Technical writing is hard work

This site is no longer maintained

You may be interested in the following links:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com for all technical documentation and publication needs.

www.asd-ste100.net for Simplified Technical English expertise.

www.asd-ste100.solutions for Simplified Technical English training & consultancy services.

International training workshops can be found here:

http://www.shufrans-techdocs.com/upcoming-ste-training-locations/

STE-koulutusta Helsingissä

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE), suomeksi: Yksinkertaistettu Tekninen Englanti, on kansainvälinen standardi, joka auttaa tekemään teknisistä asiakirjoista helposti ymmärrettäviä. STE yhdenmukaistaa sanaston, kieliopin ja tyylin ja antaa käyttäjille myös vapauden kontrolloida alansa erikoissanastoa.

ASD-STE100:n käyttö on usein pakollista ilmailu- ja puolustusteollisuuden käyttäjille. Kouluttamiemme yhtiöiden joukossa, joita autoimme saavuttamaan standardin vaatimukset, ovat Patria, BAE Systems, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, EADS ja Eurocopter.

Mitä tulee muiden alojen, kuten esimerkiksi tietotekniikan, koneteollisuuden, lääketieteellisten laitteiden- ja elektroniikkateollisuuden alojen harjoittajiin, STE voidaan helposti mukauttaa vähentämään käännösten kustannusta merkittävästi ja samanaikaisesti parantamaan käännösten laatua. Muutamia kouluttamiamme yhtiöitä näillä aloilla ovat Finn-Power, ABB, Sandvik, Samsung, Microsoft, WatchGuard, Hach ja Huawei.

Shufra on kansainvälisesti johtavassa asemassa STE-koulutuksessa ja konsultoinnissa. Tällä hetkellä tarjoamme 2 päivän pituisen STE-valmennuksen Helsingissä 28. ja 29. tammikuussa 2012. Tämä on avoin valmennus, jossa maksat istumapaikasta ja jossa useat yhtiöt jakavat saman luokkahuoneen. Suurin ryhmäkokomme on 10 henkilöä. Tarjoamme mielellämme myös asiakkaille räätälöityjä ja heidän omissa tiloissaan tapahtuvia tunteja.

Lisätietoja saat sivulta: http://www.shufra-consultancy.com tai ota minuun yhteyttä.

This site is no longer maintained

You may be interested in the following links:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com for all technical documentation and publication needs.

www.asd-ste100.net for Simplified Technical English expertise.

www.asd-ste100.solutions for Simplified Technical English training & consultancy services.

International training workshops can be found here:

http://www.shufrans-techdocs.com/upcoming-ste-training-locations/

Certified ASD-STE100 training classes in January 2013

Registration is open!

Ankara, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil

Jakarta, Indonesia

Helsinki, Finland

This site is no longer maintained

You may be interested in the following links:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com for all technical documentation and publication needs.

www.asd-ste100.net for Simplified Technical English expertise.

www.asd-ste100.solutions for Simplified Technical English training & consultancy services.

International training workshops can be found here:

http://www.shufrans-techdocs.com/upcoming-ste-training-locations/

GMF AeroAsia gets recurrent ASD-STE100 training

Following their last ASD-STE100 training conducted by Dr. Frans Wijma in 2006, GMF AeroAsia will receive their second on-site ASD-STE100 training in Jakarta, Indonesia. In all, a team of 20 engineers will be trained in the rules and hone their skills in the practical application of Simplified Technical English writing rules. 

GMF AeroAsia, Garuda Indonesia Group’s MRO division, is a major facility for aircraft maintenance as well as cargo conversion services in the APAC region. It has long-established technical associations with Airbus, Boeing, Rockwell Collins and Honeywell, and works for major airlines worldwide.

GMF AeroAsia has selected Shufra’s ASD-STE100 training solution to help them optimise readability and improve consistency of their technical documents, procedures and records. This forms an integral part of the quality assurance which is key to GMF AeroAsia’s passion for reliability.

Said Mr Syahrul, VP Learning Center & Knowledge Management: “As a reputable organization driven by our passion for knowledge and strife for providing high-quality MRO services, we are always on the lookout for excellent technical training courses to empower our workforce. We are very pleased with the objective training approach used by Dr Wijma and are very confident that the implementation of ASD-STE100 will greatly benefit the airline industry and improve safety standards.” 

This site is no longer maintained

You may be interested in the following links:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com for all technical documentation and publication needs.

www.asd-ste100.net for Simplified Technical English expertise.

www.asd-ste100.solutions for Simplified Technical English training & consultancy services.

International training workshops can be found here:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com/upcoming-ste-training-locations/

Join us in Ankara, Turkey in the new year 2013!

Join this professional training opportunity to learn about international documentation standards and achieve:

• Cost savings
• Reduced translation cost
• Professional improvement
• Quality assurance
• Compliance
• Competitive advantage
• Shorter time-to-market and downtime

Shufra's training has been fully updated to support the latest version of the specification - Issue 5, April 2010.

Topic
Simplified Technical English will greatly improve the quality of your documentation and help you achieve considerable time and cost savings. This standard regulates the language used in technical publications, making text easier to understand, less ambiguous and more consistent. STE greatly improves translation quality and provides a perfect basis for multilingual translation, saving cost while achieving optimum quality.
See our case study to learn more about the cost savings associated with Simplified Technical English.

When?
The STE course will be held on 7 and 8 January 2013, from 9.00 till 16.00 h.

Where?
Ankara, Turkey

Who we are
Shufra was founded by seasoned industry experts who work according to international standards and have extensive experience in many industries, including aerospace, defense, electronics, machinery, medical equipment, banking and telecommunications.

To register
Please contact us for more information or to register.

This site is no longer maintained

You may be interested in the following links:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com for all technical documentation and publication needs.

www.asd-ste100.net for Simplified Technical English expertise.

www.asd-ste100.solutions for Simplified Technical English training & consultancy services.

International training workshops can be found here:

http://www.shufrans-techdocs.com/upcoming-ste-training-locations/

STE in a nutshell

Source: The Finnish Technical Communications Society December 2012 Issue

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) is a controlled language standard that helps to improve readability and translatability of technical documentation. STE originates from the aerospace and defence industry and is a requirement for many aerospace and defence projects. Increasingly, companies in other technical industries, such as automotive, machinery, electronics, telecommunications and medical equipment, adopt STE to reduce translation cost and improve translation quality.

Download full article here

This site is no longer maintained

You may be interested in the following links:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com for all technical documentation and publication needs.

www.asd-ste100.net for Simplified Technical English expertise.

www.asd-ste100.solutions for Simplified Technical English training & consultancy services.

International training workshops can be found here:

http://www.shufrans-techdocs.com/upcoming-ste-training-locations/

In search of technical authoring tools?

A checker software does not think in the writer's place. Simplified Technical English training, although only a fraction of the cost of such supposed “full implementation”, achieves 75% of the benefits and results of an approach that includes checker software. Bear in mind that using checker software without proper training will do more harm than good. The tool cannot replace the writer, although it can certainly assist him.

This site is no longer maintained

You may be interested in the following links:

www.shufrans-techdocs.com for all technical documentation and publication needs.

www.asd-ste100.net for Simplified Technical English expertise.

www.asd-ste100.solutions for Simplified Technical English training & consultancy services.

International training workshops can be found here:

http://www.shufrans-techdocs.com/upcoming-ste-training-locations/

Standardisation as a cost reduction strategy

Why standardise?

Standardisation is widely practised in manufacturing to realise economy of scale at the product level. Why not apply standardisation to documentation?

Data standardisation is cost saving by common sense. Injuries, losses and costly legal liabilities can occur as a result of unclear documentation and ambiguous translations. Just like the manufacturing industry makes use of standard components in their product assembly line, Simplified Technical English uses standard vocabulary in the ASD-STE100 specification and consistent industry-/product specific terminology to create documentation. 

The borrowed concept of standardisation in the engineering world when translated into the technical documentation industry is based on standardised terminology and simple grammar rules. The latter for instance, promotes the use of the active voice and simple present tense to clearly identify the doer of a particular action so as to avoid miscommunication and ambiguous translations during the localisation process. In a nutshell, we can draw a parallel between grammar rules and SOPs that both share a common purpose in streamlining processes in a straightforward and objective manner.

How does Simplified Technical English differ from Standard English and how do I know if this is right for my industry?

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) is an international standard 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, including machinery, automotive, electronics, IT and medical equipment. Major manufacturers and the S1000D standard require the use of ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English.

Case studies available for reference

Our customer is a manufacturer of mobile X-ray based imaging solutions. They created an operator manual and a service manual in Standard English. This manual is to be translated into 7 other languages.

Before using Simplified English, the manuals had a total word count of 67,300 words. The number of pages was 454. In Simplified English, the word count came down to 49,600 words. The page count was reduced to 406.

Standard English cost calculation (in EUR)*

	Word count	Word rate	Target languages	Cost
No match	59,315	0.14	7	58,128.70
Repetition	7,985	0.04	7	2,235.80
Total	67,300			60,364.50

Simplified English cost calculation (in EUR)*

	Word count	Word rate	Target languages	Cost
No match	36,515	0.14	7	35,784.70
Repetition	13,085	0.04	7	3,663.80
Total	49,600			39,448.50

The company thus saves almost EUR 21,000 or 35% on the translation of these manuals. For subsequent manuals, the savings would increase further thanks to better re-use and yield from translation memory.

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.

With the ever increasing number of languages that companies need to deal with, these savings add up quickly. 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.

For this reason, the time-to-market is reduced by a similar percentage.

See our site www.shufra-consultancy.com for more information.

Editorial note: Based on feedback from readers, we would like to clarify that the cost reduction above is based on statistics from standard commercial memory tools, i.e. re-use on the sentence (segment level). This is brought by a combination of consistent style, vocabulary and terminology.