The author looks at the issue of language automation or machine translation. Various types of problems arise from this type of translation. One of the solutions to ensure a better end-product is to look at refining the input. If one can simplify the text to be translated, the computer's problems will be grealty simplified. The author outlines such a solution implemented at Caterpillar, an international manufacturer of heavy equipment, over the course of years. The company looked at the cost and time involved in translation, and helped develop the concept of "controlled authoring". By dramatically limiting the vocabulary and sentence complexity, the company has achieved impressive results with machine translation.