PowerPoint PresentationContent control:
Do you have a style guide?
Do you communicate clearly and efficiently?
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Words with multiple meanings
Should, may, might, could, would
Follow the procedure, do the procedure, obey the procedure
Press Power On button, push Power On Pushbutton, press Start button, press Power ON
Switch, turn, push, de-energize, press, start, stop
Remove power, disconnect power, pull Emergency Stop switch
Long-noun clusters
The minimum password length Properties dialog box
Clean the turret dome chassis thermal window securing screw threaded holes
Long sentences
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Safety risk
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The larger costs of not getting it right..
A power transformer company was sued for $5M after a transformer blew up due to badly worded and confusing documentation.
The largest single problem area for Google in internationalizing their service was language / translation issues - accounted for 35% of all reported issues.
EMC estimates it was spending $762,000 on internationalization errors in just one product set.
Failure to convert English measures to metric values caused the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, a spacecraft that smashed into the planet instead of reaching a safe orbit. Total project cost: $327.6M.
An FAA survey of aircraft technicians revealed that, although user evaluations of the accuracy and quality of technical manuals are generally good, the manuals themselves were noted as having poor usability.
Using the wrong word in an accounting system cost the New York City Department of Education $1.4M
A badly worded sentence in a contract cost a Canadian utility company $2.3M.
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Writing rules:
Core dictionary:
± 3000 words
One word = one meaning
Simplified Technical English
Standardized way of writing (ASD-STE100, Plain English, Corporate Style Guide, Grade Level, MIL SPEC, etc.)
Improved safety
Efficient authoring
Considerable cost savings
Cheaper, faster and better translations (up to 40% per language!)
Benefits
Quality assurance / quality control / quality measurement
Faster time to market
HyperSTE 2009 Survey Results
A survey amongst HyperSTE users in 2009 showed that the use of HyperSTE resulted in the following benefits:
Up to 30% in cost savings on translation and localization
Up to 40% in reduced word count
Quality improvement in writing and translations
Up to 30% in reduced product cycle time
Up to 40% reduction in overall documentation cost
Efficient conversion of legacy documents
Chart1
Translation
Translation
Words
Words
70
100
Overall
60
100
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To standardize documentation in compliance with the Simplified Technical English specification ASD-STE100
To improve quality and readability of manuals
To reduce cycle time
Tedopres developed a dictionary containing Rolls-Royce standardized terminology and trained Rolls-Royce technical writers and editors on the rules of ASD Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) and how to use the HyperSTE software.
As part of the implementation process, Rolls-Royce uses the HyperSTE checker software to ensure that all manuals comply with ASD Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100), including the use of standardized and consistent Rolls-Royce terminology.
The results
Better quality and readability of manuals
Reduced cycle time
To standardize documentation in compliance with corporate style guide EASE (Elekta Approved Simplified English)
To improve quality and readability of manuals
To save translation cost
The solution
Tedopres developed the EASE dictionary containing Elekta standardized terminology and trained Elekta technical writers in the UK, Sweden and US on the rules of EASE and how to use the HyperSTE software.
For IMPAC, Tedopres developed the IMPAC dictionary containing IMPAC specific terminology which can be used together with the EASE dictionary.
Elekta uses HyperSTE to ensure compliance with EASE.
The results
Up to 30% in translation cost savings after one year
Better quality and readability of manuals
Reduced cycle time
Better reusability of text in XML environment
Standardized terminology and style
To improve quality and readability of manuals
To save translation cost
The solution
Tedopres developed the Electrolux dictionary based on thousands of pages of content, including translation memory software
Electrolux uses a server based solution for HyperSTE
Tedopres trained Electrolux authors worldwide in France, Poland, Sweden, Germany and Italy
The results
Up to 50% in translation cost savings in over 30 languages
Better quality and readability of manuals, from 40% to 95%
Less phone calls to Customer Service
Time to market reduced by 30%
Overall documentation cost reduced by 20%
Reduction of words by 25%
Standardized terminology and style
USA, Singapore and Japan
One-stop shop for technical
130 employees worldwide
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maintenance and publication of content.
HyperSTE – Simplified Technical English checker
HyperSTD – Simplified Technical German Checker
HyperTerm – Multilingual Terminology Management System
HyperSales – Sales Support System
HyperParts – Parts Catalog System
HyperSTI – Simplified Technical Illustrations
HyperDoc – Content Management System
HyperSIS – Service Information System
HyperTraining – Application for Training
Tedopres International BV (headquarters)
Tedopres International, Inc.
Tedopres Japan K.K.
Japan - Tel.: 81-(0)43-297-2589
www.simplifiedenglish.net