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ASD-STE100 is an international standard that regulates the language used in technical publications. It was developed for aircraft maintenance documentation, but is now required for defense publications as well. This includes air, land and sea vehicles as well as weapons systems. It is called for by the S1000D specification, a military and aerospace standard defining the technical data structure for publications based on a common-source database. An ever increasing number of nations, operators and manufacturers require these standards in favour of existing national and proprietary standards.

Safety starts with quality. Even the best product is only as good as its documentation and technical data, which allow the customer to use it safely and effectively. Documentation is a vital and integral part of your product. Most crucially, the documentation needs to do its part to ensure the safe and correct use of the product by providing complete, accurate and effective information. Simplified Technical English (STE) can help you meet documentation compliance requirements, and can also increase the efficiency and productivity of your employees.

Safety issues, unnecessary downtime and damage to the product only make up the tip of the iceberg. A standardised way of writing improves text consistency and readability. Getting your message across clearly becomes faster and easier. Not only does this help alleviate the issues mentioned above, writing in Simplified Technical English also ensures customer satisfaction with your product and helps forge a stronger sense of customer loyalty towards your quality brand.

The advantages of Simplified Technical English are most evident when creating documentation that will be translated into a number of languages. Text in Simplified Technical English is easier to understand and may not even require translation. Where translation is needed, Simplified Technical English helps to drastically reduce translation cost and time-to-market, as it effectively eliminates redundant words and improves consistency. As the text volume is reduced by at least 20% and the remaining text becomes more repetitive, the use of Simplified Technical English typically results in 30 to 40% less translation cost.

With the ever increasing number of languages that companies need to deal with, the savings add up quickly. Moreover, the time-to-market is reduced by a similar percentage. As content in Simplified Technical English is easier to validate, technical writers will be more productive and fewer iterations and less rework will be required.