The presentation on rules clarified a lot of things of which I was unaware. I have a much better understanding of how to format lists with colons, when to use obey vs. comply, and the differences between notes, cautions, and warnings. Moving forward, I will be able to utilize the ASD-STE rules more effectively to write better documents. I appreciated the exercises completed in this workshop because they helped me immediately practice and enforce the ASD-STE rules. I like the fact that they were timed. Writing under time-constraints forced me to think quickly and fully concentrate on my writing. I will definitely recommend this training to writers of many fields, especially technical fields. The material, presentation, and instructor are fantastic. I learned a lot about ASD-STE. Even though I’ve been using this writing convention for almost eight years, formal training brought much clarity and comprehension that I had not previously realized. I now know that an aptitude for writing and a copy of the STE rules is a good start, but not enough. This course takes your understanding to a professional level!

The trainer was extremely knowledgeable and personable. She worked with us to resolve concerns and find creative solutions to challenging word choice suggestions. My preferred STE rules include: Limited accepted words in the vocabulary, limited length of sentences, and only using words for the approved meaning. A lot of writing, especially descriptive writing, can be verbose and cumbersome. It seems to me that sometimes engineers use fancy words to sound smarter or to show how complex or advanced the technology is, but that is not always helpful to the average user. As a user, I appreciate simple and clear instructions and explanations. I am hopeful that STE will let me write simply and clearly for our users. Thank you, Shumin! I really enjoyed the presentation and learning more about STE and how to use it.

I attended a Simplified English course given by Frans in Israel. He’s an excellent presenter, making the subject relevant and interesting. Frans provided expert advice on how to implement the Simplified English standard. Following the seminar, I have a much better understanding of the topic, which is already helping me and my team in our ongoing documentation projects. Top Qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative

The introduction provided a well-rounded history of ASD-STE, the types of industries that use it, and how they use it. I now have a better understanding of what ASD-STE is and how our company should be using it. My favorite writing rule is Rule 1.3 (Use approved words only with their approved meanings.) This rule is the heart of STE. It makes consistency, clarity, and comprehension ubiquitous across all documents regardless of who writes them. It is the main rule that unifies writers with one voice. My favorite STE verbs are Apply, Attach, Make Sure, and Show. The verb Apply has multiple use cases for our documents. The verb Attach is a great utility verb because common alternatives like “mount” are not approved. The verb “make sure” is extremely helpful in cautions and warnings, also in some procedural steps. Finally, the verb “show” is extremely helpful when I write about background processes and how things work in general. The presentation on rules clarified a lot of things of which I was unaware. I have a much better understanding of how to format lists with colons, when to use obey vs. comply, and the differences between notes, cautions, and warnings. Moving forward, I will be able to utilize the ASD-STE rules more effectively to write better documents. I appreciated the exercises because they helped me immediately practice and enforce the ASD-STE rules. I like the fact that they were timed. Writing under time-constraints forced me to think quickly and fully concentrate on my writing. I will definitely recommend this training to writers of many fields, especially technical fields. The material, presentation, and instructor are fantastic. I learned a lot about ASD-STE. Even though I’ve been using this writing convention for almost eight years, formal training brought much clarity and comprehension that I had not previously realized. I now know that an aptitude for writing and a copy of the STE rules is a good start, but not enough. This course takes your understanding to a professional level.

I've found all the rules introduced in this workshop equally valuable and applicable in my field of work. The ASD-STE100 Specification is very useful for searching examples and finding STE compliant alternatives. It was also great that we has such a large number of practical exercises. Personally, it would be more valuable to have more context available. This helps us judge how to apply STE optimally. Thank you Shumin! Your workshop was concise, clear, and pragmatic. I also liked the occasional humour! 🙂

TAI hired Frans to work with our experienced team and help them to improve their ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English skills. Frans helped us to identify areas for improvement both in our own documents and in those supplied by our customers and partners. At the end of the training, we all had learned simple yet effective methods to improve the quality, readability and compliance of our writing. Most importantly, we learned how to scrutinize text for commonly made mistakes and how to balance compliance with optimum readability. We enjoyed working with Frans, who has a pleasant personality and an open mind. I am happy to recommend him to any company that wants to improve its documentation, be it for compliance reasons or to facilitate translation. Top Qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value

This was a great course with very useful and practical knowledge for my work. Simplified Technical English (STE) encourages users to always refer to the approved list of verbs and nouns in the STE dictionary before writing their technical documentation. The active voice is also a very useful and powerful tool in sending loud and clear instructions to our users. Starting a warning or caution with a simple and clear command is also very crucial in my line of work. Shumin's delivery of the training is highly organised, and she has been most patient with our comments, questions, and feedback the whole time.

As advisor to her ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English on-the job-training, Shumin adopts a very structured approach to learning. She observes, absorbs and analyses to come up with relevant and insightful questions as well as ideas regarding the subject matter and improved ASD-STE100 training methods. Shumin is a very driven and highly intelligent professional who works very well either independently or as part of a team. She has strong analytical skills and expresses herself very well both verbally and in writing. Her sense of responsibility and passion about achieving the set objectives while meeting and exceeding clients' expectations is very inspiring and is a great asset to the company and its customers alike.

The goals and expectations of the course were laid out clearly. My favourite STE rule was rule 4.2: Do not omit words or use contractions to make your sentences shorter. I tend to shorten sentences as much as possible so I had to pay extra attention each time to ensure accuracy. I've found the course to be very interesting, and Shumin has conveyed the message very well. It would be great if we had more time to go through more assignments during class.

The introduction to ASD-STE100 was good and informative for someone like me with zero knowledge of the STE standard before. Rule 6.3 in STE writing summarizes the best of what I can take with me. There was quite a lot from the STE exercises to consume regarding grammar. Nevertheless, the worksheets were very good and helpful. I gained quite a lot of knowledge from them and they were the best part of this training workshop. Shumin was very professional and sharp as a razor. The best takeaway for me from her workshop is to give more thought to how I build my sentences rather than focussing on specific 'allowed' or 'approved' words.