STE training
The smart, easy way to get up to speed with STE is in-company, tailor-made training. Because in-company workshops focus on your technical writers. On your technical documents. And on your company’s specific requirements.
Training your technical writers in STE (Simplified Technical English) will pay dividends. Because writing in STE produces clearer, easier to understand technical manuals. And reduces the length of your manuals by up to 30%.
What’s more, STE can reduce translation costs by as much as 20 to 40%.
STE writing
ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) is an international specification for technical documentation (see www.asd-ste100.org).
The controlled language of STE enables you to present complex technical information, clearly, concisely and accurately. This ensures your technical manuals are unambiguous (clear and precise) and easy to understand.
STE embeds the techniques of clear, concise writing. For instance, in STE, complex sentence structures are replaced with short, easy to read sentences. Unnecessary words and removed. And confusing, ambiguous words are replaced with clear, precise words.
Cut translation hassles
In most cases, manual writing involves translation. Because you may need to translate technical manuals into 10 or more languages, depending on your market.
Multi-language technical manuals are costly and time-consuming to produce. And the price-quality ratio is not always optimal. This is exactly where writing in STE can help.
STE writing is clear, precise and unambiguous. This means less chance of mistranslations and mistakes. And what’s more, STE reduces the number of words that have to be translated.
These factors add up to faster, easier and more accurate translation from STE to the target language. This is the case whether the work is done by a translator using translation memory or by translation machine.
Estimates vary. But STE writing could make a 20 to 40% in your translation bill.
STE training
There’s no need to send your technical writers to open STE training with participants from other companies.
I offer in-company STE training tailored to the specific requirements of your technical writers to learn and perfect STE.
My in-company STE training is designed to fit with your technical writers’ work schedules. We work at your pace, and use your writers’ own materials.
It won’t take long to master the skills of clear, concise writing on which STE is built. You will see a big difference in just one or two half-day workshops. You’ll learn the STE writing skills you need for technically accurate manuals that are easy for users to understand.
In addition, we can work together on mastering the STE controlled vocabulary. And start to build a technical dictionary for your company.
If you prefer, I can work with your technical writers individually. Because coaching can give a technical writer practical support, when and where it is needed. And moreover, I’ll arrange coaching sessions to fit your writers’ busy schedules.
You’ll be surprised how much we can achieve in just a few hours!
If you would like to know more, please contact me: Helen West at west@englishcom.nl.