The training on Simplified Technical English is a completely unique experience received so far for me. I found it to be extremely helpful for documentation writers. Section 3 of the STE Specification which deals with verbs and section 4 on how to sentence construction in STE were useful from a personal perspective. The course exercises were interactive and had a practical side to them. They help us compare our current standard of writing to an improved version in STE. I highly recommend this training to my colleagues also in the other divisions and offices.
Krishna Kishore Vedantam Product Design Specialist, Schindler
Frans was both consultant and trainer to my authoring team as we developed a version of STE specifically targeted for the information technology sector. His tremendous experience in the field and passion for conferring that knowledge to our writers was instrumental in our success in adapting the authoring process as well as the documentation itself. In the long run, controlled authoring initiatives are only as good as the writers themselves and the enthusiasm with which they adopt the changed working environment. I believe Frans was critical in assisting with the cultural reformation of my team. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
Karen Toast Conger Director, Product Training & Publications, WatchGuard Technologies Inc.
Introduction to Simplified Technical English (STE) was comprehensive and gave me the full picture of this technical writing standard and its related implementation processes. Rule 6.6 is something that I appreciate very much as there is a prescribed limit for the length of every paragraph. This will make the reading process much easier and user-friendly. The exercises were challenging and do take some time to get used to. Nevertheless, this part of the training session is a 9/10 for me. Shumin's delivery of the training was very clear and succinct. Her knowledge of the STE language standard spans both breadth and depth!
Mckeena Neo Technical Writing Team Leader, Thales Group (Previously, Gemalto)
This Simplified Technical English (STE) workshop has equipped me with the right kind of STE knowledge and skill sets to move forward confidently in my role as a technical writing team leader. I am glad that I was able to attend this course!
Team Leader Technical Writing, Hansem EUG
Frans is an exceptionnally talented linguist, in addition to an excellent marketing and technical representative for his company. Boeing has had the pleasure of working with Frans as the liaison for our activities and hopes to continue having him support us in that role and any future role he may have with the company.
Ligia McLean International Business Mgr., The Boeing Company
Thanks for this course. I learned a lot and would have liked to spend more time improving these skills. My takeaway? Simplify and remove whatever is unnecessary.
TCLoc Master's Student University of Strasbourg
The course intro was helpful. Shumin used examples, videos, and
asked us questions to introduce the material. Knowing that the
subject matter could be dry, she tried to counteract that by varying
the presentation. The information itself was useful for what we did
later in the course.
My favourite rules are the word count rules. That sounds lame, but
I tend to write too long of sentences that don’t get to the point.
The exercises were really helpful in demonstrating the rules that
we had talked about / gone over. I got the most out of doing the
exercises and working on the examples that we submitted.
I would definitely recommend the course to someone considering or currently using STE. Shumin catered the course to our needs and familiarity level. She was very knowledgeable and was happy to help us through trouble spots and answer our questions.
Kelly Walsh, Technical Writer Aerotech Inc.
Rule 1.3: Use approved words only with their approved meanings and rule 1.4: Use only the approved forms of verbs and adjectives are rules that left an impression on me. But it is difficult to have a favourite rule as you need something from all the rules we touched upon. The STE writing rules were presented well and I cannot think of any way to do this better. Overall, exercises were well balanced between how much each person had to do. More crucially is that people understand each question.
Erik Madsen Head of Maintenance Support, Maersk Drilling
I would rate the introduction to ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English an 8 out of 10. Base on the STE presentation on rules, my favourite would be Rule 2.3 where you use an article (the, a, or an) or a demonstrative adjective (this, these) before a noun. The STE exercises provided in this workshop were of a very high standard and I would rate them 9/10. In terms of trainer evaluation, I would rate Shumin's training an 8 out of 10.
Rutger van Alphen de Veer Technical Writer, MAHLE Group
Rule 3.6 Use only the active voice in procedural writing is my favourite STE rule. Use the active voice as much as possible in descriptive writing. In my opinion, this rule would avoid a lot of translated texts misunderstandings. Thank you for the course and being flexible. You accepted moving the course to September to give us the opportunity to complete the TCTrainNet unit.
TCLoc Master's Programme University of Strasbourg
The training on Simplified Technical English is a completely unique experience received so far for me. I found it to be extremely helpful for documentation writers. Section 3 of the STE Specification which deals with verbs and section 4 on how to sentence construction in STE were useful from a personal perspective. The course exercises were interactive and had a practical side to them. They help us compare our current standard of writing to an improved version in STE. I highly recommend this training to my colleagues also in the other divisions and offices.
Krishna Kishore Vedantam Product Design Specialist, Schindler
Frans was both consultant and trainer to my authoring team as we developed a version of STE specifically targeted for the information technology sector. His tremendous experience in the field and passion for conferring that knowledge to our writers was instrumental in our success in adapting the authoring process as well as the documentation itself. In the long run, controlled authoring initiatives are only as good as the writers themselves and the enthusiasm with which they adopt the changed working environment. I believe Frans was critical in assisting with the cultural reformation of my team. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
Karen Toast Conger Director, Product Training & Publications, WatchGuard Technologies Inc.
