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

I fully appreciate the advantages and benefits of implementing international language standards to our documentation. My favourite technical English writing rule is to only use company-approved terminology in addition to the general vocabulary that is offered by the Simplified Technical English specification. The technical English writing rules were clearly presented during this webinar. Overall, I have found this webinar to be useful for my work and Shumin responded well to all my questions and clarified the doubts I had before taking this course.

No doubt for Frans knowledge of simplified technical English. It's really useful in my job. Top Qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative

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.

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

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.

Shumin is a reference in the STE field. As a neophyte, I can hardly give you an advice. I regularly check your post on YouTube and I learn a lot from the videos and articles you post on the Internet. One word–continue. The best lesson I learnt is: Never use a long word where a short one will do. This rule forces the writer to be simple, yet concise. It is the golden rule of STE.

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.

Shumin did a very good job of explaining how the compliance in a language standard like STE varies from one industry to another, and is nothing like the law that enforces strict rules based on deterrence. Rather, it is a user-friendly standard that writers can turn to in times of need for consistency and standardising. My favourite STE rule is simply to use only approved technical words with the correct meaning and part of speech assigned.

Shumin possesses an in-depth knowledge of the English language and of Simplified Technical English (STE). We covered a lot of ground in the area of STE within a short time!