ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) is a controlled language standard that helps improve the readability and translatability of technical documents.STE originated in aerospace and defense and is required for many aerospace and defense projects. Today, STE is increasingly used in technical fields such as automotive, mechanical, electronic telecommunications, and medical devices to reduce translation costs and improve translation quality.
Ref. Finnish Technical Communications Society
Applicability
ASD-STE100 was originally developed to provide users around the world with easier-to-understand documentation for the maintenance of aircraft and their components. Over time, the need for the specification (safety, legibility) for other types of manuals has come to the fore. STE has become mandatory for many defense programs, including land and sea vehicles and weapons systems. And the S1000D specification (which is similar to DITA for the aerospace and defense industry sectors) also calls for STE for English language content.
It's worth noting that while STE can benefit a wide range of document types, it does not apply to spoken communication, and has limited applicability in marketing or legal documents.
STE vs. corporate style guides:
What's the difference?
Company guides typically include:
Whereas STE includes:
Thus, the main difference between STE and a regular corporate style guide is the addition of general vocabulary, while retaining flexibility for company and industry-specific terminology. Such a powerful concept provides great assistance in adapting to the specific needs of a company.
Because STE designees come from a variety of companies (including Boeing and Airbus), countries (the U.S., Canada, and various European countries), and professional backgrounds (authors, linguists, and engineers), the rule sets and glossaries are fairly balanced and are not a reflection of individual or company views. In addition, the rules and vocabulary have been validated based on actual manual content.
The content of STE has been regularly updated since it was first released over thirty years ago, with some of the updates coming from user change requests. The most recent version is the January 25, 2017 release of Version 7 The specification is maintained by ASD (formerly AECMA) (Association of European Aerospace and Defense Industries).
Rules for writing
The STE rules govern the choice and use of words, how to write phrases and sentences, as well as the use of articles, verb tenses, and (to some extent) punctuation. Some rules are specific to flow or descriptive text. Some of these rules are familiar to practitioners. And the overall specification looks at the balance of content to go beyond most corporate and general style guides.
Here are some examples of specifications:
For each rule, there is a detailed explanatory note.
If I had to pick the rule that has the most significant impact on readability and reuse, I would have to mention Rule 1.1: Use only approved words. You may find it hard to believe that every word must be an STE approved word? That's right! The source of these words falls into three categories: general approved words listed in the STE specification; technical nouns; and technical verbs, with the last two categories being determined by the user based on industry, company, and product.
Vocabulary
& Terminology
Here we need to distinguish between "vocabulary" and "terminology". "terminology. A "vocabulary" basically consists of words that are commonly used in technical documentation and are common to any industry. Terminology, on the other hand, as the name implies, is a specialized vocabulary that varies by industry, company, product, customer, and other attributes.
With this categorization, it is important to remember that for a word, its categorization is either/or. Ideally, all words have one and only one meaning. And the purpose of such a concept is to maintain consistency and minimize ambiguity.
But it is important to note that, although the concept is presented as such, there are exceptions: for example, aircraft, which is a term for the industry-specific term "airplane". But at the same time, the general vocabulary (general vocabulary) also has the word aircraft, which means "airborne mobile vehicle", i.e., pointing out that helicopters (propeller planes) or hot-air balloons can also be counted as "aircraft".
In contrast, a helicopter (propeller plane) or a hot air balloon can be considered an "aircraft".
By contrast, the word "engine" is not part of the general vocabulary. This may ...... be a bit hard to understand, since there is engine on every aircraft ...... but please note: depending on the type of engine, the type of document, and the type of audience, we need to use different terminology, such as "turbine", "jet engine", "power plant", etc.; the same words can be translated as "engine", "engine", "engine", "engine", "engine", "engine", "engine", "engine", "engine" and so on. ) and so on; the same words may be translated differently, e.g. "car engine" and "aircraft engine", which translate into German as "motor " and "triebwerk" respectively.
For other industries, "battery" is also a misunderstood word. Depending on whether it is rechargeable, used in a car or a cell phone, etc., different words need to be chosen to describe it. In Finnish, for example, different words are used to describe car batteries and (generally) rechargeable batteries ("akku" and "paristo", respectively).
Multiple meanings of a word are also worth exploring. For example, "terminal" can have different meanings from the noun alone, such as "connector" (connector)、"computer workstation" (计算机工作站)、"computer workstation" (connector)、"computer workstation" (computer workstation). computer workstation" (computer workstation), "airport building" (airport building), etc. If you use a translation program, it's not difficult to find the meaning of the word "terminal". If you use a translation program, it's easy to see how these completely different meanings can lead to confusion, especially if your audience has limited English. In addition to the noun form, "terminal" has a completely different meaning when used as an adjective.
For these reasons, and in recognition of the fact that terminology can vary from company to company, and even from department to department within the same company, the ASD (then AECMA) decided not to adopt a proposal made by McDonnell Douglas more than 20 years ago to incorporate so-called "common" aviation terminology into general aviation terminology. "common" aviation terminology into the general vocabulary), and instead created guidelines on acceptable terminology.
This paper will not discuss in detail all the standards for applicable terms ("Technical Name" or "TN"). Only the following main specifications are listed here:
In addition, we want to avoid words with empty meanings, i.e., to keep only words with specific technical or scientific meanings, i.e., words that are indispensable to the writing of technical documentation, such as some descriptions that appear in marketing copy.
From an STE perspective, there is no comparison between different ways of saying something (e.g., "signal light", "indicator light", "annunciator light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light", "light"). annunciator light", "pilot light", "status indicator", "indication light", etc.). STE is concerned with consistency in the choice of words (one of the "pillars" of STE), so that if you choose to use word A, you can't subsequently substitute another word to describe the same concept.
There is another category of industry-specific terminology: technical verbs, but they are very limited in number and will not be discussed in this article.