What are the basics of Simplified Technical English?

Simplified Technical English consists of a limited vocabulary and restricted rules of writing. It has very limited scope for creativity due to its rules, which are designed to achieve clarity in technical documents such as manuals and instructions.

The current edition of the Simplified Technical English Specification (ASD-STE100), published in April 2021, consists of two main components: a dictionary and a set of writing rules.

The dictionary contains 900 approved words that have clear and specific meanings. For example, instead of using words like “attach”, “connect”, “join”, or “link”, Simplified Technical English only uses the word “install”.  

While STE was initially developed for commercial aviation, it has since been adopted by other industries such as medical, machinery, agriculture, oil and gas, IT, and pharmaceuticals manufacturing. This shows how versatile and widely applicable STE is!