CATTI Level 1: English–Chinese written-translation foundations cheat sheet

Identify issuer, genre, audience and purpose before choosing register.

Verify institutional terminology in its document context.

Preserve actors, modality, negation and qualifications.

Full translation and bilingual revision remain essential practice.

Distinguish a translated clause from an enforceability opinion.

Track rights, duties, exceptions, parties and notice conditions.

Convert numerical scale without inventing a comparison period.

Do not add boilerplate provisions absent from the source.

Compare meaning bilingually before polishing target-language style.

Separate accuracy issues from fluency and presentation defects.

Stored matches and fluent output still require contextual review.

Record the reason for each substantive correction and unresolved issue.

Distinguish general technical descriptions from proper names.

Preserve claim strength, conditions and the source level of specificity.

Check units, baselines, signs and numerical conversions separately.

A translation exercise does not authorize clinical or engineering action.