Re: Humor as a communication technique -Reply

[Tom Herme <hermet -at- DNINEVADA -dot- COM>]

To All:

Concerning using humor and "fun" in technical documentation, here's a recent article:

"Are We Having Fun? Well, it Depends," by Jared M. Spool, in Eye For Design, Vol. 5, Number 1, January/February 1998, pp. 2-3.

If you don't have this, you could probably ask Jared Spool at User Interface Engineering if he would want to distribute it to you.
mailto://jared -dot- spool -at- uie -dot- com

Tom

Lisa Comeau wrote:

> Andrew Plato wrote: (with some MAJOR editing for space)
> >>>-- humor is a powerful persuasive device.
>
> I agree.  Having been an instructor, stand-up comic, karaoke host, and entertainer for a number of years, I can tell you that humor gets the point across better than any other "medium".
>
> >>>...a well written, humorous and slightly irreverent document...can communicate more ideas then something that is written seriously.
>
> Also agreed, and just let me add that in an instructional capacity (which, in a way, we're all in) humor teaches more than dry facts. Think back to school...which teacher/professor taught you more, the one with the monotone voice and more brain than perso
> nality, or the one who made class fun? (My fave was my grade 11 Physics teacher who discussed the principles of accelleration and decelleration by using the example of swinging a cat  over your head by it's tail and then letting it go...)
>
> >>>Do we want readers ... to think and ponder our ideas and concepts?
>
> Of course we do! That's why we write, isn't it? I think this links to the "discussion" we all had about non-tech techwriters when people screamed about how a good writer should have a background based in concepts and a good understanding of the fundamenta
> ls rather than "just a degree". The same goes for our readers, but WE have to give it to them.  I, for one, agree that humor can be an extremely useful tool.
>
> >>>I think that the more dramatic and humorous works ...break down the notions that communication of complex ideas and details is a purely logical, methodical, and empirical activity.  ...couldn't we throw in a funny analogy or a funny satire? I think rea
> ders want something more than directions.
>
> Didn't we talk about this in an earlier thread? Dry is dry, but wry is good. ;-) I would rather write a document that teaches than one that explains. They aren't the same thing, as far as I am concerned. And, of course, as always, we must know our audienc
> e. Humor is not as appropriate in a manual discussing how to perform an emergency tracheotomy with a steaknife, or hostage negotiations in a nuclear zone.
>
>  >>>... wouldn't it be fun to pick up a user manual that actually made you giggle once or twice.
>
> Absolutely. I think I may have it a little easier, because the bulk of my job is training, so I get to gauge my reader when I have them in a classroom setting where I can judge their faces and slip some humor into the teaching side that eventually goes in
> to  the manual.
> (BUT I have saved my own butt in the corporate world by NOT putting humor into a manual that would have been used by the stuffiest people on the planet)
> I think that if we plan to use humor in moderation without being offensive (good luck in these days where someone can find a penis disguised as a palm tree on a can of Zoodles -- or was that just a Canadian scandal?) then humor added to instructional manu
> als and publications could well be the best we can do.
>
> (:(|)
> (an attempt at a duck for you, Andrew...)
>
> (My $2.00 worth...)
> Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines...
>
> Lisa Comeau
> IS Super-User/Trainer
> Certification and Testing Division
> Canadian Standards Association
> Rexdale, ON
> comeaul -at- csa -dot- ca
>



--
====================
Tom Herme
Senior Technical Writer

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mailto://hermet -at- DNINevada -dot- com
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