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The common denominator for credible & concise documentation across industries

The common denominator for credible & concise documentation across industries

TCLoc Master article on The common denominator for credible & concise documentation across industries by Ms. Shumin Chen, Principal ASD-STE100 Trainer & Consultant.

First published on TCLoc Master Blog • University of Strasbourg • 4 December 2017

Safety, efficiency, and readability are the main considerations for the use of ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) in the aerospace and defense industries. For many other industries, such as machinery, automotive, electronics, IT, and medical equipment, another important consideration is to save on translation costs without compromising on translation quality. As technical communicators, navigating the tricky terrains of cost, quality, and efficiency in project management can be an extremely delicate equilibrium to maintain.

Standards

To technical communication professionals, it makes a lot of sense to use standards whenever possible to achieve similar results. However, standards in the documentation field are often disregarded. Documentation always kicks in when the product is already behind schedule, and over budget for the product life-cycle. However, we still want to stand behind what we do and make sure we provide a quality product. How does a written language standard potentially help us to achieve this and why do we need a controlled language such as STE to begin with?

Consider the following example:

Standard English:

Follow these instructions to prevent potential failures and damage and to ensure as safe and trouble-free functioning of the product as possible. Read this manual before starting to work with the filter system, familiarize yourself with the functionality and operation of the product and follow the instructions.

STE:

FOR SAFE OPERATION, OBEY THESE INSTRUCTIONS TO PREVENT POSSIBLE FAILURES.
READ THIS MANUAL BEFORE YOU START TO DO WORK WITH THE FILTER SYSTEM. KNOW THE PRODUCT FUNCTION AND OPERATION, AND OBEY ALL INSTRUCTIONS.

Which set of instructions lets you understand and complete the procedure with greater ease?

 

Open Simplified Technical English (STE) training workshop in Rabat, Morocco

Open Simplified Technical English (STE) training workshop in Rabat, Morocco

Quick facts

Dates: 14 – 15 February 2017

Location: Rabat, Morocco

Length of training: 2 days

Early bird registration: Before 16 January 2017

Sign up early to enjoy a 20% training discount

Deadline for registration: 26 January 2017

This two-day professional training course is intended for technical authors to familiarise themselves with the ASD-STE100 controlled language specification through a series of classroom- and workshop-type instruction and interaction.

Summary

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. STE helps to make translations cheaper and more accurate.

STE improves quality, both in the aviation and defence industries, where it is often mandatory for safety reasons, and in any other technical industries. 

 

Course outline*

  • Practical overview of ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English
  • How STE helps both native & non-native speakers of English
  • Writing rules and how to apply them in practice
  • How to use the general vocabulary
  • How to deal with industry-specific terminology
  • How to use STE for various documentation types
  • How to implement STE with minimal disruption to on-going production and existing documentation
  • Hands-on STE editing and review

* Shufrans also offers customised ASD-STE100 training solutions tailored to meet your specific requirements. These courses are normally provided at the customer’s premises.

“STE is a ‘way of life’ in the field of technical writing and documentation. The ASD-STE100 exercises covered a wide spectrum of topics from choosing between approved and non-approved words to recreating documentation in STE. Shumin expertly guides us from classroom learning mode to real-life practical application of STE rules. The materials that she presented were informative and very convincing.” Martin Broekhuis, Technical Editor, Webasto.

Who should attend?

  • Compliance managers
  • CIO, COO, CTO
  • Customer support managers
  • Documentation managers
  • Editors
  • Engineering managers
  • Engineers and SMEs who create documentation
  • Graphics specialists
  • ILS managers
  • Maintenance managers
  • Operation managers
  • Product managers
  • Project managers
  • Quality managers
  • Software research engineers
  • Technical illustrators
  • Technical writers
  • Translation managers
  • Translators

What training outcomes to expect?

Ms. Shumin Chen will teach participants how to correctly and effectively use STE in practice. She will also address some of the mistakes commonly found in technical writing and the frequently incorrect use of common STE writing rules.

Our interactive training, exercises and workshop, will teach participants to standardise content to:

  • Author more efficiently
  • Communicate more effectively with a global audience
  • Improve operational safety
  • Reduce AOG / downtime
  • Facilitate modular writing and reuse
  • Facilitate teamwork
  • Facilitate translation
  • Maximise consistency
  • Optimise product lifecycle support
  • Reduce the cost of creating and maintaining technical publications

Trainer’s qualifications

Ms. Shumin Chen, principal trainer & consultant at Shufrans TechDocs received her professional on-the-job training in the field of STE under the tutelage of Dr Frans Wijma, a linguist and documentation expert. Together as an experienced global team, they provided their combined knowledge and dedication to benefit customers worldwide. To date, they have provided training and consultancy services to over 170 companies. Shufrans TechDocs is the only company with such vast experience in providing certified STE training.

Shumin has supported various companies with their STE and other documentation needs, based on standards where possible. Although STE was developed for the aerospace industry, more specifically for aircraft maintenance documentation, Shumin found that it made a lot of sense to apply the same principles to other industries and types of documents as well. Few -if any- changes to the specification are necessary to adapt STE to industries ranging from machinery to IT, automotive to medical equipment.

 

 

Write effective user manuals & instructions with Simplified Technical English

Write effective user manuals & instructions with Simplified Technical English

Quick facts

Dates: 15 – 17 October 2018

Location: Seoul, South Korea

Length of training: 3 days

Early bird registration: Before 15 September 2018

Sign up early to enjoy a 20% training discount

Deadline for registration: 1 October 2018

Summary

Simplified Technical English (STE) stresses on the use of unambiguous terminology where one word only has one meaning. This reduces the likelihood of using synonymous terms that can result in confusion. Optimum re-usability of technical terms on the word, phrase, and sentence levels is to be expected. This will greatly improve any product life-cycle management process.

Technical documentation that is written in STE becomes easier for non-native speakers of the English language to understand. The resulting text is much easier to translate which is especially relevant when machine translation is part of your localization strategy. Preparing your technical content with ASD-STE100 ensures quality at the source and prepares you for future-proof translation processes.

Said Ms Shumin Chen, principal ASD-STE100 trainer: “The benefits of implementing and writing in Simplified Technical English (STE) are manifold – audience engagement through high-quality content, improved product safety, lower life cycle cost and reduced logistics footprint!”

“The ASD-STE100 course I attended by Shumin was very intensive yet enjoyable. Besides the standard format and company templates used when creating documentation, STE rules helped me understand that there is an alternative approach to technical writing. Top Qualities: Effective, versatile, high-quality training delivery.” Manufacturing Engineer, FNSS Defence Systems

Course outline*

  • Practical overview of ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English
  • How STE helps both native & non-native speakers of English
  • Writing rules and how to apply them in practice
  • How to use the general vocabulary
  • How to deal with industry-specific terminology
  • How to use STE for various documentation types
  • How to implement STE with minimal disruption to on-going production and existing documentation
  • Hands-on STE editing and review

Who should attend?

  • Compliance managers
  • CIO, COO, CTO
  • Customer support managers
  • Documentation managers
  • Editors
  • Engineering managers
  • Engineers and SMEs who create documentation
  • ILS managers
  • Maintenance managers
  • Operation managers
  • Product managers
  • Project managers
  • Quality managers
  • Technical writers
  • Translation managers
  • Translators

What training outcomes to expect?

Ms. Shumin Chen will teach participants how to correctly and effectively use STE in practice. She will also address some of the mistakes commonly found in technical writing and the frequently incorrect use of common STE writing rules.

Our interactive training, exercises and workshop let participants standardise content to:

  • Author more efficiently
  • Communicate more effectively with a global audience
  • Improve operational safety
  • Reduce AOG / downtime
  • Facilitate modular writing and reuse
  • Facilitate teamwork
  • Facilitate translation
  • Maximise consistency
  • Optimise product lifecycle support
  • Reduce the cost of creating and maintaining technical publications

Trainer’s qualifications

Ms. Shumin Chen, principal trainer & consultant at Shufrans TechDocs received her professional on-the-job training in the field of STE under the tutelage of Dr Frans Wijma, a linguist and documentation expert. Together as an experienced global team, they provided their combined knowledge and dedication to benefit customers worldwide. To date, they have provided training and consultancy services to over 180 companies. Shufrans TechDocs is the only company with such vast experience in providing certified STE training.

Shumin has supported various companies with their STE and other documentation needs, based on standards where possible. Although STE was developed for the aerospace industry, more specifically for aircraft maintenance documentation, Shumin found that it made a lot of sense to apply the same principles to other industries and types of documents as well. Few -if any- changes to the specification are necessary to adapt STE to industries ranging from machinery to IT, automotive to medical equipment.

* Shufrans also offers customised ASD-STE100 training solutions tailored to meet your specific requirements. These courses are normally provided at the customer’s premises.

 

 

International Standards at Shufrans TechDocs

International Standards at Shufrans TechDocs

Safety starts with quality. The best product is only as good as its documentation and technical data allow the customer to make optimum use of it. Formerly known as Simplified English, Simplified Technical English (STE) is an international standard (ASD-STE100) that helps to make technical documentation easy to understand.
Simplified Technical English standardises vocabulary, grammar and style, while letting users control their specific terminology.

Although Simplified Technical English originates from the aerospace and defence industries, it can easily be customised and applied to any other industry.

Using guidelines from the ASD-STE100 specification, writers and editors can take document clarity and consistency to the next level. Text written in Simplified Technical English shows improved readability and translatability. These benefits should not be overlooked as products and their accompanying documentation are increasingly shipped to many countries worldwide where English is not the main language used. Consequently, whether the majority of your audience is made up of native or non-native speakers of the English language, getting your message across clearly becomes faster and easier.

Text based on Simplified Technical English is also cheaper and faster to translate. Users of your documentation will benefit from higher translation quality, and mistranslations become less of a concern.
Injuries, losses and costly legal liabilities can happen as a result of unclear documentation and ambiguous translations. Simplified Technical English is based on standardised terminology and simple grammar rules. Consistent terminology facilitates your task of indexing and helps users to find pertinent information faster by eliminating unnecessary synonyms and spelling variants.