Most technical writers (technical authors in the UK) I know who use Simplified English say they find that it works when writing maintenance procedures but are not as complementary about it when they have to write descriptions or operations. Having to spend a lot of time looking up approved or unapproved words in the dictionary was their main objection. They also did not like having to translate, into Simplified English, existing and sometimes poorly written publications. A significant decrease in their productivity was noticed when they first started to use Simplified English. 

Some technical writers /technical authors felt it was “hard to learn a new trick” and the new concept should be introduced in phases. They obviously felt that it was going to take some time to get used to the “new system”. With Simplified English grammar skills need attention so that the technical author knows how to identify the nouns, verbs and function words. It might be easy knowing the word to use, but selecting a replacement for an unapproved word is the difficult part, even with extensive examples. It is not always possible to use the selected alternative, if there is one. In some instances, the dictionary will say that a word is unapproved, but the only alternative is to use a different construction. 

My first attempts with Simplified English took a few rewrites until I had mastered it. I have found that once you have used Simplified English on a few occasions you get used to the limited vocabulary and tend to use the same words all the time. When I have used Simplified English I have looked more critically at the text written and this has forced me to be clear and precise. A good example of before and after Simplified English is:

Before: It is equally important that there should be no seasonal changes in the procedures, as, although aircraft fuel system icing due to water contamination is more often met with in winter, it can be equally dangerous during the summer months.

After: Use the same procedures all the time, because water in the fuel system can freeze during winter or summer.

As the aerospace industry uses a lot of maintenance procedures it was quite apparent that the Simplified English language was needed to overcome all the language problems. Therefore with this approved vocabulary and set of rules, technical writers /technical authors writing in English, worldwide, will be able to write in the same, clear consistent style to present information that is easy to understand by the international aerospace industry.

The approved words and rules are not set in stone because the vocabulary does not contain all the words in the English language. If when using Simplified English in their writing a technical writer / technical author comes across words that are missing, then these would have to be added to the vocabulary. The words in the vocabulary are made up from three sources:

1. Approved Words.
2. Technical Names.
3. Manufacturing Processes.

Using these vocabulary words as parts of speech is the major part of Simplified English.

Parts of Speech: Nouns

Within the Simplified English dictionary Nouns are categorised as Approved Nouns or Technical Names. Wherever possible they must be preceded by a definite article (The), a demonstrative adjective (This) or an indefinite article (a). As the Simplified English vocabulary is limited, the same word may have to be used many times. Synonyms must not be used once a word is chosen it must be continued with. Noun clusters must be avoided at all times. In Simplified English noun clusters of more than three words must be broken up by either:

• hyphenating;
• rewriting;
• a combination of both.

Technical names must be hyphenated to show relationship if the noun cluster is four or more words.

Verbs

Within Simplified English you must only use the Verbs stated in the dictionary. The …ing form of the verb must not be used. Here are a few examples of the verb Drain:

• Infinitive: To drain
• Simple future: To drain
• Simple present: He/She drains
• Simple past: He/She drained
• Past participle: He/She drained.

The past participle must only be used as an adjective either with:

• a noun (The adjusted link is behind the pillar);
• or after the verbs To Be or To Become (The wires become disconnected from the switch).

The remaining parts of speech (Pronouns, Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions) are used as in conventional English. That is, provided the words in the dictionary are only used as the part of speech indicated.

 Having summarised the type of words that make up the Simplified English vocabulary how are these words put together to form sentences and paragraphs? There are four types of sentences used in Simplified English:

• Statements;
• Procedural instructions;
• Questions;
• Combinations with linking clauses.

The construction of sentences with Simplified English are governed by eight basic rules:

1. Make instructions as specific as possible.
2. Do not use abstracts.
3. Keep to one task per sentence.
4. Keep sentences short (maximum 20 words).
5. For descriptive text, one sentence in 10 may be 25 words long.
6. Do not omit verbs or nouns to make a sentence shorter.
7. When counting sentence length. A colon (:) or dash (-) count as a full stop.
8. If a dependant clause is included then it must start the sentence and be separated from the instruction by a comma.

The construction of paragraphs with Simplified English are governed by ten basic rules.

1. Always start a paragraph with a topic subject.
2. Each paragraph must cover only one subject.
3. The maximum length of a paragraph is six sentences.
4. Use a variety of sentence lengths and constructions to keep the text interesting.
5. Vary the length of paragraphs.
6. Do not use one sentence paragraphs more than once in every ten paragraphs (descriptive text only).
7. Do not overload the text, present new information slowly.
8. Use a tabular layout of text to help show relationships between complex actions and results.
9. Try to use the active voice.
10. Try to end a paragraph with a statement that will form a link with the next paragraph.

The writing of procedures in Simplified English must be in the Active tense. For descriptive text one sentence in ten may be in the passive tense. To change passive to active you can either:

• change the subject of the sentence;
• change an infinitive verb for an active verb;
• change the verb to a commanding form;
• use the personal pronouns We and You.

Here is an example of the passive and active tenses of the same sentence.

The main landing gear is supported by the side stay. This is Passive because the subject suffers the action of the verb.

The side stay supports the main landing gear. This is Active because the subject does the action of the verb.

A Full stop (.), Comma (,), Colon (:) or Dash (—) are used in Simplified English as in normal English. The other two methods of punctuation, the Bracket (()) and Hyphen (-) have specific rules governing their use in Simplified English.

There are four circumstances when Brackets are used.

1. To make condensed figure/text references.
2. To set off text that is not part of the main statement.
3. To mark text where the separation by Commas is insufficient.
4. For letters of numbers that indicate items of a list or steps of procedure.

Hyphens are used as a joining signal. There are seven circumstances when Hyphens are used.

1. Two-word terms used together.
2.  Two-word fractions or numbers.
3. Adjectives that consist of three or more words.
4. Terms that consist of a capital letter or a number and a noun.
5. Compound verbs consisting of a verb and a noun.
6. Terms in which a prefix ends, with and the root word begins with a vowel.
7. Terms in which two one syllable words are written together.

Care must be taken when using a Warning or Caution in Simplified English. You must be certain that the right one is being used. A warning or caution must not be a general statement. They must start with a clear and simple command. A brief explanation may be added, if necessary, to give a clear idea of the possible risk involved. A Warning is a danger of injury to people. A Caution is the danger of damage to equipment.

Simplified English is a subset of “normal” English that technical writers (technical authors in the UK) can use to improve the readability of aircraft maintenance procedures. Simplified English is not “Simple English” as it demands a very sound working knowledge of conventional English and much greater concentration and awareness by the technical writer / technical author. Simplified English does not cover up for a lack of writing skills. It was designed to be easy for the reader to learn and understand so that the text need not have to be translated. However, if translation is required then Simplified English will make the task easier because of its one word – one meaning philosophy.

Simplified English is a controlled language that has a simplified vocabulary (about 1,000 words), with clearly defined meanings, that has a set of rules (about 55) for using the vocabulary. The approved words and rules are not frozen because not all the words in the English language are included. Technical writers / technical authors might come across words that are missing and consequently these words would have to be added to the vocabulary. The vocabulary words are from three sources.

Approved Words

These are words that are in the Simplified English dictionary. Approved words are indicated in the dictionary as upper case. Only the parts of speech and definitions assigned to the approved word can be used.

If a word is shown as a noun it cannot be used as a verb. An example is the word Test, it is used as a noun and not a verb. Do the leak test for the system  not test the system for leaks.

Technical Names

These are words that fit into one of the categories listed in Simplified English (adjectives and nouns). Technical names can be regarded as un-restricted and are names specified and approved by the company or companies involved.

There are four basic rules covering the use of technical names:

1. Use only as a noun or an adjective.
2. Use only the official technical name.
3. Do not use different technical names for the same thing.
4. If there is a choice, use the simplest, most easily understood alternative.

There are 20 different categories of technical names:

1. Names in official parts information.
2. Names of locations on the aircraft.
3. Names of tools or equipment.
4. Names of materials and consumables.
5. Names of aircraft support facilities.
6. Names of circuits or systems, their parts or locations in them.
7. Names of persons,groups or bodies.
8. Names of technical records.
9. Mathematical, scientific or engineering terms.
10. Navigational terms.
11. Medical terms.
12. Damage terms.
13. Headings and topics used in specifications.
14. Documents, manuals or parts of a manual.
15. Parts of the body.
16. Units of measurement or dial markings.
17. Numbers.
18. Common personal effects.
19. Environmental conditions.
20. Colours. 

Manufacturing Processes

These are words that fit into one of six categories listed in Simplified English (always verbs).

1. One that removes material.
2. One that adds material.
3. One that attaches material.
4. One that changes the mechanical strength, structure and or physical properties of a material.
5. One that changes the surface finish of a material.
6. One that changes the shape of a material.

There are two basic rules covering the use of manufacturing processes:

1. You must use only the official manufacturing process term.
2. You can only use a manufacturing process as a verb.

Throughout the centuries there have been numerous proposals to reform the English language. Even in the United States the Simplified Spelling Board was set up to try to come to terms with a much simpler form of English. Mr Al Morin the former chairman of the American Simplified English committee said: 

“The problems of publishing technical information are probably more diverse than those of any other publishing process. Not only is the information itself expanding at a tremendous rate, but it can come from diverse sources, such as the engineer who creates the product to the people who manufacture, inspect, service, and use it. All these people write and they all write to convey, often complex, information. The basic purpose of all writing is to get a message across to the reader: it must convey exact meaning. To serve this purpose well, it must be capable of being easily read and easily understood.”

More often than not, writing does get the intended message across but there are occasions when even the largest companies can fail.

The aerospace industry is one industry where the need for a standardisation of language was necessary. As English has been the official language of aviation since 1948, and since then many technical authors and translators, of many nationalities, have been busy either composing text in English or translating it into English. Consequently, all these people worked without any form of common standard of a form of controlled English that they could use based around a specific technical dictionary.

Therefore with this in mind, the major airlines within the aerospace industry, identified the need for a clear communication of complex maintenance data with some form of technical English.

In the late 1970′s the Association of European Airlines (AEA) asked the European Aviation Industry Association – Association Europeenne des Constructeurs de Materiel Aerospatial (AECMA) to apply a form of basic English to future documentation.

As a result the AECMA documentation working group was set up. The working group researched all the procedural text within the existing manuals and came up with its initial suggestions for improvement. The initial suggestions had highlighted the need to rationalise the number of verbs that were originally used. A list of recommended verbs and a draft set of writing rules were published in 1983. These rules give the guide-lines for the construction of sentences, paragraphs and the use of punctuation. In 1984 similar exercises took place to select nouns, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.

When the study group had completed their research the AECMA simplified English version became a standard for the aerospace industry to use for all their technical documentation.

Simplified English had an earlier predecessor in the form of the limited word technical dictionary that was developed by McDonnell Douglas in 1979. The dictionary included 1,952 preferred words from the McDonnell Douglas technical manuals.

Prior to McDonnell Douglas the Caterpillar Tractor Company realised in 1971 that they had been struggling with the problems of communicating technical information to their non-English speaking distributors and customers. The company at the time had more than 20,000 publications that needed to be understood by people speaking a lot of different languages. Caterpillar Fundamental English, which was again a limited vocabulary was introduced. Caterpillar evaluated and rejected Basic English and Esperanto, because of their limited technical vocabularies, before deciding to develop Fundamental English.

For instance, if the person has got high grades for their dissertations/essays at college or they have had letters published in magazines or newspapers then they clearly understand how to organize their ideas and put them into words. This type of person should not be discouraged from a technical writing career just because they have no experience of writing technical English. 

It is not a question of whether the person can write that is usually the problem but if they know how to use the publishing software that the company uses to produce their technical documentation. You tend to find that companies like to have their newly employed technical writer to “hit the ground running” from day one. They don’t what to spend too much time letting the new employee play around with the software for any length of time before they start to produce the documentation. 

To alleviate this problem the prospective technical writer must do their research on the company first to find out what publishing software the company use. Then they need to read up on the software and get to understand how it works because you can guarantee that questions will be asked about the software at the interview stage. 

However, these days the majority of companies use well-designed templates and they usually have a senior technical writer who can oversee and supervise the new technical writer for the first couple of several weeks. This type of scenario makes the argument of not employing an inexperienced technical writer pointless. 

There are a multitude of technical writing courses available on the internet that will help anybody gain the knowledge they need to help them get that first job as a technical writer.

 Unskilled technical writers tend to find interviews intimidating and nerve racking because they don’t know what to expect. That is why they must do their research on the company. What the company is about, what it produces, and more specifically how they produce their technical documentation. Armed with as much  information as possible about the company will go a long way in helping the inexperienced technical writer gain employment.

Well, if you have a love for writing and also the liking for a number of industries, think about this technical writing. Working within this field has several benefits.

First, you have to understand that technical writing is a very popular profession and if you are a good technical writer then you could be guaranteed a good career throughout your working years.

You would also get to select your approach to working whether it is like a full-time technical writer (technical author in the UK) for a specific industry, a writer or perhaps a freelance technical writer.

On top off all that a good technical writer can earn a pretty decent salary. You tend to find that a technical writer who works in a permanent position start off with a low salary but it increases with experience.

Whereas if you are a freelance technical writer you tend to be paid a lot more but you have to take into consideration the lack of benefits that a permanent writer has. Also a freelance technical writer has to understand that they are only hired for the life of the project.

A technical writer gets great satisfaction from knowing that their work is helping people to easily understand the product or service they have been writing about. There is no greater feeling for a technical writer to know that their efforts are appreciated by not only their bosses but their intended audience as well.

Being a technical writer gives you variety. They are exposed to the most recent devices, breakthroughs, technologies etc, and find out about them before they are released. It is often the case that through their research of a product or service a technical writer will fully understand how they work long before it is released.

Technical writing can be tough sometimes, and also you will have to put your flow of thought so as and also the little pieces will have to fit correctly. The process it produces keeps your work exciting as long as you have to keep up your desire to write. This provides the energy and pumps you as much as anticipate your work instead of detesting it.

I hope by reading this article you will appreciate the benefits that a career as technical writer can offer you. If you like to write, then do not dismiss the opportunity to become a technical writer if it ever presents itself to you.

Theoretically the best way to get your documents examined is always to distribute it to a list of suitable people for review. It is always a good idea to ask for the comments back by a specific date.

Using this method it is more than likely that you are sure to get nothing or next to nothing back, even if you have been chasing after them with email after email and phone call after phone call. So when you do get a response they are usually full of questions or question marks, or they have been editing the grammar and not even bothering with the technical content.

Another choice is always to call a meeting of all the interested parties. People love meetings and some can spend all day long every single day moving from one meeting to another because it adds the atmosphere of self importance. You will probably notice that the people who have not supplied any written feedback for the review demands are the first ones to accept the invitation to a meeting.

You have to realize that just because you have all the major players involved in the project actually sitting together around a table doesn’t mean that you are going to achieve instant results.

The majority of SMEs hardly ever prepare for a review meeting, you are lucky if they ever read the technical documentation, let alone be prepared for the meeting. They have a tendency to read through the document whilst in the meeting and throw out their comments as and when they have any. This cuts down their time reviewing the document to the amount time the meeting lasts instead of spending a lot longer and giving the technical documentation a thorough review. By doing this type of review the SME is not doing justice to the amount of work you will have put in to create the documentation.

Even if the SME does read through the documentation before the meeting you will find it very difficult to review a large document if the meeting is only scheduled for an hour. You tend to find that if the technical documentation is on the large size and will need several meetings to review then the SME’s enthusiasm will start to wane and they will start to miss meetings.

From my experience of being a technical writer it is better to have a technical review of the documentation first and then set up a review meeting. Send the documentation to the SME first to carry out a paper review and get them to send back their comments. Plus also make them aware that a review meeting is being scheduled for the following week. When you receive the comments back from the SME compile them and send them out to with a meeting invitation to the relevant people.

By doing it this way you can conduct the meeting with the knowledge of knowing that a lot of the issues have already been resolved. It will only leave any new queries to be taken care of and any outstanding queries can be allocated to the relevant people as action points. Also the SME will be able to dedicate their time to ensuring that all their comments are auctioned on and when the documentation is updated it will be correct and ready for distribution.

Technical writing is much more than just technical jargon, and structured, concise instructions. As the intended audience for the technical writing could be for both technical and non-technical people it must to convey its message so that both sets of people understand it.

The main purpose of a technical writer when approaching a new technical writing project is to ensure that they maintain focused on what they are writing about. The information they are producing has to be organized and structured within the laid down style that is appropriate for the intended audience. By sticking to the basic principles of technical writing the technical writer (technical author in the UK) is ensuring that the documentation is clearly understood by the reader.

The following is the six basic principles of technical writing that a technical writer has to take in to consideration.

Content

There are five basic questions a technical writer has to ask themselves when starting a new project – who, why, what, how and when. Answering these questions will allow the technical writer to be able to develop the content for any type of technical documentation. For example, let’s say the technical writer has to create a user guide for a new video recorder. Before creating the user guide, they will have to plan the content of the user guide by applying following key questions to the situation: 

• Who will read the user guide?
• Why do need to create the user guide?
• What is this user guide going to offer its intended audience?
• How is the user guide going to be delivered?
• When does the user guide have to be ready (publishing date)?

The Audience and Purpose of the Documentation

Before beginning any new writing project, the technical writer has to analyze the intended audience and identify the purpose for the document. The technical writer will need to ask the following questions about the audience:

•  Who will read the documentation?
• What are their biases?
• What responsibilities does the technical writer have when communicating the information to the audience?

 With regard to the purpose of the documentation, technical writer will need to know what the documentation will accomplish and also what should it do. 

Styleguide

Technical writers will more than likely use a company styleguide (if there is one) to ensure that their documentation has a structured and organized pattern so that it gives consistency to their writing. A styleguide will provide the document with continuity so that the audience can comprehend the information. For example, technical writers need to organise their ideas in a specific chronological format because without a specific layout and structure to the documentation it will be very confusing for the reader to understand. 

Writing Style

Technical writers will need to change their writing style depending on the audience and situation they are writing about. If they are writing technical documentation then it needs to be formal and devoid of any emotion as you get with creative writing. Whereas, if say they were an email to one of the senior managers involved in the project then their approach would more casual than formal.

Accessing the Information

Accessibility applies to the ease at which the intended audience can gain access to the information they need from the technical documentation. A technical document must at least contain a table of contents, headers and footers, list of illustrations/tables, page numbers, etc.

Also a technical document must adhere to a specific heading and sub heading structure to break down the information into relevant areas that the reader can access easily.

Grammar

A technical writer must adhere to all the rules of conventional grammar. Also it is the technical writer’s responsibility to proofread and edit their documentation to detect and correct any errors in the writing, graphics, typography and layout.

In summarising, a technical writer must ensure that they incorporate the above mentioned principles into their everyday writing style. This will go a long to make them not only a better writer but their technical documentation will be appreciated by both their peers and readers alike.

Before anybody begins the technical writing task they have to understand what the prospective readership will be as well as exactly what the objective of the actual writing will be. Dependent upon as to who the content is good for then the procedure may begin by having a meeting with the individual authorizing the actual task. This is often to ensure the technical writer can understand what the overall task is going to entail.

Without having that information along with comprehending the technical writing task the technical writer won’t be able to convey the right information to the actual target audience. It might have incorrect details within it.

A fundamental element of virtually any technical writing will be the subject matter expert (SME). The technical writer is not always the actual SME, plus it very feasible that they do not actually have the actual specialized understanding of the product or service to create their particular documentation. The SME can provide just about all the facts they require as well as solve virtually any related queries.

As an example the technical writer may not know what a piston is or even what the compression setting is, so they will be able go to the chief technician and inquire precisely how these things function. This will ensure that the technical writer can finish the task using the correct details.

Because the objective of technical writing is always to promote the correct information then talking with an SME could possibly be the key to the actual task. The majority of SMEs are extremely very helpful in aiding the technical writer simply because they realize it is their own facts the technical writer is actually counting on to create the actual documents.

The individual that does the actual technical writing will be revealing details for the audience to ensure they will completely understand what are the service or product will be and the way to utilize them correctly. The particular task by itself could be tailored for a big or small target audience, based on exactly what the technical documentation is being produced for.

The technical writer must ensure that that they realize whom the actual technical documentation is designed for and exactly what the information they’re writing will be and just how the actual expected target audience is actually likely to utilize it. Technical writing can be used for various areas with various objectives.

A spin off from this technological revolution has been the need for good quality technical writers that are educated to standards required by the technical communications industry. This requirement has brought about the development of technical writing courses. 

There is an ever increasing amount of technology today that is being used by a lot of people who do not know how to use it (i.e. DVD players, mobile phones, etc). That is why technical writers play such a vital role in conveying the complex technical information and instructions needed for this new technology to the people who need it the most. 

If you can research information and are capable of translating complex technical information into simple information that people with less understanding than you are able to understand, then you have the ability to become a good technical writer. 

Just having the ability to write is not enough you need to combine this ability with the expertise you require to be a technical writer. This expertise is something you gain from both technical knowledge of the products involved plus a course in technical writing. 

As a technical writer your job tends to be writing maintenance manuals, operating instructions, user guides etc, for a wide range of products or services. These products and services can cover from the TV you have at home, the car you drive or even the aeroplane you take to go on holiday. The range is vast and basically can be described as any form of technology that requires explaining in its simplest form will require a technical writer to communicate that information to the end user. 

If you want to become a successful technical writer then you will need to evaluate what field you want to specialise in and try to find a suitable technical writing course that meets your needs.

 The majority of people have come in contact with some form of technical documentation that does not give us the information we require, or it doesn’t clearly explain some procedure that we must understand. 

I think the majority of people get a little bit frustrated when they come across poorly organised or poorly written documentation that is supposed to convey information that we need to understand. That is why there is an ever increasing demand for graduates of technical writing courses that can produce good technical documentation. 

If you are already an excellent communicator, technical writing training gives you the polish you need to turn you into a great technical communicator. 

There are an abundance of technical writing courses to be found on the internet. Plus the laptop computer has become an unequalled writing tool to use to pursue a technical writing course. Just like the internet has provided an excellent venue and communication means by which an online education in technical writing can be achieved. 

The most effective technical writing training can be found with education establishments that have accredited online programs. Effectively students can earn college levels in technical writing that will give them a great base for a career as a technical writer. 

Any form of technical writing training also puts you at the front of the queue when it comes to applying for the best jobs, well above candidates who haven’t devoted any time or effort to this kind of written communication. 

If you are thinking of a career in technical writing or are already employed in the profession, then it is worth looking into what type of online technical writing courses are available.