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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42792
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42792
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

# It depends on the audience

Personally I feel that technical writing is far too dry. However as an engineer I've done plenty of it. I always try to add humour and levity to make it more enjoyable. This has had varying results.

Here is an example where I went overboard on the levity and it was well received. For a physics report my partner and I decided to use the thesaurus on every word we could without changing the meaning, replacing common words with their most obscure and convoluted synonym. The report is the most ridiculous and over the top word babble I have ever written, but it is technically correct. We received full marks and a slap on the wrist for 'cheek'.

Another time when writing my final year project report I was working on the 'why this project' section. The project was about a vision guided landing system for autonomous drones and we thought it would be appropriate to put the top reason as 'drones are cool'. This didn't go down well, we lost marks for being 'unprofessional'.

Unfortunately I have yet to understand how to tell the first audience from the second. Sometimes readers will appreciate it and sometimes they will crucify you for it. It's up to you to judge your audience and if you can get away with it. If you think you won't get in trouble for, please do it. The world of technical writing could use a little more levity.

Original score: 3