Term checker rules for ASD-STE100 issue 6

Document status: archived

A term checker for ASD-STE100 issue 7 is available.

ASD-STE100 rules

ASD-STE100 rules that the term checker uses
STE issue 6 rule	Summary of rule	Comment
1.1	Choose words from the Dictionary, Technical Names, and Technical Verbs.	The term checker finds unapproved terms, approved terms that possibly are used incorrectly, and unknown terms. You must add your organization's Technical Names and Technical Verbs to the term checker. The term checker gives information about many unknown terms: STE alternatives for more than 2300 terms that are unknown in the STE specification. Suggestions for approved alternatives of some unknown terms, if the unknown term is an approved term that has an unapproved prefix or suffix. Example for the term 'inaccurately': `STE Rule 1.1. The adverb ACCURATELY is approved, but 'inaccurately' (possibly is prefix+adverb) is undefined. Use the adverb.`
1.2	Use an approved Dictionary word only with the approved part of speech.	The term checker has rules only for nouns and verbs. Thus, if an approved adjective is used as a noun, the term checker does not give a warning. For example, for the sentence, "When a general tells you to ...", the term checker does not give a warning about the noun general. For problems of disambiguation, refer to Use a word only with the approved part of speech (Rule 1.2).
1.3	Use a word with its approved meaning.	The term checker gives a warning that a term is possibly misused for these conditions: In the Dictionary, a term has a note in the Alternatives column. A Technical Name or a Technical Verb has a non-technical meaning. For example, conscious is a TN (Rule 1.5.14), but it does not have the approved meaning in the sentence, "If you are conscious of a problem…"
1.4	Use only the forms of verbs and adjectives that are shown in the Dictionary.
1.5	Use words that are Technical Names.	You must add Technical Names to disambiguation-projectterms.xml.
1.6	Use a Technical Name only as a noun or as an adjective.
1.7	Do not use an unapproved word unless it is part of a Technical Name.	You must add Technical Names to disambiguation-projectterms.xml.
1.8	Use the official Technical Name as much as possible.	Refer to the comment for Rule 1.9.
1.9	Shorten official Technical Names, if possible.	You must add the short term as a Technical Name in disambiguation-projectterms.xml.
1.10	If you have a choice, use the shortest and simplest name.	Rule 1.10: "In the case of items for which there is not an official Technical Name, and for which you have a choice, use the shortest and simplest name": If the term and its synonyms are not in the term checker, the term checker will give a warning for the unknown terms, but it cannot cannot tell you the correct term. If the term and its synonyms are in the term checker, Rule 1.10 is not applicable, because the 'official' term is the approved Technical Name.
1.11	Do not use slang or jargon words.	The term checker gives STE alternatives for some slang words and jargon words.
1.12	Do not use different Technical Names for the same thing.	To identify this problem, you must add the unapproved alternatives to grammar-projectterms.xml. For example, if the approved Technical Name is servo control unit, add the unapproved alternative Technical Name actuator in `grammar-projectterms.xml`.
1.13	Use words that are Technical Verbs.	You must add Technical Verbs to disambiguation-projectterms.xml.
1.14	Use a Technical Verb only as a verb. You can use the past participle as an adjective.
1.15	After you choose the words to describe something, continue to use the same words.	To identify this problem for Technical Names and Technical Verbs, you must add the unapproved alternatives to grammar-projectterms.xml. Rule 1.15 is also about sentences. The term checker does not tell you if two different sentences mean the same thing.
1.16	Use consistent spelling.	The term checker identifies alternative spellings of approved Dictionary terms and tells you the correct spelling. You can select American English or British English.
1.17	Make instructions as specific as possible.	The term checker cannot identify the semantic problem of abstraction. The term checker finds some phrases such as if and when.
2.1	Do not make noun clusters of more than 3 nouns.
2.2	Clarify noun clusters that are Technical Names.	Refer to Rule 1.8 and Rule 1.9. The term checker does not clarify noun clusters automatically. For each noun cluster, add the approved term to disambiguation-projectterms.xml and add the unapproved term to grammar-projectterms.xml.
2.3	When appropriate, use an article or a demonstrative adjective before a noun.
3.1	Use only those forms of the verb that are listed in the Dictionary.
3.2	Do not use the '-ing' form of a verb unless it is part of a Technical Name.
3.3	Use the approved forms of the verb to make only: infinitive, imperative, simple present tense, simple past tense, past participle as adjective, future tense.
3.4	Use the past participle only as an adjective (with a noun, or after the verbs TO BE, TO BECOME).
3.5	Do not use the past participle with the verb HAVE to make an unapproved tense.
3.6	Do not use the past participle with a helping verb (auxiliary verb) to make a complex verb.
3.7	Use the active voice for procedures, and as much as possible in descriptive writing.	The term checker does not identify procedural text and descriptive text. The rule finds all instances of the passive voice.
3.8	Use an approved verb to describe an action, (not a noun or other part of speech).	Refer to Use an approved verb to describe an action, (not a noun or other part of speech) (Rule 3.8).
Section 4	Sentences	Most rules are about semantic problems. Part of Rule 4.2 is an instruction not to use contractions such as don't and isn't. The term checker finds these contractions with Rule 3.1.
Section 5	Procedures	Most rules are about semantic problems.
Section 6	Descriptive writing	Most rules are about semantic problems.
Section 7	Warnings, cautions, and notes	Most rules are about semantic problems.
Section 8, except Rule 8.3 and Rule 8.11	Punctuation and word counts
8.3	Use the hyphen (-) as a joining signal.	Refer to Use the hyphen (-) as a joining signal (Rule 8.3)
8.11	Do not use semicolons.
9.1	Use a different construction to rewrite sentences when a word-for-word replacement is not sufficient.	The term checker cannot tell you how to rewrite text.
9.2	When you combine words to make a phrase, make sure that the words continue to obey the meanings given to them in the Dictionary.	The term checker identifies many misused combinations of words. The term checker identifies many phrasal verbs if the parts of the verb are together. The term checker does not identify a phrasal verb if a noun or a noun phrase is between the parts of the verb.
9.3	Use the Dictionary to get the correct words, meanings, and parts of speech.	The term checker helps you, but it cannot make sure that you use the Dictionary correctly. The term checker has rules for parts of speech (Rule 1.2) and for meanings (Rule 1.3).
GR-1	The conjunction THAT	The rule is implemented only for the verb MAKE SURE.
GR-2	The pronoun THIS
GR-3	The preposition WITH

American English and British English spelling rules

By default, ASD-STE100 uses American English. But, Rule 1.16 lets you use British English or some other English. In LanguageTool Options, you can select British English spelling from 'STE Rule 1.16 Setup: American English or British English'.

For some words, the suffix ize is a correct spelling for British English. For example, both energise and energize are correct spellings in British English. As much as possible, the term checker uses the spellings that are approved in ASD-STE100. Thus, you will get an error message if you write energise.

Global English Style Guide rules

The term checker includes rules that are derived from The Global English Style Guide by John R Kohl, used with permission.

Guidelines from The Global English Style Guide that the term checker uses
Number	Guideline	Comment
3.12	Write positively	Only for approved adjectives and approved adverbs that contain a prefix of negation and that have the word not in front of the word. Examples: not unusual, not incorrect, not impossible (impossible is not-approved, but possible is approved).
8.1	Ampersands
9.10	Eliminate obscure foreign words
9.11	Eliminate unnecessary Latin abbreviations
9.12	Eliminate other non-technical abbreviations
9.13	Eliminate clipped terms

Terms such as de facto and viz are unknown in ASD-STE100. To prevent more than 1 warning for only 1 problem, deactivate 'Rule 1.1. Use approved words [deactivate to ignore unknown keywords]'.

Refer also to

The Global English Style Guide: a review

Plain English rules

Pronouns such as he and she are not approved in ASD-STE100. You cannot add those pronouns as Technical Names or Technical Verbs, because they are not nouns, adjectives or verbs. The term checker has a category of rules for plain English. Because the terms are not approved STE terms, you will see a warning message for each term. To prevent the warning messages, in LanguageTool Options, deactivate the rule 'Plain English for technical documents' (refer to 'Deactivate some default LanguageTool rules').

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