Hello and welcome to this Argos Multilingual webcast.
In this webcast we will explore what Simplified Technical English is and its benefits.
So, what is Simplified Technical English?
Simplified Technical English - often abbreviated to STE - is a system of controlled writing
based on the principles of the ASD-STE100 standard.
The standard was developed by the aerospace and defense industries association in the
1970's in order to simplify aircraft maintenance documentation and eliminate safety risks introduced
by non-native mechanics working on aircraft worldwide.
STE is a regulated standard that we have adapted to suit other industries.
Deviations are required because the original standard was not designed for industries outside
aerospace.
At Argos, we have taken the core principles of STE (including rules, vocabulary and dictionary
building) and made them applicable to all content.
This means we help companies in multiple industries from banking to medical, implement STE-like
processes and put it to use over all types of documentation, from technical and even
in some cases to marketing.
The original STE standard follows 57 language rules.
They limit the ways, in which authors can create content, and they help to enforce controlled
writing.
These rules include; vocabulary restrictions with a core vocabulary of about 900 words,
but there's the option to add 1000's more, company-specific terminology and names meaning
a personalized dictionary for any industry where each word normally only has one meaning,
helping to avoid ambiguity.
This is especially important, when you're writing instructions with commands, and
using words like „close" that can have multiple meanings.
Or, technical words like „engage" that is better substituted with „start".
In critical situations this type of ambiguity creates risk.
STE helps to eliminate that risk.
So, why simplify and why simplify English?
This is because English is the most popular business language.
Of course, there are more Chinese speakers in the world.
But, most are in a single market.
English, on the other hand, is used worldwide, often by people whose native language is not
English.
This makes English very prone to mistakes, and inconsistencies.
Writers often explain their ideas in complex ways creating a breeding ground for ambiguity
and mistakes.
This ambiguity can then actually be made worse by a large English vocabulary.
There are many complex grammar rules, synonyms, and even mutually exclusive words like flammable
and inflammable plus it's part of human nature to write too much.
Pride of authorship leads people to overwrite, and
Overwhelm the reader with too much content.
With STE though, every word you write is controlled.
You can't use a word unless it's approved.
STE's rules also control the way you write.
For example, sentence length is controlled meaning you typically can't write more than
25 words per sentence.
Hence, STE is great for cutting down your content – often by as much as 25%.
This reduces the words that need to be published or translated.
There are also more repetitions.
Content is easier to understand for the translator.
All this makes translation faster.
What's more, if you have a service call center, another side benefit is that you'll
receive fewer calls from confused customers.
People will be able to, read and follow, the instructions easily, greatly reducing the
need to call for support.
As well as saving on publishing and translation costs, all of your content will be consistent
in style and vocabulary, and your writers will use fewer words.
Their work-speed should increase too.
Your docs will avoid common problems such as where a device is called a 'device'
on one page, a 'unit' on another or a 'machine' on the third confusing the reader.
STE can help you create modular content for Content Management Systems.
So, what is the overall cost-reduction from using STE?
Of course this does depend on the type and quality of documentation you already have, but, you
can get up to a 25% volume reduction, which can mean up to 35% reduction in translation
costs.
The STE standard contains seven golden rules which we have adapted them to suit all industries.
For example, rather than writing in a passive voice, saying things like "when using this
device, always make sure, to first extend the antenna in an upright position" STE
forces you to write in an active voice.
Using an active voice the earlier sentence becomes "Always extend the antenna, when
using the device".
This mostly applies to instruction-type-content, where you should always use the active tense.
To eliminate convoluted language, STE forces you to keep procedural sentences shorter than
20 words and descriptive sentences to fewer than 25 words as well as less than 6 sentences
per paragraph.
The idea is to explain and move on.
This actually forces the writer to explain ideas more slowly in a measured fashion,
rather than all at once, in a single long sentence.
STE uses a dictionary of only approved words which – although allowing for some synonymy
- encourages each word to have only one meaning.
The last two rules are about paying attention to the reader.
Make sure your reader, is not confused with your content.
STE helps to control your word-choice selection, and writing style.
Even voice.
Because of this, STE can adapt to technical, legal, financial or even marketing content.
What's needed for STE implementation?
It's not enough simply to read about STE, your team will need hands on practice, training
and experience.
Argos can put you in touch with experienced industry trainers, who go over all the key
aspects of the standard, illustrate practical approaches, and help your team to practice
using their own content.
Once your writing team has the basics, the next step is to build a terms dictionary for
your content.
You will need to publish an internal list, of all the preferred names you want to use,
and a thesaurus of all the un-approved words, you don't want people to use when writing.
Then, you will adapt a style of writing that will be modified for your company and industry.
Once complete, your team is ready to start writing in simplified English.
When writing, you can use checker software that can highlight problematic sentences,
and poor word choice.
We will explore checkers more later in this webcast.
Lastly, Argos can offer supporting services, and consultancy, including revision, follow-up
trainings, assistance in migration between languages or even CMS integration.
Once your team has been trained, the next task is to build a dictionary.
To do that, we first need to define an approved terminology list.
Argos has a set of tools that we use for text mining.
The trick here, is to identify the technical terms used in your documentation.
That's especially true for compound nouns like "hardware" or "painkiller" or
the term "text mining".
They are regulated by the standard and should be no longer than 4 words in length.
The standard doesn't try to change existing standard terminology, and there is room for
discretion on the part of the writer.
The standard simply helps writers to keep each term below four words.
During text mining, we try to identify what those words are, expose them, and add them
to the dictionary of the checking tool.
Once the dictionary is built, it belongs to the customer who then maintains it.
This means that your writing department keeps a company-specific dictionary that they consult
and add to, and spread across the company.
Let's look now at some examples, of how writing can affect your documentation.
Here you can see how a typical instruction manual is written.
Notice how it starts out, on the left, naming all the products NP3250 etc
but in the new STE version to the right the text is reduced, by simply referring to
the different products as a "projector".
In the text on the left, the instructions are lengthier and in some cases redundant.
However, once STE principles are applied, the same text can be trimmed down, by over
30%, while keeping all the relevant information intact.
The amount of word reduction will differ based on content type, and its original quality,
but you might typically expect up to 30% reductions.
All word count reductions however, directly influence your bottom line.
Anytime you reduce text volume, you decrease your publishing and translation costs.
When you look at the content on the right, you're not actually translating what's
on the left, instead you are clarifying it.
And that's the whole point of STE.
So, while this example is from a consumer electronics manual, it illustrates STE in
action and how it can be applied to instruction-type documentation from any manufacturing, IT or
even medical industry.
As we mentioned earlier, once STE is implemented, we can help you choose a checker tool that
is right for your business.
Checker tools work alongside the writer in a similar way to spell-checker works in Microsoft
word.
The software automatically highlights problematic word-choices.
For example, it will highlight when you use verbs like „rotate", where „turn"
is the approved term.
The software will propose changes, and highlight poor sentence structure, but it is ultimately
up to the writer to decide, whether the sentence is in fact correct or not.
The point is, checker software is there to help, rather than do the work.
It's like a coach that offers advice, but it won't do the work for you.
Overall, it helps to speed up the writing process while making sure that STE rules are
followed across all your content.
Argos will be happy to help you decide on the right checker software for your publishing
program.
We can help you to determine your objectives and establish your technical requirements
and based on your needs, we can propose a few options.
Of course, you can write in STE without checker software just as you can write documents without
using a spell-checker.
But checker software spots all those little mistakes which end up being noticed and which
cause problems.
So, to summarize, we spoke of STE implementation and what effect it can have on your business.
We talked about customizing STE for your industry.
We can help to integrate STE with your authoring environment including Content Management Systems.
And we can help you choose the right checker tool for your needs.
Overall, with STE you will clarify your content, reduce your printing and publication costs.
And, that will end up producing savings on translation.
Thank you for watching our webcast
For more information on how we can help your business to grow
visit us at www.argosmultilingual.com.
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