Training
Using Controlled English
in Global Documentation

Duration: 3 days
Description: This seminar will introduce you to Controlled English (CE) for global and technical documentation, and will guide you through a variety of CE approaches, including specific examples to demonstrate some of the different features. In addition, the seminar will show the relationships between CE writing, terminology standardization, natural language translation, XML/SGML authoring, document reusability, and document management. Finally, the seminar will offer an Executive Checklist for you to use to determine if the implementation of a CE approach can help meet your business objectives.

The seminar covers topics such as:

• A brief history of Controlled English and its predecessor
• The various types of industry that use Controlled English, including AECMA Simplified English
• The reasons for creating a specific type of Controlled English: making the English text easier to understand in English, making the English text easier to translate into other natural languages
• A brief introduction to Machine Translation (MT) and the role of Controlled English in MT
• The types of grammatical elements that are important to a Controlled English approach
• The types of text that lend themselves to a Controlled English approach
• The place of Controlled English writing within the documentation management process
• Basic considerations for getting started with Controlled English

Format: The seminar consists of lectures/demonstrations by the instructor punctuated by hands-on exercises by the attendees.

Comments: The course will provide you with a fundamental understanding of the role of a Controlled English approach and how CE can fit into your documentation process. The course will answer these questions: What do you need to know to make a decision whether such an approach makes good business sense for your organization? What factors do you need to consider to create a Controlled English? What are your translation needs, and how will a CE approach help to meet those needs, and reduce their costs? This course will give you both a high-level view of all the pieces to the Controlled English puzzle, as well as specific examples of what CE writing can involve.