Humor vs. Tech Pubs

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM>]

Mark Forseth <markf -at- MERGE -dot- COM> wrote:

>Humor as a communication technique is great for advertising (refer to gobs
>of research in advertising and persuasive comm), lousy for tech pubs (refer
>to gobs of research in tech comm).

Of course, you have to make sure that it's intentional. Marcom is full
of
unintentional humor, especially when it's done by writers who have
drifted
into without any training. For example, one spec sheet I saw used the
memorable header, "More than a check list" beside a list (in which
points were crammed like battery hens) with check marks for bullets.

But, for that matter, tech-writing has its moments of bad writing, too.
I
personally confess to once writing, "Icons have pictures,and buttons
have
text" in a manual. Fortunately, my sub-contractor pointed out how
humorously condescending the phrase was, and we both howled before
deleting
it.

-
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Co-ordinator ,Vancouver Technical Communicators' Co-op List
Vancouver, BC, Canada
(604) 421-7189 or 687-2133
bbyfield -at- axionet,com or bruce -at- dataphile-ca -dot- com
www.outlawcommunications.com (update 8 June, 1998)

"I was born to tell the truth and run,
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It was all for love, the crazy things I've done,
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