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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30549
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30549
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There are two reasons for a reader to read something, because they are interested in the subject matter and because they like how it is written.

The risk of using humor in business or technical writing is that it can turn people off even if they are interested in the subject matter.

The opportunity is that if there are competing works on the same subject, humor can differentiate your book and attract readers the might otherwise read a different work. The risk is that you will lose some readers who don't like the humor, but that is okay if you gain more readers than you lose.

In the technical space, for instance, there are the O'Reilly books that have a reputation for clarity and technical excellence, and the Dummies books that use a lot of jokes. Both sell well to different parts of the market. Humor is a market segmentation device for the Dummies books. Market segmentation is a good strategy if you can dominate the segment you create.

So, if you business writing is competing in a crowded market, the use of humor could be an effective market segmentation device, provided that you do it well enough (humor is hard!).

But a lot of business writing is not meant to compete. It is meant to be the sole source of information or instruction to a particular audience on a particular product, service, or agreement. In these cases, the last thing you want to do is to segment the audience. There is literally no place else for the audience to go. So the use of humor, or any other divisive writing technique is not a good idea in these circumstances.

Original score: 3