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Subject:Re: Best technical writing of the season From:"Jeff Hanvey" <jewahe -at- comcast -dot- net> To:"Ruiter, Vicki" <Vicki_Ruiter -at- sra -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 5 Jan 2004 15:57:16 -0500
I think you've hit the key - there has to be a level of interest. Even the
kids that were put through the paces thought it was too complicated. But,
then, they just may not have had interest in that particular type of toy.
The toy in question was some kind of racetrack, I think, and the idea was to
have parents put it together so it was ready to go when the kids woke up
Christmas morning.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ruiter, Vicki" <Vicki_Ruiter -at- sra -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 3:42 PM
Subject: RE: Best technical writing of the season
>
> My seven-year-old son is a K'Nex addict. He actually does have their
> largest sets and builds them by himself. The largest set he builds over
four
> or five days - with an hour or two a day spent building it. The
> instructions are clear enough for a kid who is seven. For him, the fun is
> in the challenge of building. I don't think that they are *easy* sets,
but
> if they were easy, I don't think he would enjoy them. Compared to
building,
> he probably plays with the fully assembled sets for perhaps an hour or so.
>
> At any rate, I'm guessing that the people at K'Nex who put together the
> manuals know their audience. A seven-year-old boy who enjoys complicated
> building toys - no problem. If they were writing their manual for me,
they'd
> have to change their manual substantially - but I am not their target
> audience...I generally use K'Nex to sweep things out from under the
fridge.
>
>
> [As an aside....Is it not an odd thing to balk at a toy taking eight hours
> to put together? It is, after all, *a building toy*; the point is to build
> with it. We don't have any video games, but I am guessing that there are
> plenty of video games that take people eight hours to get to a certain
level
> on the game? I am sure that there are plenty of television shows out
there
> that some people just "can't miss" an episode and must easily devote eight
> hours to watching. Perhaps there are even people out there that spend
eight
> hours reading a....(shudder to think!)...BOOK!]
>
> Vicki Ruiter
> vicki_ruiter -at- sra -dot- com
