The role of technical authors and technical documentation managers
Technical writers are the go-between for subject-matter-experts (SMEs), engineers, designers and the end-users of documentation. Consequently, the responsibility of creating effective documentation falls on technical authors who will then endeavour to send out a clear, unambiguous, and user-friendly message about their products and line of services.
At the level of global information management, technical writing professionals should consider short-term tactics and longer-term strategies to overcome the following:
- An ever-increasing volume of words to write and translate
- Snowballing translation and documentation management costs
- Overlapping information across different versions of similar document types
- Low comprehension levels for the English language jargon.
Simplified Technical English as part of your content strategy
M-Files is an intelligent information management platform that helps companies make smart connections across the business and automate critical business processes, while at the same time keeping information secured and controlled.
ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) is a controlled language that is used to write technical manuals in such a way that they can be more easily understood by an international audience. To put it across plainly, STE is a form of controlled language that is guided by 53 technical writing rules that were put together by a committee of linguists, engineers, and manufacturers who established over the years that these writing rules made sense and allowed them to re-write any of their existing documentation based on these rules, making their documentation easier to understand, while maintaining accuracy, safety, and validity.
Develop, deploy, and deliver documentation with STE
STE Quick facts
Background: With the widespread dissemination of user documentation published in various delivery formats across several language translations, the relevance of global information management has become greater in an attempt to stem terminology inconsistencies, mistranslations, and the disproportionate escalation of costs associated with the maintenance, reuse, and consumption of technical content.
Year: In use since 1986
Current Version: Issue 8, May 2021.
Technical writing rules: 53
Dictionary word entries: approx. 2400 terms.
The STE specification also includes a core vocabulary of around 930 approved words and 1500 non-approved words that let technical authors write just about everything that they need for for procedural and descriptive texts. Therefore, the use of approved words, compliance with the standard, and a language quality checker tool to complement your content strategy efforts is akin to pooling your most valuable resources where people, internal processes, and innovative technologies become more aligned.
An innovative approach to consider for your global documentation landscape
Over the last three decades, STE has emerged as a rather important and universal standard for technical English. Predictably, as a result of language standardisation, STE helps us to achieve a number of benefits. Technical writers become more consistent on a word level. This starts with the simple fact that we are going to use the same word whenever we refer to the same thing, so that means an improved level of consistency and consequently quality improvements.
Where can I learn more about STE?
Shufrans TechDocs regularly hosts online training workshops for technical writers, SMEs, and engineers at different time zones for your convenience. To learn more about our diverse course offerings and workshop customisations that we can do for you and your global technical documentation team, speak to us today!
What customers are saying.. | M-Files
Jenna Lehtimäki, Technical Writer, M-Files Oy “The introduction to STE, summary exercises, and case studies were well-presented and didn’t take too much time. The STE writing rules and application were accompanied by many examples. The training also covered effective exercises related to STE that were of interest to the group.
The rewriting workshop was well managed and we got good support from the trainer. However, I thought that we would have more time for the rewriting part. Fortunately, we have the 90 days support so it is possible to continue rewriting and still get feedback from the trainer.
Thank you for the training! I would indeed recommend this course to all technical writers.”
Rosa Kirves, Junior Technical Writer, M-files “As a tech writer with a background in translations, I am familiar with what the Simplified Technical English writing specification entails and how it can be applied to my work. The training delivery by Shumin was very clear and easy to follow. Complex verb structures are unconsciously introduced into our technical content, and people tend to use it more often than not. Hence, rule 3.4 of STE really helps me get rid of this complicated grammatical tense to ensure a simpler sentence construction for improved user readability in our enterprise content.”
Raine Välimäki, Lead Technical Writer, M-Files Corporation “The course introduction and summary exercises were easy to understand, organised, and credible. As a whole, the rewriting workshop was, extremely useful and at the end of the day, probably the most beneficial part of the course. I can’t think of anything other to mention here, other than offering my sincere thanks for a very high quality course!”
Laura Säily, Junior Technical Writer, M-files “The introduction to Simplified Technical English (STE) was very useful for my understanding of what the international writing specification entails and how it can be applied to our daily work. Where writing rules are concerned, removing noun clusters in our technical content is an important aspect that I will consider as it is easy to spot and correct with many potential benefits in the short term and longer run. This is a technical writing course that I’d very most likely recommend to others in the technical writing industry.”
