Every technical writing guide I’ve found is depressing or boring. This one is both.

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised to see 8th-grade advice offered to adult professionals with a straight face. Nor finger-wagging about the passive. Honestly, you want the world to know “the president was elected by the voters” is improved by “the voters elected the president”?

Want to be an excellent technical writer? Start by reading everything Brian Kernighan has written. Emulate. Repeat until done. Expect it to take time. Definitely years.

Instead of worrying over Oxford commas, wonderful though they be, great technical writing starts with and keeps always the reader in mind. Not so different from all great writing, in fact. Drop the “X was designed to intended to” throat-clearing, and get to what the user can do with what X does. And thanks for taking the time.

If only Claude could read and apply theses guidelines!