Re: Humor in Tech Pubs

Subject: Re: Humor in Tech Pubs
From: Steve Pendleton <SPendlet -at- COGNEX -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 13:52:18 -0700

Few jokes are funny twice, and most don't translate.
Some of your readers won't be fluent in English.
Some won't know American culture. In technical writing,
stick to standard English, and write pure, terse, minimalist
text, spider-sucked bone dry of every platelet of wit.

(The only exception I can remember permitting myself came
from a reference page documenting a function argument in a
date computation subsystem:

day Input.
The day, between 1 and max, where max equals 30 for September,
April, June, and November; max equals 31 for all other months, except
for
February, where max equals 29 during a leap year or 28 otherwise.

Which is "thirty days hath September" twisted into technobabble.)

--Steve Pendleton




Previous by Author: Re: Bulleted text
Next by Author: Re: Walk-throughs
Previous by Thread: Humor in Tech Pubs
Next by Thread: Re: Humor in Tech Pubs


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads