technical manuals Archives | Shufrans TechDocs Home // technical manuals Archives | Shufrans TechDocs

Asia Pacific (APAC) Online | Precision & Proofing: Mastering ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English for High-Stakes Documentation & AI-Ready Inputs

Asia Pacific (APAC) Online | Precision & Proofing: Mastering ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English for High-Stakes Documentation & AI-Ready Inputs

 

Write effective user manuals & instructions with Simplified Technical English

APAC | Online Certified ASD-STE100 Training Workshop Programme

Dates: 26 & 27 October 2026 (Alternative slot: 9 & 10 November 2026)

Time: 09:00 to 16:00 UTC/GMT+8:00 [APAC]

Length of training: 2 days

Group Size: Strictly capped at 5 participants for tailored, hands-on feedback

Course registration ends one week before training commences.

What’s Included: Course materials, practical exercises, learning aids, a certificate of completion, and 120 days of post-training support.

Group Discount: Save up to €500 when two or more colleagues register for the same cohort.

Bundle Offer: Receive a €210 discount when you also register for 🆕 Certified STE Masterclass | Asia Pacific (APAC) Online.

Why upstream standardisation matters

Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) is the internationally recognised controlled language specification designed to make complex technical manuals clear, unambiguous, and easily understood by a global audience. In today’s environment—where automated translation engines and generative tools can rapidly scale output but also multiply linguistic errors—upstream standardisation is more critical than ever. Consequently, by eliminating ambiguity and enforcing strict syntactic control, STE protects your documentation pipeline, cuts translation costs, and prevents operational risks.

Applicable across aerospace, defence, engineering, and high-compliance industries, this foundational training is led by Shumin Chen. Designed for technical managers, directors, and senior writers, the programme ensures participants learn how to correctly and effectively apply STE rules in practice, navigate common writing pitfalls, and avoid frequent misinterpretations. Furthermore, you will learn how to correct guidelines that undermine technical quality.

Applicable across aerospace, defence, engineering, and high-compliance industries, this foundational training is led by Shumin Chen. Designed for technical managers, directors, and senior writers, the programme ensures participants learn how to correctly and effectively apply STE rules in practice, navigate common writing pitfalls, and correct the frequent misinterpretations of core guidelines that undermine technical quality.

What customers are saying..

I am giving this training a 10/10. There was a good introductory and explanation to describe the 2-day training seminar. Rule 1.1 0 lets me use words that are: approved in the dictionary / technical names / technical verbs and is one rule I like very much because of its flexibility.

I think rule 1.1 is the most critical and important for STE dictionary. Sometimes I have to use non-approved words as an exception, but I will try to keep this rule 1.1 in my documents for good measure.

Although some of the exercises were tricky, they remind me of each rule application at that time. So they were practical for my role as a technical writer.

I want to recommend this course to current technical writers in Korea or engineers who are interested in writing their own documents effectively. Seung Eun Lee, Technical Writer, DB HiTek

Online STE Workshop 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

  • Practical overview of Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) and why strict structural control is essential for modern technical documentation.
  • How STE ensures absolute clarity for both native and non-native speakers across global audiences.
  • The direct risk-mitigation and cost benefits of adopting the STE international writing standard in high-compliance environments.
  • Core writing rules and how to apply them systematically in daily practice.
  • Mastering the general vocabulary lexicon: Approved and unapproved words, and the strict structural rationale behind them.
  • Eliminating ambiguous phrasing, noun clusters, and syntactic drift that undermine technical accuracy.
  • Establishing a rigorous baseline for clear, human-readable documentation that withstands automated review and translation workflows.

Day 2: Application, Review, & Exercises

  • How to deal with industry-specific terminology and integrate specialized nouns safely into controlled writing.
  • How to apply STE across various documentation types (such as maintenance manuals, service bulletins, and operating procedures).
  • How to implement STE frameworks with minimal disruption to ongoing production and existing documentation archives.
  • Practical hands-on workshop session for applying strict STE rules directly to your own company documents.
  • Review, edit, and discuss participants’ own documents to reinforce learning through actual correction.
  • Collaborative review of common error patterns and alternative phrasing solutions.
  • Final classroom presentation and editorial breakdown of your documents to establish a repeatable, high-integrity quality standard for your team.

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

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

What technical writing outcomes to expect?

Our interactive training, exercises, and practical workshops will equip participants to standardise content and achieve measurable operational outcomes:

  1. Enhanced Communication & Global Efficiency: Authors will master the structural discipline required to create clear, consistent, and easily translatable technical documentation, facilitating seamless communication across international markets and streamlining the authoring process.

  2. Improved Operational Safety & Reduced Downtime: By applying rigorous STE principles, teams will eliminate ambiguity, minimise procedural misunderstandings, and directly safeguard operational safety while reducing costly equipment downtime and service delays.

  3. Optimised Lifecycle Support & Cost Reduction: Structured drafting enables modular writing and efficient content reuse, maximizing long-term consistency, optimizing product lifecycle support, and significantly reducing the overall cost of creating and maintaining technical publications.

Ready to eliminate ambiguity in your documentation?

Speak to us today or view the schedule for our upcoming Online STE Workshops here.

Certified STE workshops online

Browse our convenient line-up of Simplified Technical English workshops scheduled at different timezones.

 

ASD-STE100 Trainer’s qualifications

 

Ms Shumin Chen will show participants how to correctly and effectively use Simplified Technical English (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.

According to Ms Chen, the benefits of STE are manifold – audience engagement through high-quality content, improved product safety, lower life cycle cost and reduced logistics footprint. 

Learn more about how you can create sustainable STE content and reap substantial cost-saving benefits as a result here.

twitter linkedin

Europe | Future-Proof Your Documentation: Mastering Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) Compliance

Europe | Future-Proof Your Documentation: Mastering Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) Compliance

Write effective user manuals & instructions with Simplified Technical English

Simplified Technical English training Europe | Online Certified ASD-STE100 Training Workshop Programme

Dates: 5 & 6 November 2026 (Alternative cohort: 19 & 20 November 2026)

Time: 08:00 to 15:00 CET

Length of training: 2 days

Course registration ends one week before training commences.

*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.

What’s Included & Incentives

  • Inclusions: Course materials, practical exercises, learning aids, a certificate of completion, and 120 days of post-training support.

  • Group Discount: Save up to €500 when two or more colleagues register for the same cohort.

  • Bundle Offer: Receive a €210 fee discount when you also register for the upcoming Certified STE Masterclass | Europe Online.

  • Enquiries: Have questions or need a custom corporate booking? Send us a message at enquiry@asd-ste100.net.

Summary of Simplified Technical English (STE)

Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) is the internationally recognised controlled language specification designed to make complex technical manuals clear, unambiguous, and easily understood by a global audience. In today’s enterprise landscape—where automated translation engines and AI-assisted workflows rapidly scale content output but also multiply linguistic errors—upstream standardisation is more critical than ever.

By eliminating ambiguity and enforcing strict syntactic control, STE protects your documentation pipeline, acts as a reliable grounding layer for automated systems, drastically reduces translation costs, and prevents costly operational risks. While often a formal requirement for aerospace and defence maintenance documentation, STE is readily adapted across all high-compliance technical industries. Led by Shumin Chen, this foundational training teaches participants how to correctly and effectively apply STE rules in practice, navigate common writing pitfalls, and correct the frequent misinterpretations of core guidelines that undermine technical quality.

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 in Simplified Technical English training Europe 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 & Foundations

  • Practical overview of Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) and why strict structural control is essential for modern technical documentation.

  • How STE ensures absolute clarity for both native and non-native speakers across global audiences.

  • The direct risk-mitigation and cost benefits of adopting the STE international writing standard in high-compliance environments.

  • Core writing rules and how to apply them systematically in daily practice.

  • Mastering the general vocabulary lexicon: Approved and unapproved words, and the strict structural rationale behind them.

  • Eliminating ambiguous phrasing, noun clusters, and syntactic drift that undermine technical accuracy.

  • Establishing a rigorous baseline for clear, human-readable documentation that withstands automated review and translation workflows.

Day 2: Practical Application, Review, & Exercises

  • How to deal with industry-specific terminology and integrate specialised nouns safely into controlled writing.

  • How to apply STE across various documentation types (such as maintenance manuals, service bulletins, and operating procedures).

  • How to implement STE frameworks with minimal disruption to ongoing production and existing documentation archives.

  • Practical hands-on workshop session for applying strict STE rules directly to your own company documents.

  • Systematic review, live editorial breakdown, and discussion of participants’ own documents to reinforce learning.

  • Collaborative review of common error patterns and alternative phrasing solutions.

  • Final classroom presentation of edited documents to establish a repeatable, high-integrity quality standard for your team, directly reducing the cost of creating and maintaining technical publications.

*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?

  • Executive Leadership & Strategy: CIOs, CTOs, COOs, and Compliance Managers

  • Documentation & Editorial Leads: Documentation Managers, Editors, and Technical Writers

  • Engineering & Technical Specialists: Engineering Managers, SMEs, Software Research Engineers, Service Engineers, and AI Content Engineers

  • Operations & Support Teams: Maintenance, ILS, Operation, Product, and Project Managers, plus Customer Support

  • Training & Content Creation: Instructional Designers, Translators, Translation Managers, and Technical Illustrators.

What technical writing outcomes to expect?

Our interactive training, exercises, and workshop will equip participants to standardise content and achieve measurable operational outcomes:

  • Enhanced Communication & Efficiency: Authors will gain the structural discipline required to create clear, consistent, and easily translatable technical documentation—providing a reliable grounding layer for automated translation engines and AI-assisted workflows, facilitating seamless global communication, and streamlining the authoring process.

  • Improved Operational Safety & Reduced Downtime: By mastering STE principles, teams will produce unambiguous documentation that eliminates procedural misunderstandings, directly safeguarding operational safety and driving a measurable reduction in costly AOG/downtime and human error.

  • Optimised Lifecycle Support & Cost Reduction: Standardisation enables modular writing, semantic consistency, and efficient content reuse. This optimises product lifecycle support, future-proofs documentation against shifting publishing stacks, and significantly reduces the overall cost of creating and maintaining technical publications.

What customers are saying..

The introduction in Simplified Technical English training Europe 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 and consultant at Shufrans TechDocs, received her professional on-the-job training in the field of Simplified Technical English under the tutelage of Dr Frans Wijma, a renowned linguist and documentation expert. Together as an experienced global team, they combined their expertise to benefit enterprise clients worldwide, having delivered training and consultancy services to over 200 companies to date. Shufrans TechDocs stands as an industry leader with unmatched depth of experience in providing certified Simplified Technical English training in Europe.

Shumin has guided numerous organisations through their complex documentation and standardisation needs. Although STE was originally developed for the aerospace industry—specifically for aircraft maintenance manuals—she has successfully demonstrated that its foundational principles provide an essential governance framework across a wide range of technical sectors, including machinery, IT, automotive, energy, and medical equipment.

As enterprises increasingly deploy automated translation engines, LLMs, and AI-assisted content workflows, Shumin’s approach proves that strict linguistic control is more vital than ever. Because structural clarity and syntactic discipline are universally required, few, if any, changes to the specification are necessary to adapt STE as a reliable upstream grounding layer for modern digital and AI-driven publishing stacks.

 

Americas | Mastering Simplified Technical English: Ensuring Clarity and Compliance in Technical Documentation

Americas | Mastering Simplified Technical English: Ensuring Clarity and Compliance in Technical Documentation

Write effective user manuals & instructions with ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English

Americas | Online Certified ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English Workshops

Dates: 11 to 13 November 2026 (Alternative slot: 25 to 27 November 2026)

Time: 08:00 to 12:30 Eastern Time (ET) or 15:00 to 19:30 Pacific Time (PT)

Length of training: 3 days

Course registration ends one week before training commences.

*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@asd-ste100.net.

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

Summary

Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) is a controlled language designed to make technical manuals clear, unambiguous, and easily understood by a global audience. Mandated or recommended by key military and commercial specifications, STE reduces translation costs and serves as a vital upstream grounding layer for automated translation engines and AI workflows.

Led by Ms. Shumin Chen (Shufrans TechDocs), this training guides participants through the correct and effective practical application of STE, addressing common writing errors and the frequent misapplication of core rules across all technical industries.

For enquiries and registration: enquiry@asd-ste100.net

Course outline*

We are committed to providing the highest quality learning experience across all our online workshops. To ensure richer discussions, deeper document reviews, and maximum individual impact, all online workshop sessions are strictly capped at just five participants.

This intimate virtual environment fosters precise feedback and mastery of key technical communication standards like Simplified Technical English. Each three-day online workshop includes interactive training, hands-on exercises, and a dedicated 120-day post-training consultation period.

Day 1: Classroom Training & Foundations

  • Practical overview of Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100)

  • How STE ensures absolute clarity for both native and non-native speakers across global networks

  • Strategic risk-mitigation and cost benefits of adopting the STE standard

  • Core writing rules and systematic daily application

Day 2: Application & Vocabulary

  • Navigating the general vocabulary dictionary

  • Approved versus unapproved words and the structural rationale behind them

  • Handling industry-specific terminology and specialised nouns safely

  • Applying STE across diverse manuals, service bulletins, and operating procedures

Day 3: Review, Implementation, & Exercises

  • Hands-on workshop session applying strict rules to your own corporate materials

  • Live editorial review, breakdown, and discussion of participant texts

  • Implementing frameworks with minimal disruption to ongoing production and legacy documentation

  • Classroom presentation and restructuring of participant documents to reinforce mastery

*Shufrans also offers customised ASD-STE100 training solutions tailored to meet your specific corporate requirements, normally delivered on-site at customer 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?

  • Executive & Strategy: CIOs, CTOs, COOs, Compliance and Quality Managers
  • Documentation & Editorial: Documentation Managers, Editors, Technical Writers, Technical Illustrators, and Graphics Specialists
  • Engineering, AI & Technical: Engineering Managers, SMEs, Software Research Engineers, AI Integration Specialists, Prompt Engineers, and Engineers who create documentation
  • Operations & Support: Maintenance, ILS, Operation, Product, and Project Managers, plus Customer Support Managers
  • Training, Translation & Content: 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.

 

Middle East & Africa | Practical ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English Workshops: Ensuring Documentation Compliance

Middle East & Africa | Practical ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English Workshops: Ensuring Documentation Compliance

Middle East & Africa Online ASD-STE100 Technical Writing Workshop

MEA | Online Certified ASD-STE100 Training Workshop Programme

Dates: 2 & 3 November 2026 (Alternative slot: 16 & 17 November 2026)

Time: 09:00 to 16:00 Gulf Standard Time (GST)

Length of training: 2 days

Course registration ends one week before training commences.

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

Group discounts of up to €500 are available when two or more participants register from the same company. An additional €210 fee discount applies when your team also registers for the 🆕 Certified STE Masterclass | Asia Pacific (APAC) Online..

For enquiries and registration, contact us at enquiry@asd-ste100.net.

Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) is a controlled language designed to make technical manuals clear, unambiguous, and easily understood by a global audience. Mandated or recommended by specifications like MIL-STD-3048, S1000D, and ATA iSpec 2200, STE makes translations cheaper and more accurate while ensuring structural completeness.

In today’s digital landscape, STE also serves as the essential upstream grounding layer for automated translation engines, LLMs, and RAG pipelines, preventing syntactic drift and hallucinations. While a formal requirement for aerospace and defence maintenance, its rigorous principles are easily adapted across all technical industries. Led by Shumin Chen, this training teaches participants how to apply STE rules correctly in practice, avoid common writing pitfalls, and eliminate hidden operational risks.

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 are committed to providing the highest quality learning experience across all our online workshops. To ensure richer discussions, deeper document reviews, and maximum individual impact, all online workshop sessions are strictly capped at just five participants.

This intimate virtual environment fosters precise feedback and mastery of key technical communication standards like Simplified Technical English. Each two-day online workshop includes interactive training, hands-on exercises, and a dedicated 120-day post-training consultation period.

Day 1: Classroom Training & Foundations

  • Practical overview of Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100)

  • How STE ensures absolute clarity for both native and non-native speakers across global networks

  • Strategic risk-mitigation and cost benefits of adopting the STE standard

  • Core writing rules and systematic daily application

  • Navigating the general vocabulary dictionary

  • Approved versus unapproved words and the structural rationale behind them

Day 2: Practical Application, Review, & Exercises

  • Handling industry-specific terminology and specialised nouns safely

  • Applying STE across diverse manuals, service bulletins, and operating procedures

  • Implementing frameworks with minimal disruption to ongoing production and legacy documentation

  • Hands-on workshop session applying strict rules to your own corporate materials

  • Live editorial review, breakdown, and discussion of participant texts

  • Classroom presentation and restructuring of participant documents to reinforce mastery

*Shufrans also offers customised ASD-STE100 training solutions tailored to meet your specific corporate requirements, normally delivered on-site at customer premises.

Who should attend this Simplified Technical English training?

  • Executive & Strategy: CIOs, CTOs, COOs, Compliance and Quality Managers

  • Documentation & Editorial: Documentation Managers, Editors, Technical Writers, Technical Illustrators, and Graphics Specialists

  • Engineering & Technical: Engineering Managers, SMEs, Software Research Engineers, and Engineers who create documentation

  • Operations & Support: Maintenance, ILS, Operation, Product, and Project Managers, plus Customer Support Managers

  • Training, Translation & Content: Translation Managers, Translators.

What training outcomes to expect?

Enhanced Communication & Efficiency: Authors will gain the structural discipline required to create clear, consistent, and easily translatable technical documentation—providing a reliable grounding layer for automated translation engines and AI-assisted workflows, facilitating seamless global communication, and streamlining the authoring process.

Improved Operational Safety & Reduced Downtime: By mastering STE principles, teams will produce unambiguous documentation that eliminates procedural misunderstandings, directly safeguarding operational safety and driving a measurable reduction in costly AOG/downtime and human error.

Optimised Lifecycle Support & Cost Reduction: Standardisation enables modular writing, semantic consistency, and efficient content reuse. This optimises product lifecycle support, future-proofs documentation against shifting publishing stacks, and significantly reduces the overall cost of creating and maintaining technical publications.

ASD-STE100 Trainer’s qualifications

Ms. Shumin Chen, Principal Trainer and Consultant at Shufrans TechDocs, received her professional on-the-job training in Simplified Technical English under the tutelage of Dr Frans Wijma, a renowned linguist and documentation expert. Together as an experienced global team, they have delivered training and consultancy services to over 200 companies worldwide. Shufrans TechDocs stands as an industry leader with unmatched depth of experience in providing certified STE training.

Shumin has guided numerous organisations through their complex documentation and standardisation needs. Although STE was originally developed for the aerospace industry—specifically for aircraft maintenance manuals—she has successfully demonstrated that its foundational principles provide an essential governance framework across a wide range of technical sectors, including machinery, IT, automotive, energy, and medical equipment.

As enterprises increasingly deploy automated translation engines, LLMs, and AI-assisted workflows, strict linguistic control is more vital than ever. Because structural clarity and syntactic discipline are universally required, few, if any, changes to the specification are necessary to adapt STE as a reliable upstream grounding layer for modern digital and AI-driven publishing stacks.

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English training workshop for individual writers in the UAE

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English training workshop for individual writers in the UAE

Quick facts

Dates: 15 – 17 January 2018

Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Length of training: 1 to 3 days

Participants have the flexibility of attending a 1, 2, or 3-day training session with us.

Deadline for registration: 8 January 2017

Summary

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. 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 frequently incorrect use of common STE writing rules.

Course outline*

  • Participants have the flexibility of attending a 1, 2, or 3-day training session with us.
    • Day 1: Classroom Training
      1. Practical overview of ASD-STE100 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.
    • Day 2: Application, Review, & Exercises
      1. Approved and non-approved words discussion and the rationale behind.
      2. How to deal with industry-specific terminology
      3. How to use STE for various documentation types
      4. How to implement STE with minimal disruption to on-going production and existing documentation
    • Day 3: Extended Writing Workshop
      1. Practical workshop session for applying STE rules to your own documents
      2. Review, edit, and discuss participants’ own documents to reinforce learning
      3. 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.

 

Learning how to optimally use a documentation standard like ASD-STE100 is a substantial boost to our technical writing team’s capabilities and significantly improved our compliance rating! Raja Sureshbabu, Global Head of Aerospace Vertical, Tata Consultancy Services.

 

Who should attend?

  • 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:

  • Author more efficiently
  • Communicate more effectively with a global audience
  • Improve operational safety
  • Reduce AOG / downtime
  • Facilitate modular writing and reuse
  • Facilitate teamwork
  • Facilitate translation
  • Maximise consistency
  • Optimise product lifecycle support
  • Reduce the cost of creating and maintaining technical publications

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.

 

 

 

 

Addressing human errors in the healthcare industry

Addressing human errors in the healthcare industry

It is important that operation and management information be understandable to the target audience. Sometimes, operation information is conveyed through a less-than-optimum selection of words. The manufacturer’s technical language can result in incomprehensible operation documentation.

Governance of Picture Archiving and Communications Systems: Data Security and Quality Management of Filmless Radiology, Carrison K.S. Tong, Eric T.T. Wong, Human Factors & Culture, 2009

English is the de facto language for almost all industries, including healthcare where communication is crucial to ensure operational efficiency and accuracy. Without good communication among healthcare professionals such as referring medical doctors, technologists, radiologists, clinicians, nurses, suppliers, maintenance and service engineers would imply that high quality standards become impossible to maintain.

 

Human errors can be expensive, lead to accidents, and risk product quality

More often than not, operation information is conveyed through a less-than-optimum selection of words. To cite a real-life example of a maintenance procedure where a certain step was ‘proscribed’ meaning prohibited, the technical personnel who read this instruction decided that the procedural step was ‘prescribed’ and hence recommended. Regrettably, he proceeded to carry out the prohibited action with dire consequences.

New manuals, job cards, operations and maintenance service bulletins are prime examples of documentation that must be proofread and beta-tested before being widely circulated. Proportionately, the labour costs involved in such documentation management processes can be immensely high.

 

Document complexity & volume

With the latest medical products and technology made available on the market, the increasing complexity and volume of medical data and healthcare information that must be created, recorded, integrated and managed cannot be avoided. Indeed, voluminous and complex writing that read very differently since they must have been supplied by various product manufacturers can negatively impact hospital’s operations when misread or misinterpreted. Volumes of user manuals from various sources with at times overlapping information also seem impossible to store and manage usefully.

A popular example in the aerospace industry is the well-known paper stack from aircraft manufacturers that supposedly exceeds the height of Mount Everest. Paper documentation support the work of aircraft operators. Airlines used to afford warehouses full of such paper stacks that document historical records of their aircraft maintenance. All of which proved too expensive to maintain later on.

Consequently, unmanageable volumes of text, document complexities, time-critical operations, as well as the growing proportion of healthcare workers whose first language is not English, all point to the need for a unifying English language standard that would allow the community to speak with one voice and convey critical information using fewer words.

Create manuals that speak with one voice

Safety begins with quality. Even the best product is only as good as its documentation and technical data, which allow the customer to use it safely and effectively.

Many incidents identified in the healthcare industry revealed poor technical understanding and communication due to missing user manuals, inadequately described operating instructions, and badly maintained  equipment that add to the series of errors and accident occurrences.

Let’s take a close look at the following case study excerpt. Our customer is a manufacturer of mobile X-ray based imaging solutions. They created an operator manual and a service manual in Standard English that was subsequently edited in a controlled language known as Simplified Technical English (STE).

Standard English: inconsistent tone and excessive use of words

Control Panel Both the C-arm stand and the monitor cart have a control panel. The two control panels always show the same screen, enabling you to use them for system operation.Depending on the selected function, other controls (buttons, input boxes, displays, etc.) will appear on the control panel screen.The Vision Center control panel is designed as a touch screen. For system operation, just press the desired button or option directly on the touch screen.

STE: uniform tone of voice and standardised sentence structure

Control Panel The C-arm stand and the monitor cart each have a control panel screen. These screens show the same control panel. Each panel lets you operate the system. The panels have different controls for different functions.The control panel is a touch screen. To operate the system, touch the correct button or option.

At the time our customer was writing a range of user and maintenance manuals  for their X-ray imaging equipment. Although the manuals were created and edited by more than 10 technical writers in a team, our customer wanted all manuals to read like they came from one single source. STE provided a cost-saving and easily implemented solution as evidenced by the rewritten STE sample text highlighted above.

ste_casestudy_chart.001

Say it better with fewer words

The implementation of STE in the healthcare sector proved to be a great success. Using a smaller number of words with defined meanings and parts of speech, while adopting a simplified English language structure meant that user manuals now provide a highly consistent and unambiguous tone of voice with a 20% reduction in text volume. Above all, healthcare professionals depend on reliable documentation to operate medical devices and equipment safely and efficiently. STE therefore helps medical equipment manufacturers meet documentation compliance requirements, and can also increase the efficiency and productivity of their employees.

To summarise, an instruction found in a technical procedure must never become a case of interpretation. Work instructions communicated in technical manuals must be concise and let the user or maintenance personnel do their jobs properly, putting patient safety first and foremost.

Copyright © 2015 Shufrans TechDocs. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Are you ready to make STE your strategic partner?

Explore our FAQ section below.