Subject:RE: Humor in technical writing From:bdavis -at- acucorp -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Thu, 28 Sep 2000 09:42:38 -0700
While I like humor as much as anyone, I can think of another reason why
humor in technical documents is a bad idea...translation. When manuals
have to be localized into German, French or Japanese (for example) many
jokes and US-centric cultural assumptions do not translate well. Prime
(if not exactly technical) examples are the infamous Chevy Nova ("doesn't
go" in Spanish)and Coca Cola ("bite the wax tadpole" in Chinese)
translations.
It may be boring, but simple can't be beat.
Bettina :-)
Bettina Davis
Technical Writer
Acucorp Inc.
San Diego, CA
-----Barry Kieffer wrote:
> As reported in the STC magazine a few years ago, humor in a computer manual
> led to a death and a law suit.
