I simply never gave it a standard.
Try It: Lock the Skeleton First
1. Before writing, decide three core sentences and the step numbers.
2. Attach that same skeleton to all four language requests.
3. When done, count the steps and code blocks and compare them across versions.
I put this at the top of each request:
[Skeleton]
Core1: the problem in one line
Core2: the fix in one line
Core3: the result in one line
Steps: keep all of 1 to 3, keep 1 example
Rule: do not summarize, match the original's information
Result
After attaching the skeleton, omission reports dropped from 5 a week to 1. The remaining one was a wording difference on the Simplified side. The counting in step 3 takes about a minute, so the extra effort was minimal.
Tip of the Day
When you hand off a translation, write down what must not be cut before anything else. Telling a bot what to keep works far better than telling it what it may skip.