@tenzip wrote:
The bolded portion in your reply IS technical writing, IMO. Making clear, concise, unambiguous instructions. Not assuming that the person you are writing it for has any experience at all with anything in particular. Saying “right-click on the button that says OK…” instead of just saying “click OK.”
Writing for technical readers is a whole other can of worms.
The “egg-heads” I sat next to were mostly engineering students, and didn’t get the whole thrust of the course, which was to be able to have your great aunt Edna be able to program her VCR without wanting to commit suicide. That’s the problem.
It sounds as though we are both on the same page here . . . maybe I have a mis-conception of the meaning of the phrase ‘technical writing’. My impression of the term would be writing ‘for’ the egg-heads, not for Aunt Edna and her VCR, which is the point I was trying to make that the manuals today need to be written more for ‘her’.
Of course, if Aunt Edna can’t program her VCR (or toaster, or coffe-maker, etc.) and I can come over and do it for her (provided I can understand the manual), then she’s sure to reward me with some tasty goodies!
Hmmmm . . . pie. 
