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Subject:Re: FW: Humor vs. Tech Pubs -Reply From:Dave Hollenbeck <dhollenbeck -at- DIEHLGRAPHSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 16 Jun 1998 16:54:02 -0400
I didn't mean that you completely disregard the audience. For a teacher trying to make a point stick in the minds of "pimply faced teenagers" with blank stares and mush for brains, it worked perfectly, at least in one instance.
I simply mean that you can use humor can help people remember things. What about all of the silly sentences used to help remember musical scales "Every Good Boy Does Fine". Of course, there are a million different versions of that, but you probably remember the one you found funniest. So by adding something more to make it memorable is very effective. I am sure that there are many instances where one employee is having difficulty understanding a manual, so he asks another employee for help with his problem. The helpful employee explains how to do it and tells the befuddled employee how to remember it using a funny but relevant way. Now, the formerly befuddled employee understands it and can continue more easily.
Things that are effective are not always pleasant.
Dave Hollenbeck
We're just recycled history machines
Cavemen in faded blue jeans
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From: Lisa Comeau [SMTP:COMEAUL -at- CSA -dot- CA]
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 1998 4:29 PM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: FW: Humor vs. Tech Pubs -Reply
SNIPPETY SNIP SNIP SNIP
>>> Tracy Boyington=20
> IMHO, the cat story is great because nothing happened to a real cat. It
> is memorable and clearly gets the point across.
But it offended others.=20
The fact that no real cats were harmed hardly makes it appropriate. I know =
people who would have stopped reading a publication immediately...
But it wasn=27t in a publication, it was in a room full of pimply-faced =
teenagers in a time when a teacher could give a hug to a suicidal student. =
I guess I just long for the =22good old days=22...
Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard disk?
-Lisa
