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Subject:Re: Humor in Tech Pubs From:Susan Brown <susan -at- COOKERY -dot- OTTAWA -dot- ON -dot- CA> Date:Mon, 22 Jun 1998 19:27:11 -0400
At 04:32 PM 6/22/98 -0400, Beth Agnew wrote:
>Jim Chevallier referred us to Words of Wisdom, an article about
>documentation. In that article the author, Judith Desaritz, writes "And
>don't be as dry as dust. Have a sense of humor. Just because the subject is
>technical doesn't mean readers can't have fun."
>
>Have any of you tried putting humor in your technical documentation? Did it
>work? Would you try it if management would let you?
>--Beth
>
No.
We write documents that may be translated into as many as 9 different
languages, and humour does not translate.
However, you don't have to be funny to avoid that 'dry as dust' thing.
Susan Brown
From the Dark Side
"My hearse will be followed not by mourning coaches but by herds of oxen,
sheep, swine, flocks of poultry and a small travelling aquarium of live
fish, all wearing white scarves in honor of the man who perished rather
than eat his fellow creatures."