And now, as they say, for something completely different.
Before my retirement, I was a technical writer who penned computer manuals (my motto: "I write 'em; you don't read 'em"). When I started out, I was pretty much able to write the way I chose. However, over the years, I was sucked into the black hole of huge corporate writing factories. All of a sudden, there were rules, dozens and dozens of them, if not hundreds. Everyone's work was supposed to have the same boring feel to it. We were basically expected to become writing robots.
I'm ornery. I don't like being told that my work has to be like everyone else's. It's what makes me me! So I rebelled. At one job, there was an in-house tech writing newsletter and I began to write iconoclastic essays for it. They didn't endear me to management, but it didn't matter. I had to do it to save my sanity. Fortunately, the comments from the rank and file were unanimously positive.
These essays aren't for everyone. They're probably not even for most of my regular readers. However, I feel that these constitute the best writings of my life and it would be a shame for them not to be posted somewhere. Who knows, maybe some tech writer will stumble across them and find the fortitude to go on with his oppressed existence.
Note: The only term that I believe non-tech writers need defined is "localization". It means translating a manual into various languages so that the program can be sold in the non-English speaking world.