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Shufrans TechDocs is currently marking a significant milestone as our principal trainer has reached 20 years of delivering technical documentation expertise and training to high-compliance industries. Such milestones prompt reflection on the evolution of linguistic standards. A retrospective look at our archives brought us to a few photographs from February 2017, taken during our ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English training in Tiel, Holland.

During that session, our team and the participants celebrated the release of STE Issue 7 with a traditional cream cake. Beyond the rigorous application of controlled language rules, our trainer also hosted a traditional tea ceremony to provide a structured intermission from the technical material. These images highlight a persistent challenge, particularly the ongoing friction that technical authors and editors encounter daily when advocating for corporate linguistic governance.

A recent post-implementation review of our 2017 masterclass cohort confirms that a pervasive structural bottleneck remains unaddressed in web governance and software deployment documentation.

Modern software teams frequently use automated systems to extract user documentation directly from source code or system configurations. This process is efficient on paper. However, automated outputs that bypass rule-based linguistic standards consistently default to unstructured, traditional, and ambiguous prose.

When editors attempt to standardise this text to comply with ASD-STE100 guidelines during peer review, engineering teams often resist. Their argument is predictable: the wording is acceptable because the basic grammar is correct.

For technical communicators and developers managing this friction across globally distributed networks, the following arguments establish the objective business case for controlled language.

A recent post-implementation review of our 2017 masterclass cohort confirms that a pervasive structural bottleneck remains unaddressed in web governance and software deployment documentation.

Modern software teams frequently use automated systems to extract user documentation directly from source code or system configurations. This process is efficient on paper. However, automated outputs that bypass rule-based linguistic standards consistently default to unstructured, traditional, and ambiguous prose.

When editors attempt to standardise this text to comply with ASD-STE100 guidelines during peer review, engineering teams often resist. Their argument is predictable: the wording is acceptable because the basic grammar is correct.

For technical communicators and developers managing this friction across globally distributed networks, the following arguments establish the objective business case for controlled language.

The Reality of the Accessibility Card

Organisations routinely categorise web governance and documentation accessibility as an isolated compliance box, viewing it as a secondary accommodation for users with specific cognitive or physical challenges.

Shufrans TechDocs treats accessibility as a core functional requirement. Ambiguous text imposes a universal cognitive tax on all readers. Whether the user is a native speaker, an international client using English as a second language, or a systems engineer troubleshooting a critical failure under operational pressure, unstructured language forces the human brain to expend extra processing capacity simply to decode intent.

When technical content includes subjective attributes like “appropriate” or “sufficient” or relies on complex, passive structures, it compromises user efficiency. Forcing an operator to interpret meaning constitutes a structural product failure, irrespective of user ability. True accessibility ensures immediate, deterministic comprehension for every user across the global operational ecosystem.

Automation Requires Deterministic Constraints

When development teams automate documentation retrieval from source code, the operational logic driving that text generation must incorporate STE rules as core parameters.

Automated language generators excel at producing fluent prose. However, without deterministic boundaries, these engines systematically introduce rhetorical padding, passive structures, and polysemous verbs. Filtering automated output through a controlled language framework like ASD-STE100 ensures that software documentation remains predictable, standardised, and immediately actionable.

For technical communicators and editors enforcing these standards, linguistic governance is not a pedantic exercise in word choice. It is a necessary mechanism to safeguard data integrity and minimise cognitive strain across the digital enterprise.

The Challenge: Precision in High-Stakes Global Operations

Weatherford, a prominent global energy services company, operates at the forefront of onshore drilling and well completion. In such a high-stakes environment, which often involves highly sensitive downhole operations, the clarity and accuracy of technical documentation are not merely regulatory requirements but fundamental pillars of safety, operational efficiency, and environmental responsibility.

Maintaining a unified standard of communication across a globally dispersed workforce, with teams operating in different time zones (Europe, US & Canada, APAC), presents a significant challenge. Ambiguity in crucial documents, especially those related to complex drilling procedures or sensitive well completion activities, could lead to:

• Serious safety incidents or operational errors.
• Increased downtime and costly operational inefficiencies.
• Misinterpretations during complex well interventions.
• Challenges in compliance with diverse international regulations.
• Difficulties in efficient knowledge transfer and training.

Weatherford sought a scalable solution that could standardise their technical language, ensuring every instruction was understood unambiguously, regardless of the reader’s location or native language, with particular emphasis on the critical safety aspects of their operations.

The Solution: Targeted Online STE Training for a Global Workforce

Shufrans TechDocs partnered with Weatherford to implement a comprehensive ASD-STE100 training programme delivered entirely online, accommodating their global presence and various time zones. This approach ensured accessibility and consistency across their international teams. The training was delivered in multiple batches for participants from Europe, the US & Canada, and the APAC regions.

While a significant portion of the participants were engineers, the training was highly beneficial for several other key roles crucial to Weatherford’s operations:

• Technical Writers/Documentation Specialists: Direct authors of manuals and procedures, ensuring consistency and clarity from the source.
• Field Service Technicians/Operators: Directly implement procedures; clear instructions are paramount for safe and effective high-risk operations.
• Safety Officers/Compliance Specialists: Ensure adherence to safety protocols and regulatory standards, benefiting from unambiguous documentation.
• Training & Development Personnel: Responsible for creating clear and effective training materials for new hires and ongoing professional development.
• Supply Chain & Logistics Personnel: Who interpret specifications for equipment and materials, where precision avoids errors in ordering and handling.

The training focused on real-world application, working on the types of documents most critical to Weatherford’s operations:

• Drilling Procedures & Protocols: For various onshore drilling techniques, ensuring step-by-step clarity.
• Safety Procedures & High-Risk Operation Manuals: Covering all critical safety aspects, including the precise handling of specialised and sensitive materials used in well completion.
• Tool Operation & Maintenance Manuals: For specialised drilling tools and equipment.
• Technical Specifications & Data Sheets: Ensuring precise definitions for components and performance characteristics.
• Emergency Response Procedures: Where immediate and clear understanding can mitigate severe risks.
• Field Service Reports: For consistent and accurate reporting of observations and actions from the field.

The Results: Elevated Clarity, Enhanced Safety, and Optimised Global Operations

By embracing ASD-STE100 online training with Shufrans TechDocs, Weatherford achieved significant improvements across its technical communication landscape:

• Enhanced Safety & Reduced Risk: The primary benefit, especially for sensitive and high-risk operations, was a drastic reduction in ambiguity, leading to clearer, safer operational procedures and a lower risk of misinterpretation.
• Improved Operational Efficiency: Clearer procedures streamlined onshore drilling operations, reducing downtime and costly errors.
• Strengthened Global Consistency: A unified language standard ensured that documentation was consistently understood by diverse teams worldwide, regardless of geographical location or native language.
• Optimised Knowledge Transfer: Training materials became more effective, accelerating the onboarding of new personnel and improving ongoing professional development for all technical roles.
• Facilitated Compliance: Adherence to STE principles supported compliance with stringent industry regulations and safety standards globally.

Weatherford’s investment in STE training has transformed their technical documentation into a strategic asset, reinforcing their commitment to safety, efficiency, and operational excellence across their global onshore drilling and energy services.

If your organisation faces similar challenges in achieving uncompromising clarity and operational readiness through precise communication, discover how Shufrans TechDocs can help. Learn more about our ASD-STE100 training and consulting services:

🗓️ View our training calendar.

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For industries defined by innovation and complexity, including software development, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, healthcare technology, e-learning, and logistics, your technical documentation isn’t merely an instruction guide. It’s a critical asset, the essential bridge between your sophisticated innovations and the people who use, maintain, and rely on them globally.

However, achieving consistent, unambiguous information across diverse teams and international markets presents a significant challenge. When documentation lacks clarity, organisations can inadvertently face:

• Increased support demands, diverting valuable resources.
• User errors, leading to frustration, costly rework, or even safety implications.
• Extended and expensive translation cycles due to convoluted source material.
• Delays in market entry, as documentation struggles to keep pace with product development.
• Compliance hurdles in highly regulated industries, stemming from imprecise instructions.
• Undermined brand reputation, when sophisticated products are accompanied by confusing guides.

This isn’t just about grammatical precision. It’s about operational efficiency, global market access, and proactively managing business risks.

The Problem: When Precision is Paramount, but Language Isn’t Always Clear

Consider the engineer troubleshooting complex industrial equipment, the clinician relying on a medical device manual, or the developer integrating a new software solution. Their success hinges on absolute clarity. Yet, traditional technical writing often struggles with:

• Unnecessary jargon and colloquialisms.
• Inconsistent terminology and phrasing.
• Overly complex sentence structures.
• Subtle cultural nuances that don’t translate universally.

This is precisely where Simplified Technical English (STE) transcends a mere writing guideline and transforms into a strategic enabler.

STE: Your Pathway to Unambiguous Communication and Strategic Advantage

Developed initially for the aerospace industry, STE is a controlled language that employs a restricted vocabulary, simplified grammar, and consistent phrasing. It’s not about oversimplifying content. It’s about eliminating ambiguity to ensure every reader, regardless of their linguistic background, grasps the exact intended meaning – the first time.

For businesses operating in highly technical and global environments, adopting STE offers a tangible competitive edge:

• Enhanced User Experience: Making your complex products genuinely accessible and user-friendly.
• Streamlined Global Operations: Significantly reducing translation costs and accelerating international deployment.
• Improved Safety and Compliance: Minimising misinterpretation in critical instructions.
• Operational Efficiency: Reducing errors, rework, and support burdens across your organisation.

The Human Element: Why AI Isn’t the Full Answer for Technical Communication

In an era increasingly shaped by Artificial Intelligence, the question often arises: “Will AI replace technical writers?” At Shufrans TechDocs, our perspective is clear: AI is a powerful assistant, not a replacement for the human technical writer.

While AI excels at pattern recognition, rapid text generation, and adherence to rules (like STE guidelines), it profoundly lacks the critical human attributes essential for truly effective technical documentation:

• Nuance and Empathy: AI can’t fully grasp the subtle context, unstated assumptions, or the emotional state of a user navigating a complex task. Human writers apply empathy to anticipate user needs and craft clear pathways to understanding.
• Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving: AI generates text based on existing data. It doesn’t strategically identify core information gaps, troubleshoot complex user scenarios, or innovate new ways to present information. That requires human ingenuity.
• Subject Matter Expert (SME) Interaction: Extracting complex, often tacit, knowledge from engineers, developers, and scientists demands sophisticated interpersonal skills, active listening, and the ability to ask the right questions – tasks far beyond current AI capabilities.
• Ethical Judgment & Responsibility: Especially in regulated sectors, the responsibility for accuracy, safety, and compliance rests with humans, who must exercise ethical judgment, not simply generate text.

STE provides a robust framework, and AI can certainly assist in checking compliance or generating initial drafts. However, it is the human technical writer who applies strategic oversight, translates complex ideas into accessible language, and ultimately ensures the documentation genuinely serves its purpose and its audience. Our services are designed to empower and elevate these indispensable human skills.

Where STE Becomes Indispensable – A Sector Focus

At Shufrans TechDocs, we understand the unique documentation challenges within your industry. We partner with organisations like yours to help master STE:

• In Software Development: Imagine documentation that genuinely empowers users and reduces your support burden, driving adoption and satisfaction for intricate software solutions.
• In Renewable Energy & Sustainability: Flawless operational and maintenance manuals are critical for safety, efficiency, and the reliable functioning of complex infrastructure worldwide.
• In Heavy Machinery & Industrial Equipment: Precision in assembly, maintenance, and safety manuals directly impacts uptime, worker safety, and regulatory adherence for your sophisticated equipment.
• In Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals: In an industry where accuracy can save lives, STE ensures research protocols, manufacturing guides, and clinical trial documentation are unequivocally clear.
• In Healthcare Technology & Medical Devices: The clarity of instructions for life-saving devices and diagnostic tools is paramount for both user efficacy and regulatory scrutiny.
• In E-learning & Corporate Training Solutions: Consistent and globally comprehensible learning materials accelerate knowledge transfer and improve educational outcomes across diverse audiences.
• In Logistics & Supply Chain Management Technology: Clear documentation for complex technology solutions ensures seamless operations, reducing costly errors and delays in global supply chains.

Our Partnership: Equipping You for Documentation Excellence

Shufrans TechDocs provides the expertise to seamlessly integrate STE into your organisation’s content ecosystem:

1. STE Training: We equip your technical writers and content creators with the principles and practical application of STE, building sustainable in-house capability. This allows your human talent to focus on critical thinking and content strategy.
2. STE Proofreading & Editing: Our specialists meticulously review your existing documentation, refining it to meet stringent STE standards and eradicate ambiguity, ensuring legacy content is future-proofed.
3. STE Technical Writing Services: For new projects or when internal resources are stretched, our experienced writers craft precise, compliant, and user-friendly documentation directly in STE, leveraging their unique human understanding.

Don’t let unclear technical documentation be an overlooked obstacle. Invest in clarity, precision, and global understanding, empowered by human expertise and strategic frameworks like STE.

Ready to explore how human expertise and strategic frameworks like STE can elevate your technical communication? Connect with Shufrans TechDocs today.

🗓️ View our training calendar.

The perception of organisational knowledge assets often varies greatly across industries and regions. Historically, in many organisations, these crucial resources were primarily viewed as a mere obligation or an unavoidable expenditure – just “good enough” for basic stipulations, rather than a key strategic element. This approach frequently stemmed from an intense focus on rapid product creation and delivery, where the profound worth of clear, user-focused information wasn’t fully grasped.

However, this mindset is rapidly changing. A growing number of progressive enterprises globally are now recognising the immense strategic benefit of their content, moving beyond simple adherence to stipulations and leveraging it as a crucial competitive edge. Does your organisation view its internal and external written resources as a drain or a driver? The answer could profoundly shape your path to success.

Far too many companies still classify their content creation as just another administrative outlay – a box to tick for inspections or financial reviews. Yet, this perspective leads to considerable unmeasured repercussions:

• Operational Inefficiencies and Bloated Costs: Unclear or incomplete knowledge assets frequently trigger a surge in user queries, leading to frustrated customers and an inflation of customer service outlays. Simultaneously, new team members encounter unnecessarily protracted adjustment periods when self-serve knowledge bases are lacking, hindering their full productivity and impacting team morale for months.
• Heightened Compliance Risks and Penalties: Substandard reference materials expose your business to greater risks of regulatory non-compliance. This isn’t just about minor headaches; it can lead to significant financial penalties and substantial damage to your corporate reputation in highly scrutinised markets.
• Impeded Market Performance and Adoption: When individuals encounter confusing directions or manuals, they struggle to utilise your offerings effectively. This directly results in user frustration, diminished engagement with your products, and ultimately, missed opportunities for successful product launches and market penetration.

Conversely, consider the transformative advantages when written resources are regarded as a fundamental investment:

• Enhanced Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings: Empowered users who independently find their answers mean a dramatic reduction in inbound support tickets, freeing your valuable teams to focus on innovation and complex problem-solving rather than repetitive queries. Internally, comprehensive, readily available information dramatically shortens onboarding times, enabling new team members to contribute productively much sooner.
• Boosted Client Loyalty and Market Expansion: Clear, concise instructions enhance the user journey, cultivating trust and encouraging repeat business and positive referrals. Furthermore, well-structured information facilitates a smoother entry into new territories by providing consistent, high-quality support and understanding to diverse markets.
• Strengthened Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Investing in quality knowledge assets proactively ensures robust adherence to international benchmarks and mandates. This not only minimises the risk of penalties but also builds a reputation for reliability and professionalism, strengthening your position in a competitive global landscape.

The Verdict: Written assets are not merely an expense centre. They are your silent engine for operational excellence and sustained advancement.

If your approach to managing these vital resources remains reactive or an afterthought, you’re likely overlooking significant prospects and leaving tangible value untapped.

Unlock Your Knowledge Assets

Ready to transform your documentation from a cost centre into a strategic growth engine? Utilise ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English to achieve unparalleled clarity and efficiency in your content.

Encourage your team to explore Shufrans Techdocs worldwide online instructor-led training sessions. Our programmes equip your professionals with the practical skills to implement this standard, enabling them to create precise, compliant, and highly effective knowledge assets. Plus, you’ll benefit from 120 days of post-training support to ensure lasting success.

🗓️ View our training calendar.

*Course fee includes exercises, learning aids, certificate of completion, and 120-day post-training support.

⁺⁺A group discount of up to €500 is applicable when two or more participants sign up for the same event. Send us your questions: enquiry@shufrans-techdocs.com.

🏷️ A €210 fee discount is applicable when you also sign up for 🆕 Certified STE Masterclass | Europe Online.

Summary of Simplified Technical English (STE)

Simplified Technical English (STE) or ASD-STE100 is a controlled technical English language that is used to write technical manuals in a way that they can be more easily understood by an international audience. STE helps to make translations cheaper and more accurate. Often a formal requirement for aircraft and defence maintenance documentation, STE can easily be adapted to all technical industries and beyond. 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 frequent incorrect use of common STE writing rules.

Why select a Simplified Technical English training with Shufrans?

Shumin is a very knowledgeable STE instructor. She kept the course interesting and was always open to our questions/feedback. The introduction to Simplified Technical English has been greatly beneficial for my understanding of what the specification entails. In terms of preferred rules, I cannot pinpoint a specific set of STE writing rules as they are all valuable. This was my favorite part of the course as I enjoyed analyzing how other writers went about using STE to best apply it to their line of work.

The rewriting workshop was my favorite part of the course as I enjoyed analyzing how other writers went about using STE to best apply it to their line of work. I would highly recommend this course to all technical writers. Shumin Chen takes the time to clearly explain the rules of STE. A very attentive instructor, indeed. If given the chance, I would really enjoy working along side her. Michael Palmieri, Documentation Specialist, AON3D | The Advanced Additive Manufacturing Platform

STE Course Outline*

We’re committed to providing the highest quality learning experience in all our online workshops. Therefore, we’ve made the decision to cap all our online workshop session sizes at just five participants, starting 5 May 2025.

This intimate virtual environment fosters richer discussions, more personalised feedback, and a greater overall impact on your understanding and application of key technical communication standards like Simplified Technical English. Learn better, communicate better, across all our courses. This two-day Online STE Workshop includes interactive training, exercises, and a 120-day post-training consultation.

• Day 1: Classroom Training
  1. Practical overview of Simplified Technical English
  2. How STE helps both native & non-native speakers of English
  3. Benefits of adopting the STE international writing standard
  4. Writing rules and how to apply them in practice
  5. How to use the general vocabulary.
  6. Approved and non-approved words discussion and the rationale behind.

• Day 2: Application, Review, & Exercises
  1. How to deal with industry-specific terminology
  2. How to use STE for various documentation types
  3. How to implement STE with minimal disruption to on-going production and existing documentation
  4. Practical workshop session for applying STE rules to your own documents
  5. Review, edit, and discuss participants’ own documents to reinforce learning.
  6. Classroom presentation of own documents.

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

Who should attend this Simplified Technical English training?

• 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 technical writing outcomes to expect?

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

• Enhanced Communication & Efficiency: Authors will gain the skills to create clear, consistent, and easily translatable technical documentation, facilitating effective communication with a global audience and streamlining the writing process.
• Improved Operational Safety & Reduced Downtime: By mastering STE principles, teams will produce unambiguous documentation that minimises misunderstandings, directly contributing to improved operational safety and a reduction in costly AOG/downtime.
• Optimised Lifecycle Support & Cost Reduction: Training will enable modular writing and content reuse, leading to maximised consistency, optimised product lifecycle support, and a significant reduction in the overall cost of creating and maintaining technical publications.

What customers are saying..

The introduction was a good and concise way to familiarize yourself with STE basics. I’ve a background in plain language, so for example the rule on noun clusters makes perfect sense. I’m all about simplification, so substituting verbs like “eliminate” for verbs like “remove” or “stop” will be my new quest. The STE exercises were helpful in getting to grasp with STE during the training workshop. I’d very likely recommend this course to anyone planning to introduce STE as it’s got a great practical angle. Jenni Virtaluoto, PhD, Senior Lecturer, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

ASD-STE100 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 200 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, she 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 industrial sectors ranging from machinery to IT, automotive to medical equipment.

*Course fee includes exercises, learning aids, certificate of completion, and 120-day post-training support.

⁺⁺A group discount of up to €500 is applicable when two or more participants sign up for the same event. Send us your questions: enquiry@shufrans-techdocs.com.

🏷️ A €210 fee discount is applicable when you also sign up for 🆕 Certified STE Masterclass | US Canada Online.

Summary

Simplified Technical English (STE) is a controlled language that is used to write technical manuals in a way that they can be more easily understood by an international audience. STE helps to make translations cheaper and more accurate. Often a formal requirement for aircraft and defence maintenance documentation, STE can easily be adapted to all technical industries and beyond. Ms. Shumin Chen will show 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 frequent incorrect use of common STE writing rules.

Course outline*

We’re committed to providing the highest quality learning experience in all our online workshops. Therefore, we’ve made the decision to cap all our online workshop session sizes at just five participants, starting 5 May 2025.

This intimate virtual environment fosters richer discussions, more personalised feedback, and a greater overall impact on your understanding and application of key technical communication standards like Simplified Technical English. Learn better, communicate better, across all our courses. This three-day Online STE Workshop includes interactive training, exercises, and a 120-day post-training consultation.

• Day 1: Classroom Training
  1. Practical overview of Simplified Technical English
  2. How STE helps both native & non-native speakers of English
  3. Benefits of adopting the STE international writing standard
  4. Writing rules and how to apply them in practice.

• Day 2: Application & Exercises
  1. How to use the general vocabulary.
  2. Approved and non-approved words discussion and the rationale behind.
  3. How to deal with industry-specific terminology
  4. How to use STE for various documentation types.

• Day 3: Review, & Exercises
  1. Practical workshop session for applying STE rules to your own documents
  2. Review, edit, and discuss participants’ own documents to reinforce learning
  3. How to implement STE with minimal disruption to on-going production and existing documentation.
  4. Classroom presentation of own documents.

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

What customers are saying..

I was looking forward to the training and was not disappointed. I think that the training was valuable and would recommend that my colleagues take the training either on line or in person. Being able to send a sample document and then working on it together using my new STE skills was very helpful and valuable. Shumin was extremely knowledgeable and gave many practical examples. I hope to be able to make use of the support period post-training. Deborah Tonkin, Technical Information Engineer, Komatsu

Why select a Simplified Technical English training with Shufrans?

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. Jeppe Friis, Technical Inspector, Maersk Drilling Maintenance Support

Who should attend this ASD-STE100 workshop?

• 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 ASD-STE100 workshop training outcomes to expect?

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

• Enhanced Communication & Efficiency: Authors will gain the skills to create clear, consistent, and easily translatable technical documentation, facilitating effective communication with a global audience and streamlining the writing process.
• Improved Operational Safety & Reduced Downtime: By mastering STE principles, teams will produce unambiguous documentation that minimises misunderstandings, directly contributing to improved operational safety and a reduction in costly AOG/downtime.
• Optimised Lifecycle Support & Cost Reduction: Training will enable modular writing and content reuse, leading to maximised consistency, optimised product lifecycle support, and a significant reduction in the overall cost of creating and maintaining technical publications.

ASD-STE100 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.

*Course fee includes exercises, learning aids, certificate of completion, and 120-day post-training support.

⁺⁺A group discount of up to €500 is applicable when two or more participants sign up for the same event. is applicable when two or more participants sign up for the same event. Send us your questions: enquiry@shufrans-techdocs.com.

🏷️ A €210 fee discount is applicable when you also sign up for 🆕 Certified STE Masterclass | Asia Pacific (APAC) Online.

Rediscover clarity in documentation with STE

Simplified Technical English (STE) or ASD-STE100 is a controlled technical English language that is used to write technical manuals in a way that they can be more easily understood by an international audience. STE helps to make translations cheaper and more accurate.

ASD-STE100 is mandated by several commercial and military specifications (MIL-SPEC) that control the style and content of maintenance documentation. Military defence standards (MIL-SPEC / MIL-STD) such as MIL-STD-3048, as well as technical documentation standards like S1000D and ATA iSpec 2200 recommend the use of ASD-STE100. In ASD-STE100, technical authors are encouraged to keep sentences brief and paragraphs short, while ensuring the completeness of information.

Often a formal requirement for aircraft and defence maintenance documentation, STE can easily be adapted to all technical industries and beyond. Ms. Shumin Chen will show 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.

The ASD-STE100 workshop conducted by Shufrans TechDocs made for a very good introduction to STE for new as well as intermediate users of the STE writing standard. The presentation on rules was very clear and I liked the emphasis on the fact that the rules are weighted and how one can use them flexibly. The exercises completed during this training were good and provided real world examples in technical writing in a practical way. I’d very likely recommend this course to someone else. This course is a must for any new technical writers or technical publication employees. Neil Winson, Technical Writer, Airbus Helicopters

MEA Online STE Workshop Course Outline*

We’re committed to providing the highest quality learning experience in all our online workshops. Therefore, we’ve made the decision to cap all our online workshop session sizes at just five participants, starting 5 May 2025.

This intimate virtual environment fosters richer discussions, more personalised feedback, and a greater overall impact on your understanding and application of key technical communication standards like Simplified Technical English. Learn better, communicate better, across all our courses. This two-day Online STE Workshop includes interactive training, exercises, and a 120-day post-training consultation.

• Day 1: Classroom Training
  1. Practical overview of Simplified Technical English
  2. How STE helps both native & non-native speakers of English
  3. Benefits of adopting the STE international writing standard
  4. Writing rules and how to apply them in practice
  5. How to use the general vocabulary.
  6. Approved and non-approved words discussion and the rationale behind.

• Day 2: Application, Review, & Exercises
  1. How to deal with industry-specific terminology
  2. How to use STE for various documentation types
  3. How to implement STE with minimal disruption to on-going production and existing documentation
  4. Practical workshop session for applying STE rules to your own documents
  5. Review, edit, and discuss participants’ own documents to reinforce learning
  6. Classroom presentation of own documents.

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

Who should attend this Simplified Technical English training?

• 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?

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

• Enhanced Communication & Efficiency: Authors will gain the skills to create clear, consistent, and easily translatable technical documentation, facilitating effective communication with a global audience and streamlining the writing process.
• Improved Operational Safety & Reduced Downtime: By mastering STE principles, teams will produce unambiguous documentation that minimises misunderstandings, directly contributing to improved operational safety and a reduction in costly AOG/downtime.
• Optimised Lifecycle Support & Cost Reduction: Training will enable modular writing and content reuse, leading to maximised consistency, optimised product lifecycle support, and a significant reduction in the overall cost of creating and maintaining technical publications.

ASD-STE100 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 200 companies. Shufrans TechDocs is the only company with such vast experience in providing certified STE training.

Shumin has supported various companies with their ASD-STE100 technical writing 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.

Simplified Technical English as part of your content strategy

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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. To put it across plainly, STE is a form of controlled language that is guided by 53 technical writing rules that were put together by a committee of linguists, engineers, and manufacturers who established over the years that these writing rules made sense and allowed them to re-write any of their existing documentation based on these rules, making their documentation easier to understand, while maintaining accuracy, safety, and validity.

Develop, deploy, and deliver documentation with STE

The STE specification also includes a core vocabulary of around 930 approved words and 1500 non-approved words that let technical authors write just about everything that they need for for procedural and descriptive texts. Therefore, the use of approved words, compliance with the standard, and a language quality checker tool to complement your content strategy efforts is akin to pooling your most valuable resources where people, internal processes, and innovative technologies become more aligned.

The role of technical authors and technical documentation managers

Technical writers are the go-between for subject-matter-experts (SMEs), engineers, designers and the end-users of documentation. Consequently, the responsibility of creating effective documentation falls on technical authors who will then endeavour to send out a clear, unambiguous, and user-friendly message about their products and line of services.

At the level of global information management, technical writing professionals should consider short-term tactics and longer-term strategies to overcome the following:

• An ever-increasing volume of words to write and translate
• Snowballing translation and documentation management costs
• Overlapping information across different versions of similar document types
• Low comprehension levels for the English language jargon.

STE in practice

If this is your first time hearing about STE, the example that follows will hopefully shed more light on the principles and best practices that govern good STE writing. Here is an original piece of text presented in standard English writing:

THE SYNTHETIC LUBRICATING OIL USED IN THIS ENGINE CONTAINS ADDITIVES WHICH, IF ALLOWED TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE SKIN FOR PROLONGED PERIODS, CAN BE TOXIC THROUGH ABSORPTION.

And here it is again in STE:

THE OIL IS POISONOUS. DO NOT GET THE ENGINE OIL ON YOUR SKIN.  IT CAN GO THROUGH YOUR SKIN AND INTO YOUR BODY.

Making the comparison between the two types of writing above, you will see that the original writing is rather cumbersome in expression. It is also very likely that the person reading this sentence will have difficulties following the writer’s line of thought because of the longer sentence length and unnecessary information included. In contrast, the text written in STE is much more to the point and simply distils what is pertinent to the person doing this work:

1. The oil is poisonous.
2. I must always be careful not to touch oil without protection.

From this example, STE shows us that warnings and cautions must always start with a simple and clear command that is usually substantiated by a reasoning that comes before or after.  A command informs the user about the precautionary measures to take to avoid danger. Presenting information as if it were a general comment in the original writing obscures the importance of the message and is not specific enough.

What customers are saying.. | NIMR Automotive

Thuraya Al Mehrzi, Production Engineer, NIMR Automotive
“Shumin gave a good introduction to Simplified Technical English. Instead of writing long sentences that are difficult to read, I prefer the STE rule of presenting long sentences in a list that makes it much easier to understand the work that is required to be completed. The STE exercises were pretty engaging, and this is particularly so for day 2 of the rewriting workshop that gave the team a lot of insight into our documentation. Trainees also had the opportunity to replace many unapproved standard English words with STE ones that helped us better appreciate the application of STE rules in a real-world context. This is a training that I have rated 10/10 for.”

Nour Bazuhair, Engineer Trainee, NIMR Automotive “The introduction to Simplified Technical English (STE) was simple to follow and understand. Rule 1.4 to use only the approved forms of verbs and adjectives from the STE dictionary is something that I appreciate very much. Applying the rules faithfully was a challenging albeit enjoyable process. There is a lot of good writing rules to learn here. I’ve found the exercises to be very useful for learning reinforcement, and they have helped me to apply STE rules in a more efficient manner and I’ve gained a much better understanding of STE as a result. Shumin’s training methodology is easy to follow, and she offers us great technical writing advice and has simplified the process for us. Every aspect of this training is a 10/10 for me.”

Abdel Alazeem Arafah, Service Coordinator, NIMR Automotive “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.”

An innovative approach to consider for your global documentation landscape

Over the last three decades, STE has emerged as a rather important and universal standard for technical English. Predictably, as a result of language standardisation, STE helps us to achieve a number of benefits. Technical writers become more consistent on a word level. This starts with the simple fact that we are going to use the same word whenever we refer to the same thing, so that means an improved level of consistency and consequently quality improvements.

Where can I learn more about STE?

Shufrans TechDocs regularly hosts online training workshops for technical writers, SMEs, and engineers at different time zones for your convenience. To learn more about our diverse course offerings and workshop customisations that we can do for you and your global technical documentation team, speak to us today!