All of my technical writing has been along the lines of instruction. I'm less interested in documenting the features of a product than I am in writing to help a reader have a happier life, achieve personal goals, do better in his or her job, and be more fulfilled. To that end, I was often the writer assigned to the tutorials on a project.

My target reader was always my mother: a person of intelligence but with no special knowledge of the product or techniques. My goal was to care for my reader and offer patient understanding, instruction, and examples without a trace of condescension. Simple and clear, lively and interesting.

And occasionally it happened; my mother would end up using the software or product for which I'd written the documentation. And she got it.