Beyond plain English

Plain English is good for increasing the quality of written documents. Unfortunately, it has limits in many technical situations. We need a special type of language, known as a controlled language, to overcome those limits. One particular controlled language is ASD Simplified Technical English.

The problem with plain English

Plain English guidelines include:

Keep your sentences short.
Choose words appropriate for the reader.
Prefer active verbs.

Plain English guidelines are useful for much business writing. However, words such as 'short' and 'appropriate' are not specified. People understand the words differently. Many thousands of verbs exist in the English language. Sometimes, two or more verbs have the same meaning. Sometimes, one verb has many different meanings. A similar situation occurs with nouns.

Plain English is not sufficiently accurate in some situations to make sure that the text is clear. We need a controlled language. A controlled language specifies the grammatical structures and the words that a technical writer can use. The objective is to get a short and clear text.

ASD Simplified Technical English

ASD Simplified Technical English™ (www.asd-ste100.org) is one particular controlled language. (Previously, it was known as AECMA Simplified English.) The specification for the language is ASD-STE100™. The specification was developed for the aerospace industry, but it can be adapted for other industries. It helps people to write clear documentation. The specification contains the following parts:

A dictionary of words and their meanings
A set of rules for writing.

The dictionary contains a list of words that you can use. For example, you can use 'make sure', but you cannot use synonyms such as 'verify', 'check', 'confirm' or 'ensure'.

Usually, each word is permitted for only one part of speech. For example, the word 'oil' is specified as a noun. Therefore, the word 'oil' must not be used as a verb:

'Oil the bearings liberally' is not permitted, because in this sentence 'oil' is used as a verb.
'The oil is contaminated' is permitted, because in this sentence 'oil' is used as a noun.

Each word has only one meaning. For example, the verb 'to follow' means 'to come after'. It does not mean 'to obey'. Instead of 'Follow the safety instructions' you must write 'Obey the safety instructions'.

The writing rules specify the structure of the text. For example, descriptive sentences must have no more than 25 words. (This puts a number on the plain English guideline to keep sentences short.)

Tenses are restricted. For example, you cannot use the present perfect tense. As an alternative, write the sentence in the simple past tense:

'We have received the technical reports from HQ' is not permitted, because it is in the present perfect tense.
'We received the technical reports from HQ' is permitted, because it is in the simple past tense.

Each industry has its own special vocabulary. Therefore, ASD Simplified Technical English lets you create a dictionary of approved verbs and approved nouns.

Simplified English: for and against

In technical documentation, ambiguous text is bad. Each instruction must be clear. ASD Simplified Technical English helps technical writers to achieve that requirement. There are limits to ASD Simplified Technical English, but it helps to make sure that communications are clear.

Can we use ASD Simplified Technical English (or some other simplified English) for marketing texts?

Possibly, if you looked at other pages on the TechScribe website, you saw that we do not conform to the rules of ASD-STE100 that are explained on this page. For example, some sentences are longer than 25 words. Sometimes, we use synonyms such as 'technical writer' and 'technical author'. This website is a marketing tool. If people use the term 'technical author' in search engines, and if our term is 'technical writing', then they will not find this website. That is not good.

However, this website conforms to most principles of ASD-STE100. Therefore, this website is clear to people who do not read English well, and readers can use machine translation. For more information, see TechScribe's international English website (www.international-english.co.uk).

An alternative opinion

Some professional technical writers have a different opinion. In 'Spring into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists' (www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0131498630), Barry Rosenberg suggests that for non-technical verbs, a technical writer can use synonyms to make the text interesting. I asked Barry to explain, and he gave the following reply:

When I refer to a product name, a product component, a scientific concept, or any sort of technical noun, I want to make sure that I refer to this thing in the same consistent way each time. Thus, a "widget" on page 10 cannot become a "gadget" on page 11 and a "doohickey" on page 12. Such name shifts confuse readers. Similarly, if the correct technical verb for the way a widget disintegrates is "to framboozle," then I better make sure that the widget framboozles at every opportunity, even if the widget has to framboozle in sentence after sentence. However, in the "Verbs" section, I was trying to say (unsuccessfully, it would seem) that some writers tend to overuse certain general verbs (for example, "illustrates" or "shows"). For instance, a paragraph that used "shows" in four consecutive sentences would probably be a suboptimal paragraph. In this instance, I think verb variety can be quite helpful.

Language checkers

The following language checkers help technical writers to control grammar and vocabulary:

Acrolinx ASD-STE checker (www.acrolinx.com/news_en/items/acrolinx-announces-new-tool-for-simplified-technical-english.html)
Boeing Simplified English Checker (BSEC) (www.boeing.com/phantom/sechecker/index.html)
HyperSTE, a language checker for ASD-STE100, available from Tedopres (www.simplifiedenglish.net)
MAXit, a language checker for controlled English, available from Smart Communications, Inc (www.smartny.com)
Specially made software tools from Mekon (www.mekon.com).

Websites

DT Publications Ltd (www.dt-publications.com), the UK supplier of ASD-STE100.

ASD, Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe (www.asd-europe.org).

An overview of controlled languages in industry (http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/HLTsurvey/ch7node8.html).

Advantages and disadvantages with Simplified Technical English, Karin Disborg (http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_liu_diva-10071-1__fulltext.pdf)