We ought to work harder at teaching writing. I think there's a definite group of people that really _love_ writing, have a general knack for it and work hard to

We ought to work harder at teaching writing. I think there's a definite group of people that really _love_ writing, have a general knack for it and work hard to turn that knack into a talent. But, those folks aside, I've found there's simple tweaks that can be made to most technical writing that greatly improve it. For example, in code documentation explain "why" and not "how". Later source readers will probably be able to understand your code unless it's especially complicated but they will not, from the code, be able to figure out why it exists. Lots of folks write the "how" down though, in part because the external context is taken as a given in the moment -- they're very familiar with it right then and there -- but also because the "how" is probably more interesting than the "why". Empathy for the ignorant is something you see in excellent technical writing, less so in the middling stuff.