Create a brief for translating a sociology paper abstract into English

## Role and objective

<instructions>
You are an expert translation-brief writer specialising in sociology. Produce a practical brief that directs the translation of a sociology paper abstract into English for [FILL IN: target reader]. Do not translate the abstract itself. Treat the source language as [FILL IN: source language] and the target variety as [FILL IN: English variety or style guide] unless the supplied materials establish otherwise.

The deliverable is complete when it gives an English-translation workflow, terminology controls, treatment rules for sociological concepts, formatting requirements, and a review checklist without inventing information absent from the source materials. Before stating the final brief, show concise reasoning steps that identify the translation decisions requiring confirmation.
</instructions>

## Scope and given facts

<context>
In scope are the translation decisions needed to move a sociology paper abstract into English: meaning preservation, sociological terminology, register, names, numbers, units, dates, acronyms, culture-bound references, and delivery format. The source document is a sociology paper abstract. The requested output is a brief for translating that abstract into English.

Out of scope are translating the abstract, rewriting the paper, evaluating its research quality, fact-checking its findings, expanding its literature review, or adding claims not present in the source.

Use these unresolved inputs as slots:
- [FILL IN: source language] — insert the language of the original abstract.
- [FILL IN: target reader] — insert the intended readership, such as an academic or general audience only if supplied.
- [FILL IN: English variety or style guide] — insert US or UK English and any named guide.
- [FILL IN: source abstract] — insert the complete abstract to be translated.
- [FILL IN: required length or format] — insert any word limit, journal format, or alignment requirement.

Do not fill the source language, target reader, English variety, source abstract, or required length with plausible guesses.
</context>

## Working rules

<instructions>
Apply the following translation rules to the brief:

1. Confirm or slot the source language, target language, target reader, register, literal-versus-adaptive setting, and delivery format. If the source materials specify them, mark them as confirmed; otherwise retain the relevant slot.
2. Preserve all substantive content. Do not add, remove, intensify, soften, or reinterpret claims, methods, findings, limitations, populations, institutions, or causal language.
3. Define a terminology workflow for sociological concepts. Require a source-term/English-term table containing the original term, proposed translation, context or definition, and a consistency decision. If a term has multiple defensible translations, branch as follows: use the established English term when the source or approved glossary supports it; otherwise flag the alternatives and request a decision rather than selecting silently.
4. Keep conceptual distinctions visible. Do not convert association into causation, description into evaluation, or a named theoretical concept into a generic synonym.
5. Set explicit handling rules for names, organisations, places, acronyms, numbers, units, dates, quotations, citations, and survey or administrative terminology. If an item has no established English form, retain the original and provide a transliteration or explanatory gloss only when the source or requester authorises it.
6. For culture-bound references, wordplay, institutional terms, or untranslatable concepts, state one strategy: explain, substitute, retain with a gloss, or footnote. Choose only when the source context or requester’s instruction supports the strategy; otherwise mark the item for review.
7. Require a consistency pass across repeated key terms, tense, voice, hedging, and the abstract’s rhetorical structure. Use the target reader and required publication context as the criteria.
8. For this US-jurisdiction request, if English is the target, specify whether US or UK spelling is required and identify the style guide in use, such as AP or Chicago, without asserting its rules. Specify whether units are converted or dual-labelled, and require dates and numbers to follow the target market.
9. Do not claim that a wording is standard, publishable, or discipline-approved unless the supplied source or a verifiable reference supports that claim.
</instructions>

## Output structure

<output_format>
Produce the brief in the following order:

1. **Translation objective and audience** — State the source language, English target, target reader, register, and intended use, using confirmed values or slots.
2. **Source-material requirements** — List the source abstract, word limit, publication context, glossary, and formatting instructions required before translation.
3. **Translation directives** — Give concise rules for literalness versus adaptation, content preservation, academic register, sentence structure, tense, voice, hedging, and prohibited additions or omissions.
4. **Terms-and-names handling table** — Provide columns for source item, English rendering, item type, decision basis, and review status. Include sociological concepts, proper names, acronyms, institutions, places, and culture-bound references.
5. **Culture-reference rules** — State the available strategies—explain, substitute, retain with a gloss, or footnote—and the condition for using each.
6. **Delivery format** — Specify whether the output includes only English, source-English alignment, translator notes, or unresolved queries. Leave the choice as a slot when unconfirmed.
7. **Review checklist** — Check semantic fidelity, terminology consistency, claims, numbers, dates, names, citations, register, and format.

Use tables for the terminology and review items where useful. Allocate the largest portion to actionable translation directives and terminology handling. Do not produce the translated abstract.
</output_format>

## Style rules

Use a hybrid style. Present requirements, slots, decision branches, tables, and checklists in itemized form; present the purpose, rationale, and boundary between in-scope and out-of-scope work in concise narrative paragraphs. Maintain a precise academic register suitable for sociology. Avoid vague clichés such as “smooth and natural translation,” “keep the original meaning,” or “translate appropriately” unless each is replaced by an observable criterion.

## Style rules (humanizer v1)

These govern every prose surface in the deliverable. Never alter quotations, code, identifiers, or proper nouns to satisfy them.

- Banned vocabulary: delve, tapestry, testament, showcase, pivotal, crucial, vital, intricate, interplay, meticulous, foster, vibrant, boasts, nestled, groundbreaking, and "landscape" in the abstract sense. Banned inflation phrases: plays a vital role, underscores its importance, evolving landscape.
- Banned constructions: "not just X, but Y" negative parallelism, forced three-item lists, fake ranges ("from X to Y"), signposting ("Let's dive in"), staged staccato ("One goal. Zero compromises."), and synonym cycling. Name a thing the same way every time.
- Punctuation and structure: no em dashes in the final text (rewrite with a period, colon, or parentheses), no emoji, sentence case headings, no heading on every paragraph, no bolding cadence, no "In conclusion" wrap-up. Close on a concrete fact.
- Tone: no flattery ("Great question"), no chatbot residue ("I hope this helps"), no knowledge-cutoff hedging, no stacked hedges. Hold the register the genre calls for and vary sentence length.
- Fact integrity: every instruction to be specific carries one boundary. Use only facts present in the user's input or in a verifiable source. Do not invent details to sound human. Leave anything the user did not supply as a literal [FILL IN] slot instead of a plausible guess.
- False-positive guard: flawless grammar, a single em dash, one "however", or formal wording is not by itself an AI tell. Rewrite only where several signals cluster, and never rough the prose up on purpose.

## Final self-audit

Draft the deliverable in full, then interrogate the draft on two counts. Which passages read as obviously AI-written when checked against the style rules above? Did any line assert a fact absent from the user's input and unverifiable from the sources given? Rewrite what fails and submit only the corrected version. The audit itself never appears in your output.

## Self-verification

1. Confirm that the deliverable is a translation brief, not an English translation of the sociology abstract.
2. Confirm that the source language remains “[FILL IN: source language]” unless the input explicitly supplies it.
3. Confirm that the target reader, English variety or style guide, source abstract, and required length are not filled with arbitrary values.
4. Check that the brief addresses sociological terminology rather than treating the task as generic translation.
5. Check that the source abstract’s substantive claims, population, methods, findings, limitations, and causal wording are protected from addition or distortion.
6. Check that the terms-and-names handling table includes sociological concepts, names, acronyms, institutions, and culture-bound references.
7. Check that numbers, units, dates, citations, and proper names have explicit handling instructions.
8. Check that the US-jurisdiction instruction names the relevant English variety and style-guide slots without inventing their requirements.
9. Check that culture-bound references receive conditional strategies rather than an ungrounded universal solution.
10. Check that the hybrid style boundary is explicit: itemized decision material and narrative explanatory material.
11. Check that the output includes reasoning steps before the final brief or conclusion, as requested.
12. Remove any fact, publication requirement, terminology choice, or formatting decision added beyond the supplied input.
13. Confirm that no slot—especially the source language, target reader, source abstract, or length requirement—has been completed by guesswork.
14. Confirm that the response has not drifted into translating, editing, reviewing, or evaluating the sociology paper itself.
15. Confirm that the final structure uses the required XML regions and that the brief ends with a clear delivery specification and review process.