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.

I find that STE rule 2.1 extremely useful in technical documentation to avoid ambiguity. Rule 3.6 is one of my favorites because you need to master well syntax and language to always avoid passive voice. It was a good excercise, thanks Shumin for this interesting and challenging topic!

Shumin gave us a an all-rounded presentation to Simplified Technical English. Personally, rule 1.3: To use only approved words with their approved meaning holds the key to successful controlled language implementation. Rules 3.4, 3.6, 4.1, 5.3, and 5.5 are also among my favourites. The approved verb TO MAKE SURE THAT can come in very handy for technical writers as well. The presentation of STE rules offers quite a detailed overview that includes not only language rules but good, old technical authoring principles in general. It has been very helpful for us to learn and understand the concept of STE. I have found Shumin to be very competent in STE and will defnitely recommend her course!

The course was intellectually challenging and stimulating. "Less is more" as an STE principle is something that I quite like :). For a beginner, there is quite a lot of material to process, and study in a short time. On the plus side, Shumin presented the material intelligibly and gave sufficient number of examples during her lectures. Her presentations were very well-prepared, and I enjoyed her classes. 🙂

Frans gave our group of three teams training in Simplified Technical English. He was engaging as a speaker and really made the 2-day training enjoyable and worthwhile. I didn't think we all could use the new ways of writing and thinking that he was teaching, but everyone got on board right away. We continue to use the skills that Frans taught us, with the same type of enthusiasm he brought to the group during training. This was probably the best training I've had at Check Point, in either technical or professional subjects. Top Qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative

The Simplified Technical English course content and requirements provided by Shumin Chen were an absolute good fit with the TCLoc Master's program. A technical communicator has to know about the existing specifications for technical documentation. Furthermore, this course helps the students to acquire new skills in order to enhance the accuracy and clarity of contents.

The introduction to STE gave me a more detailed idea about the STE concept. STE favours simple and short sentences to give the audience a clear idea of how information develops. It was also good to know that some verbs that ar evry commonly used in Schindler vocabulary are not acccepted in STE. Instead, shorter, simpler verbs can be good enough. To add, rules and tips provided during the training has been very helpful for my work. The exercises were practical and useful and I wish we had more time to go into more detail. Everything had been clearly explained and Shumin was very specific. I would most likely recommend this course to technical authors.

A very important and highlighted point during the introduction is that STE is an English language specification that is not only applicable for companies in the aerospace & defence industry. Rule 5.2 where you only have one instruction per sentence is important to us. Not being able to use the verb "CHECK' that is only used as an approved STE noun poses a challenge to me all the time. I really appreciate the STE writing rules that give us the possibility to improve the consistency of our documents. The workshop exercises were of high interest value and drive home the point that it is important to learn by doing. Although a time-consuming process, the writing workshop impressed on me that the need to prioritise the analysis of our internal documents. Shumin is a competent trainer who does not only focus on explaining and enforcing the "writing rules", but is always available to understand and empathise with the training needs of the class.

Frans has rare skills in global demand - indeed when I met him he was spending much of his time crossing oceans to find creative foreign language solutions for his clients' advanced technical publications challenges. Frans has a special knack for understanding the Asian markets and his brilliant decision to develop business out of Singapore should serve him well regardless of the economic climate. I wish him all the best of success.

I have a great pleasure to work with Shumin Chen on a number of complex technical translation projects. She is very talented, efficient and dependable, making sure to meet and exceed the customer's expectations.