Re: injecting a little whimsy into grey text

["Will Husa" <will -dot- husa -at- 4techwriter -dot- com>]

<Humor in technical writing is a tricky subject>

I like to use real sounding names in my documentation. It helps to connect 
with the audience. Every so often, an editor will catch it and tell me to 
remove the Star Trek references. So I switched to Babylon 5 references and 
haven't had a problem since.

Michael Garibaldi (a.k.a. Will Husa)
=========================================
Will Husa
Technical Writer
Procedure Writing and Online Help
Phone: 708-927-3569
Fax: 630-668-9283
Website: www.4techwriter.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Janice Gelb" <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>
To: "techwr-l List" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: injecting a little whimsy into grey text


> Milan Davidovic wrote:
>> Have you ever felt like the writer described in this post?
>>
>> http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=2041
>>
>
> Humor in technical writing is a tricky subject.As
> the article notes, without really knowing all the
> members of your audience, you can't really tell what
> jokes will work. The example here is really not
> appropriate as it is both a US-centric and religiously
> affiliated reference.
>
> That said, I have seen small touches done well. However,
> they must be done in such a way that they don't use
> cultural referents that might be offensive or contribute
> to a feeling of alienation, and should be unobtrusive. For
> example, _The Whole Internet Catalog & User's Guide_ by
> Ed Krol (published at the dawn of time in 1992) featured
> in its examples employees and company names taken from the
> cult film "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the
> 8th Dimension." (The sample email from johnb -at- yoyodyne -dot- com
> with the subject "Do You Have the Overthruster?" still
> cracks me up.) If you knew the source, the text in the
> examples made you laugh. If you didn't know the source,
> the names didn't mean anything but didn't get in your way.
>
> -- Janice
>
> ***********************************************************
> Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
> janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com  | this message is the return address
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> ComponentOne Doc-To-Help gives you everything you need to author and
> publish quality Help, Web, and print content. Perfect for technical
> authors, developers, and policy writers. Download a FREE trial.
> http://www.componentone.com/DocToHelp/
>
> True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
> Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
> documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as will -dot- husa -at- 4techwriter -dot- com -dot- 
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit 
> http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/will.husa%404techwriter.com
>
>
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.
> 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help gives you everything you need to author and 
publish quality Help, Web, and print content. Perfect for technical 
authors, developers, and policy writers. Download a FREE trial.
http://www.componentone.com/DocToHelp/

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.