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November 30th, 2008 | Posted in Technical Writing 9 Comments »
- Fortune cookies with fortunes rewritten as numbered lists.
- Bobblehead with favorite SME’s face pasted on the front.
- Stack of how-to manuals from everything you assembled for Christmas.
- Copy of that House episode with the agoraphobe tech writer and comment “Saw this and thought of you.” *
- “Certificate” of year’s achievements with typos on it. *
- Jigsaw puzzle of the current interface the tech writer is documenting, but rearranged.
- Photo calendar of the project team with month-by-month candid shots, mostly in meetings.
- Pen with the inscription, “Hold nothing back” (but remove ink).
- Microsoft Manual of Style with lengthy inscription from Sarah Palin.
- Copy of the author’s favorite style sheet written in Japanese calligraphy.
* Thanks to Kirstyt for contributing #4 and #5.
If you have any additional gift ideas, please add them in the comments below.
You can have post-its with each style guideline on each note. MSTP, CMOS, or your own style guidelines.
A non-qwerty keyboard – with the backspace key missing.
A predictive typing program that introduces typos.
A book of jargon.
Oh, what fun! Thanks, Tom! I know it’s a Top 10 list – but shouldn’t it be a bullet list…?
A book called “Zen and the Art of Manual Maintenance”.
Another book called “Tina in Wonderland”.
The 10 Commandments republished through DITA.
Heh … my fellow tech writer and I were joking the other day about giving Christmas gifts/cards to our SMEs, wishing them all kinds of good things for the holiday season … and writing them in a bulleted list.
DITA cookies.
One of those handmade coupon books with coupons for things like “Free dangling modifier of your choice” and “Free cheerful reminder to GET OFF THE DANG COMPUTER AND COME TO DINNER.”
Jane
Wouldn’t I just love a free dangling modified of my choice.
[...] top 10 gag christmas gifts for technical writers – fortune cookies with fortunes rewritten as numbered lists. bobblehead with favorite sme’s face pasted on the front. stack of how-to manuals from everything you assembled for christmas. copy of that house episode with the agoraphobe tech … [...]