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> So while it is fun to critique the piece from a tech writing perspective,
we should realize it was not written from that perspective.
>
The problem is that instruction manuals are technical documents. Even if
the background of the writers is copyrighting, they're still writing a
technical manual. Sure, you can write instructions in iambic pentameter or
patter song (if you're a poet or aficianado of Gilbert and Sullivan,
respectively), and they might be admired for their cleverness ("I am the
very model of a timex-model chronograph") but they nevertheless are
instruction manuals. Do they instruct?
In this case it did. But it can be taken too far - I'd like to see the
humor these guys would put into an instruction manual for decontaminating a
nuclear waste dump. Big laughs there.
Paul Strasser
Windsor Technologies, Inc.
2569 Park Lane, Suite 200
Lafayette, Colorado 80026
Phone: 303-926-1982
FAX: 303-926-1510
E-mail: paul -dot- strasser -at- windsor-tech -dot- com
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