Contracts and tables: format matters

Tables that break after translation.

Prompt

First decide what the text does: inform, persuade or process. The same sentence translates differently. You translate function, not words.

Task: Tables that break after translation.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - table purpose and column meaning
   - length differences
   - bilingual needed
   - format limits
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- headers and column meaning first
- flag cells that will overflow
- unify numbers, units, dates
- preserve numbering and cross-references

[Process]
1. Confirm purpose, audience, venue
2. Fix terminology and proper nouns
3. Restructure per target-language habit
4. Flag what cannot be translated literally and needs the author
5. Check numbers, units, names

[Output]
Translation, glossary, list of uncertainties.

[Do not]
- No word-for-word rendering
- Never smooth away facts or qualifiers
- No inconsistent invented terminology
- Never present guesses as fact

What to state before it starts

Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.

table purpose and column meaning
length differences
bilingual needed
format limits

Go through each of these

Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.

headers and column meaning first
flag cells that will overflow
unify numbers, units, dates
preserve numbering and cross-references

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