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Subject:Re: Humor in Technical Documents From:John David Hickey <jdavid -at- FARABI -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 23 Sep 1998 16:09:07 -0400
Greetings Kristen!
> In general, I would like to see more humor used for all types of
> technical materials even though I realize it can be disastrous (one
> person's ha ha is another person's groan kind of thing). If anyone has
> written, has wanted to write, or has read any technical document that
> has even a smidgeon of humor in it, whether style guide, user guide,
> training courseware, etc., could you pass along your views, ideas,
> sources, anything relevant?
Whenever I can, I like to slip something funny or bizarre into the manual,
but it's got to be subtle. For instance, I had to create a fake user profile
to use as an example in my manual. I amalgamated the following creature:
Name: John Burrows
Addr: 1977 Elvis Lives Lane
Memphis, Tenn
Sound familiar? I used John Burrows because that was the name that Elvis
Presley would use in Hotel registries when touring. Only people who would
know that would get the joke. Small target audience, I know, but it amused
me.
--
Be seeing you,
