NIT, Japan Implements Trinka AI to Improve Academic and Technical English Writing
Nippon Institute of Technology (NIT), Japan aimed to provide support for research writing in English for their students and faculty and assist them through specialized programs at the English Learning Support Center (ELSC).
The ELSC, dedicated to enhance the English proficiency of its students and faculty, initially focused on improving general English writing skills. It expanded its mission to include performance improvements in exams like TOEIC and technical English writing for engineering fields.
NIT partnered with Trinka to provide AI-based writing assistance to support their students and faculty and boost confidence in research writing in English. This partnership also aimed to increase their publication in international English-language journals.
Challenges
They needed a solution for technical English writing education by English-native tutors who are not science and engineering researchers.
1NIT wanted to increase the employability of its students globally and strong technical English writing skills were crucial for this goal.
2They aimed to increase the number of their international publications and presentations by encouraging everyone to write more in English.
3The Result
Trinka’s team discussed NIT’s objectives and concerns, suggested a solution that was rolled out for everyone at the ELSC.
The solution allowed all the students and faculty members to use Trinka AI's advanced writing assistance to improve the English language quality of their documents, manuscripts, articles, presentations, and more.
- They used the Proofread file feature to upload the file (MS Word/LaTeX) and get a track-changed version of the proofread file in seconds. This was done while retaining formatting of the file, which was extremely critical for technical and academic documents.
- Trinka provided word suggestions, advanced grammar and technical spelling corrections that improved the document's language quality.
- Trinka offered writing advisor and language enhancement suggestions that helped students meet international academic writing standards.
Trinka provided English writing feedback in the interface, helping build the confidence of its students, and cultivate an English research writing culture.
- The feedback and explanations for each suggestion provided by Trinka AI helped students to learn, understand, and build their confidence in English writing.
- Specialized English courses and workshops were developed using Trinka’s features to enhance students' technical writing skills.
Key Benefits
There was significant improvement in the quality of English writing and the technical writing skills of the students.
1Students’ confidence increased in writing English and they were able to write more papers and meet international academic writing standards.
2The confidence in writing helped build a strong culture of English research writing, leading to an increase in publications in international English-language journals.
3Customer Feedback
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Fundamental Engineering, Nippon Institute of Technology, Director of English Learning Support Center, Nippon Institute of Technology
Takuya Kuwahara
Ph.D. (Engineering), Ph.D. (Applied Mathematics)How does Trinka help students learn English at your university?
The English Learning Support Center (ELSC) at our university uses Trinka mainly for correcting academic journal and conference papers. The ELSC has native English-speaking tutors, but they are not researchers in the science and engineering fields. On the other hand, full-time science and engineering faculty members and researchers in our department are not native English speakers, and that was our dilemma. The challenge for the Center was how to teach English specific to science and engineering. This is where we found Trinka. In addition to Trinka's English editing tailored to the scientific fields of the papers, they are double-checked by a native English-speaking instructor. Native tutors often learn the rules of science and engineering writing from Trinka's editing. Native tutors help students learn English for science and engineering by advising them on the edited manuscripts.
What do you find most useful about Trinka (for students or faculty)?
One of the most useful aspects of Trinka is that it uses MS-WORD's proofreading function. First of all, you can store your manuscripts on your own computer. Many of other English editing tools require you to work on the Web to reflect corrections, but it is important to keep the manuscript at hand so that you could take enough time to check it. The ability to transfer manuscripts to other devices, such as tablets, allows you to carefully review your English mistakes at any time, which I find very good in terms of leaning English. Trinka, along with other English editing tools, had been tested by both our faculty members and native English tutors at the Center, before we decided to implement Trinka. We have found that Trinka provides high quality English editing from both a science and engineering perspective as well as from English language perspective.
What features within Trinka do you find particularly useful?
What I find most useful is that Trinka’s use of the MS-WORD review function. The Revision Summary is also useful for learning English. The Citation Checker and Journal Finder functions are also very helpful. I find the Plagiarism Checker to be particularly useful. Sometimes, it flags a plagiarism from the past papers that I have written myself. If it is my own series of research, I have my own style (of writing), and I tend to be caught unintentionally plagiarizing. Using a plagiarism checker can reduce the risk of such (self-)plagiarism. We have also found that when you create an English text using a translation tool, it is recognized as an AI-generated text. I believe that many publishers also use similar checkers, so it is very helpful from the point of view of research ethics to be able to perform this kind of check before submission.
Are there any situations in which Trinka is/was helpful to you in writing papers, either within ELSC or in your university as a whole?
Trinka has helped us a lot in writing academic journal and conference papers. Because the AI corrects the mistakes that the human eye might miss, it gives you peace of mind when it comes to writing papers in English. The native tutors check for nuances in English, incorrect use of articles, and incorrect use of English words, etc. Trinka has greatly increased the efficiency of the native tutors' English editing work. However, we strongly recommend to use an outside English editing service, such as Enago, especially for peer-reviewed papers. Since the introduction of Trinka, we have seen an increase in the number of students and faculty members who are interested in writing papers in English. We also receive many inquiries about Trinka from interested faculty and students.
Please tell us about any specific successes or numerical results that Trinka has brought about.
Since papers remain forever, mistakes in the English text will remain forever. Even for papers written in Japanese, the abstract needs to be written in English, and the number of users of Trinka is increasing, because it can be used easily. Trinka has also been employed to write English abstracts for master's theses. We have been successful in getting people to know and use our center through the introduction of Trinka. Students who had never set foot in the center before are now using it and have more opportunities to converse in English with native English speakers. It has also helped faculty members and students increase their research achievements. We have had over 20 users in the first 6 months since its introduction, and our goal is to increase the number of users even further.
How have you found our team and support services?
We are very satisfied with your company's response and support. We have had the opportunity to have meetings and discussions with you, so we have been able to provide feedbacks on Trinka. In addition, we are grateful that you share information on how to solve issues in English education for science and engineering. We are also happy to receive information about your webinars and events. In Japan, English education in science and engineering is not so advanced because there is still a tradition that laboratory supervisors teach students how to write papers. On the other hand, the rules and ethics concerning writing papers are becoming stricter year by year. It is a fact that the traditional teacher-to-pupil English education is no longer able to cover the needs of the students. We are determined to become a pioneer in English language education for science and engineering, and we hope that we can continue to receive supports from your company.
What do you think are the advantages of using Trinka compared to other English editing tools?
Since Trinka uses the MS-WORD editing function, we can use it as if we were receiving English editing from an English editing company. If you have used an outside editing service before, you will probably feel comfortable using Trinka. Above all, Trinka is a tool developed by Enago, a company with an established reputation for English editing, which gives us a sense of trust and security. We believe that these points are the advantages of using Trinka. Other advantages of using Trinka include, again, its contribution to the research achievements of our faculty and students, as well as the motivation to use our center. Its English editing has also become a topic of conversation with native English-speaking tutors. Many students find it easier to talk in English when it is about their own research.