RE: Funny Tech Writing

["Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>]

Yup. I heard an advertising executive describe this as the "helicopter"
problem.

He always made sure he put a "helicopter" into any TV ad proposal he
pitched. A helicopter could be anything outrageous, calculated to make
the client reject it immediately. The exec reasoned that once the client
showed "who was in charge", he wouldn't complain about any of the other
copy. Supposedly this stemmed from an early pitch, in which the exec
proposed (facetiously) to have a helicopter shot. When the client found
out how much it would cost, it was immediately rejected, but the exec
then discovered he had no further arguments with the client.

The helicopter approach was suggested to me as a way of defusing picky
SMEs. Put one outrageously wrong thing into the documentation, and the
SME would jump all over it. He or she would then be distracted away from
attempting to correct grammar errors, spelling mistakes, etc.

Joe 


Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com 
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.	

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of vrfour -at- verizon -dot- net
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 3:39 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: OT: Funny Tech Writing

Years ago I found an amusing story online about tech writing.  From what
I recall it involved a student that submitted a paper regarding the
mechanisms/specifications of a mouse:

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