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Subject:Humor as a communication technique From:Debbie Figus <debbief -at- NETVISION -dot- NET -dot- IL> Date:Tue, 16 Jun 1998 19:33:18 +0300
Gord Deyo <DeyoG -at- ITLS -dot- COM> wrote:
>I could imagine what my manager would do to me after handing in our
>procedures interlaced with one-liners and cartoons. Maybe Microsoft
>would hire me. ...
Gordo?s post made me smile.
Recently I tried to defend using ?you? instead of ?the user? to the
hardware engineering manager here. In the course of the conversation, with
me talking about contemporary style, etc., he said to me, ?We aren?t
Microsoft.? I got the point.
The discussion of humor in technical communications seems to be more
relevant to writers for ?user friendly? kinds of products, maybe like some
software applications or training materials. I work mostly on hardware
manuals for avionic communications boards. My goal is clear, logical
explanations of highly complex information, among other things, of course.
I will add, though, that the ?... for Dummies? books are quite pleasant to
read through, obviously due to all that humor. So it does have its place,
it seems.
