Learning is Fun!
Does anyone else notice the obnoxious interjectional comments slipped into textbooks with humorous intent, only to induce annoyance and/or anger with their flippancy? Thanks, Mr. or Ms. Scholar, I can appreciate that you are enthusiastic about whatever subject it is that you're writing about, and that you do what you can, little though it may be, to make this textbook as interesting as possible...but please, spare me your cutesy humor.
For example:
"But paying attention to proper microbial names is just like following a baseball game or a movie plot: You cannot tell the players apart without a program!"
That one came from my Microbiology textbook. First of all, spare me the exclamation point. That statement is completely devoid of interest. Secondly, who the hell watches a movie with a program?! Nobody, that's who.
Science and particularly math textbooks are notorious for this irritating habit. Unfortunately I don't have a published math textbook, only the text written by my Stats professor (who tells infamously terrible jokes). So actually knowing the professor makes it slightly more forgivable, but still, here's a pretty good example:
"The problem is that there are an infinite number of possible scores with continuous measurement. Listing them all would keep us busy for some time to come!"
Ha ha, no shit.
Please, reading about derivations is painful enough. Don't rub salt into my synaptical wounds.
For example:
"But paying attention to proper microbial names is just like following a baseball game or a movie plot: You cannot tell the players apart without a program!"
That one came from my Microbiology textbook. First of all, spare me the exclamation point. That statement is completely devoid of interest. Secondly, who the hell watches a movie with a program?! Nobody, that's who.
Science and particularly math textbooks are notorious for this irritating habit. Unfortunately I don't have a published math textbook, only the text written by my Stats professor (who tells infamously terrible jokes). So actually knowing the professor makes it slightly more forgivable, but still, here's a pretty good example:
"The problem is that there are an infinite number of possible scores with continuous measurement. Listing them all would keep us busy for some time to come!"
Ha ha, no shit.
Please, reading about derivations is painful enough. Don't rub salt into my synaptical wounds.