atw: Re: Censoring humor in translation (STIR)

Ok, it may be a dead horse, but here are two links to discussion on humour in 
documentation you mind find interesting. Although they both suggest that humour 
in documentation is a good thing (I don't) they both focus on the god isn't 
technical writing and documentation so boring aspect of the argument.
The second article is a poll asking the question Does humour belong in 
Javadocs, with 67% of those who replied (admittedly a very small sample) saying 
"Yes, it lets off steam and reveals developers' thinking", which echoes my 
earlier point that justification for humour in documentation is often really 
about relieving the writers/developers boredom.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_n11_v8/ai_11582803
http://today.java.net/pub/pq/65



Cheers, Mark

Mark Kofler
CA 
Senior Technical Writer
Tel:      +61 3 84165757
           +61 3 84165600
Fax:     +61 3 84165810
Mobile: +61 401375219
Mark.Kofler@xxxxxx
http://www.ca.com
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Peter Martin
Sent: Wednesday, 10 December 2008 11:08 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Censoring humour in translation (STIR)

Bob Trussler:
You wrote:
> Is it only me, but this discussion is becoming as boring as batshit?
>

Yeah.  This makes a suitable end as far as I'm concerned.  Life can be light 
and simple, and one exception breaks a rule.



> Many years ago in the pre-Idiot's Guide days, I wrote a training course titled
> "Programming for the real beginner".
>
> Humour was deliberately used because we did not want to scare off people who 
> were
> either frightened or confused by computer programming.  We lightened it up and
> simplified the explanation of each concept.  At the time, there was a chap in 
> our team
> that could draw very good cartoons and we used many in the same way you might 
> use a key
> phrase.
> One that comes to mind was a drawing of a person trying to jam lots of 
> letters into a
> bucket, to make a point about keeping things simple.
>
> I reckon that humour of that style could be used and translated, mainly 
> because it
> emphasises a point in a way that everyone can understand, and it is based on 
> a cartoon.
>
> In another course manual, I used examples of Mr Green, Ms White, Ms Black and 
> so on.  I
> guessed that even even people who could hardly use English could understand 
> that.  This
> led to a few simple jokes on Mr Light Green, and Ms Dark Blue.
>
> The diagrams of the paths to access the database were kept very simple.  A 
> user [smiley
> face] on one side and a database [oil drum symbol] on the other side and 
> various bits
> in the middle.  Some serious professional programmers didn't like the 
> simplistic
> diagrams, so as a humourous aside, I would display the original diagrams from 
> the
> manufacturer's manual but with my own commentary.  The proof of my method was 
> that
> people began to really understand how to access data efficiently.  I have 
> been told
> that my approach and my diagram have been used by other people and that the 
> original
> manufacturer in Germany rewrote their manuals in my style.
>
> The trainer who took over the course reckoned that she could not deliver the
> introductory half day in my style and so rewrote the presenters notes, but Mr 
> Grey and
> the smiley face diagram remained.
>
>
> Bob Trussler


-Peter M 
 peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
   
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