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Without wanting to come across as a humourless curmudgeon, I didn't really
find this manual to be that funny. Parts of it were sort of "cute" but it
seemed a bit overkill as there was a joke following almost every procedure.
I think that humour can have a place in tech writing, but the fact is that
humour is subjective and can lose a lot in translation or when read by other
English speaking countries (what Americans think is humorous may not
necessarily be seen as such by the British, for example). I thought the
writing was a bit contrived - sort of like when CEOs send messages
company-wide, try to be "cool" and use phrases like "you guys rock!".
On the other hand, I do think that humour can be a great way to encourage
people to actually read the manual (or even read it all the way through). In
this respect, I think the Timex guide succeeds as a lot of people on this
list did read through the whole thing. Hmm maybe I am just a humourless
curmudgeon. ;)
Cheers,
Lisa
l i s a . m a c d o n a l d
technical author
Citrix Systems (R&D) Ltd
Venture House, Cambourne Business Park
Cambridge, CB3 6DW, UK
tel: +44 (0)1954 283616
email: lisa -dot- macdonald -at- eu -dot- citrix -dot- com
"The good thing about being on tour is getting to go overseas to places like
Canada." -Britney Spears
But "the received wisdom" (textbooks, techw-l archives) is that you should
avoid humour in manuals.
Surely for this product, the benefit of the style justifies extra expense on
translation, risk (?) of over-familiarity, etc.
>www.timex.com/instructions/Helix.pdf
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