examples

[Margaret Moody <mmoody -at- DOCUMENTSOLUTIONS -dot- COM>]

Yesterday, Lisa wrote:
How exactly do *you* (yep, it's an opinion question, g*d forbid!) go about
using examples in manuals that get your point across?  I'm curious to see
whether you use cute names, humor, or "real" people (the Vice President of
Finance), and which you feel is most effective in *your* situation at the
present time. Also, if it is effective, do you ever think the circumstances
will change? If it is "not" effective, what would you change?
* * *

Lisa, be wary of using humorous names for your examples, even in your
drafts. I was once an editor at VA where I was the last stop before
reproduction and distribution. Effeminate, Eduardo and Lard, Bucket are just
two names some wag consistently tried to used as patient names in his
examples. Can you imagine what a patient would think if he saw that in his
nurse's manual? Or how the media could have portrayed VA as hostile to
patients (like there isn't enough of that already)?  Make sure the names in
your example show respect for your end-user and avoid using the names of
celebrities. I can't tell you how many Cindy Crawford's I had to edit out.

That said, I did chuckle at the relatively subtle humor of the manual that
named the physicians Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard, and Dr. Fine (names from The
Three Stooges). Another writer always used names of dead presidents. That
was respectful but did not convey a range of ethnicity or gender.

I like Chris' suggestion "We've developed a LEARN database with 20-30
carefully researched names..."  I just wonder how they were researched.

Margaret Moody
mmoody -at- documentsolutions -dot- com

 "Like it or not, we each live within our own perception of reality which
 makes each one of us the center of our particular universe."
  (Madeleine L'Engle "Walking on Water")

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