agentleFS
Sign inStart free
MurphiyiiMurphiyii/murphiyii-skills/skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/SKILL.md

writing-clearly-and-concisely

Skill0 starsChanged 28 days agoApache-2.0View on GitHub

Applies Strunk's timeless writing rules to ANY prose humans will read. Use when writing or editing documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, reports, or UI text. Makes writing clearer, stronger, and more professional.

24 other projects use a version of this, 23 of them edited.

Adopted by

Most recently taken up by

Used with

Projects with it also use canvas-design, vercel-react-best-practices and 2 more.

Other files people use alongside this one.

Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
  • JetBrainsSkill

    canvas-design

    Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art, design, or other static piece. Create original visual designs, never copying existing artists' work to avoid copyright violations.

    Also in 3 projects that use this

  • VercelSkill

    vercel-react-best-practices

    React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering. This skill should be used when writing, reviewing, or refactoring React/Next.js code to ensure optimal performance patterns. Triggers on tasks involving React components, Next.js pages, data fetching, bundle optimization, or performance improvements.

    Also in 3 projects that use this

  • VercelSkill

    find-skills

    Helps users discover and install agent skills when they ask questions like "how do I do X", "find a skill for X", "is there a skill that can...", or express interest in extending capabilities. This skill should be used when the user is looking for functionality that might exist as an installable skill.

    Also in 3 projects that use this

  • BlockSkill

    frontend-design

    Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with high design quality. Use this skill when the user asks to build web components, pages, or applications. Generates creative, polished code that avoids generic AI aesthetics.

    Also in 4 projects that use this

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

11 rules. 9 are common, 2 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • 9

    Common

    Most of the 23 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 2

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 0

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Common:

    Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:

    line 16
  2. Common:

    Commit messages, pull request descriptions

    line 19
  3. Distinctive:

    Before: There were a number of dependencies that were missing, which was the reason that the build failed.

    line 26
  4. Distinctive:

    After: The build failed because dependencies were missing.

    line 28
  5. Common:

    When context is tight:

    line 34
  6. Common:

    Write your draft using judgment

    line 35
  7. Common:

    Use comma after each term in series except last

    line 43
  8. Common:

    Don't join independent clauses by comma

    line 46
  9. Common:

    Don't break sentences in two

    line 47
  10. Common:

    Avoid succession of loose sentences

    line 57
  11. Common:

    Keep to one tense in summaries

    line 60

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 23 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Writing Clearly and Concisely

Overview

William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut ruthlessly.

WARNING: elements-of-style.md consumes ~12,000 tokens. Read it when drafting or revising prose longer than a few sentences, or when unsure about a rule. For a commit message or error message, apply the rules below directly.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:

  • Documentation, README files, technical explanations
  • Commit messages, pull request descriptions
  • Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
  • Reports, summaries, or any explanation
  • Editing to improve clarity

Example

Before: There were a number of dependencies that were missing, which was the reason that the build failed.

After: The build failed because dependencies were missing.

(Rule 13, omit needless words; rule 12, definite, specific, concrete language.)

Limited Context Strategy

When context is tight:

  1. Write your draft using judgment
  2. Dispatch a subagent with your draft and elements-of-style.md
  3. Have the subagent copyedit and return the revision

All Rules

Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation)

  1. Form possessive singular by adding 's
  2. Use comma after each term in series except last
  3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
  4. Comma before conjunction introducing co-ordinate clause
  5. Don't join independent clauses by comma
  6. Don't break sentences in two
  7. Participial phrase at beginning refers to grammatical subject

Elementary Principles of Composition

  1. One paragraph per topic
  2. Begin paragraph with topic sentence
  3. Use active voice
  4. Put statements in positive form
  5. Use definite, specific, concrete language
  6. Omit needless words
  7. Avoid succession of loose sentences
  8. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
  9. Keep related words together
  10. Keep to one tense in summaries
  11. Place emphatic words at end of sentence

Section V: Words and Expressions Commonly Misused

Alphabetical reference for usage questions

Download now (ZIP)

Does it work?

Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.

No reviews yet

People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.

  • It worked
  • Partly
  • It didn't
What did you use it for? e.g. Reviewing pull requests in a Rails app

Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.

Your trail

Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.

Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.

Now do this for your own.

Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.

Check your setup, free