TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: What kind of names do you make up? From:Jeff Jungblut <jeff -at- PORT-CHARLES -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 10 Jun 1999 14:02:38 -0700
On 6/10/99 10:09 AM, John Posada (jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM) wrote:
>I've been told not to use "real" information, so for
>the purposes of this manual, we've made up a fictitous
>country, address, etc. Well, we want to include a
>fictitous set of contacts. (name, title, phone#, fax#,
>email address, etc.)
>
>Now...I could use the universally-know "John Smith at
>123 Main St.", or I could use...something else. ;-)
>
>The question: have you, as the writer, ever used your
>own name as the contact? It sure would eliminate the
>problem we all have when showing our portfolios in
>interviews.
At my last job (Jostens Learning Corporation) we had a company-approved
list of fictitious multicultural names to use in sample student and
teacher databases. How boring!
In other projects, I've never used my own name, but have used the first
names of friends and relatives on occasion. Most often though I use names
of soap opera characters, sometimes with last names swapped around. If
the user doesn't recognize the names, at least they won't be bored with
the "John Smith, Mary Jones..." cliches. If they do recognize them,
they're bound to get a chuckle out of their use.