Humanizer

The single source of truth for voice-neutral AI-writing tells. These are patterns a language model produces by default because it is averaging its training data. They have nothing to do with any one person's voice.

Why this is its own skill. Most people end up with more than one voice guide: a personal one, a company one, maybe a docs one. Each will accumulate its own copy of the same anti-pattern list, and those copies drift. Keep the shared tells here, keep only genuinely voice-specific rules in each voice guide, and have each voice guide point at this file as its final pass. Same single-source rule you'd apply to code.

How to use it: scan the draft against every category below, rewrite the hits, and when asked, show what changed and why. The point is catching them all in one pass. A person can hold about five of these in mind; this list holds all of them.

When you find a new tell worth banning permanently, add it here rather than to a voice guide. Add only tells that show up in real drafts. A bloated checklist makes writing read like it was built to satisfy a rubric, which is its own tell.

1. Em dashes: do not use

A hard rule. Em dashes (—) are the single most recognizable AI-writing tell.

Replace them with:

• A period. Break the thought into two shorter sentences. Usually the best option.
• A comma for a lighter pause or a parenthetical clause.
• A colon to introduce an explanation or list.
• Parentheses for an aside.
• Restructure the sentence entirely if none of the above work cleanly.

Examples:

• BAD: "The migration — the one we postponed twice — is now blocking the release."
• GOOD: "The migration, the one we postponed twice, is now blocking the release."
• ALSO GOOD: "The migration is now blocking the release. We postponed it twice."

2. Buzzwords and corporate filler

Cut on sight, and replace with the plain word or the concrete thing:

• "synergy" / "synergies"
• "leverage" (use "use") and "leverage our learnings"
• "move the needle"
• "best-in-class"
• "robust"
• "holistic"
• "value-add" (unless quoted, deliberately)
• "innovative" (show it, don't say it)
• "transformative" (show it, don't say it)
• "In today's rapidly evolving landscape..."
• "It is worth noting that..."
• "It is important to recognize..."

3. Throat-clearing and filler transitions

Phrases that announce the next sentence instead of delivering it. Cut them and start the actual sentence:

• "Here's the thing" / "Here's the thing though"
• "Let me explain." / "Let me break this down."
• "Here's the deal." / "Here's what I mean."
• "The truth is..."
• "Make no mistake."
• "Let's dive in." / "Buckle up."

4. Manufactured candor

Don't use "honest," "honestly," "the honest truth," "let's be honest," "to be honest," or "the honest reason" to add weight or signal candor. It undercuts authority rather than building it. The word is fine in its literal sense (an honest answer, an honest assessment). The tic is the flourish.

Same ban on reveal-style headings that manufacture candor: "The honest reason to do X," "The real truth about Y," "The thing nobody tells you." Use plain descriptive headings instead ("Why now," "What this costs").

5. Reveal-bait and grandiose setups

Don't manufacture a reveal. State the point plainly and let it carry itself. Ban:

• "the one thing everyone misses"
• "the detail that flips the whole argument"
• "here's the part the headline buries"
• "now the turn"
• "the thing worth saying out loud," "worth saying out loud," or any "[X] out loud" construction. Absolute ban. To make a point emphatically, make it directly, or use a plain heading like "What it comes down to."

6. "load-bearing" as a metaphor

Don't use "load-bearing" to mean important or central. Replacements: "central," "the deciding factor," "critical," "the thing that matters most," or restructure to make the point directly.

7. Forced rule-of-three

Don't pad a sentence to three parallel items when two would do, or invent a third for rhythm. Three is fine when there genuinely are three things. It's a tell when the third is filler ("faster, cheaper, and better").

8. "It's not X, it's Y"

The "it's not about X, it's about Y" / "this isn't X, it's Y" construction is a heavy tell. Rewrite to state Y directly, or contrast without the formula.

9. Reflexive hedging

Qualifiers stacked out of habit ("may," "might," "could potentially," "it could be argued") drain authority. Cut hedging that exists only as a verbal tic.

Where genuine uncertainty or optionality exists, a hedge is correct and cutting it makes the writing dishonest. How much hedging a piece should carry is voice-specific, so leave that calibration to your voice guide. This skill only flags hedging-as-tic.

10. Closing filler

No "In conclusion," "To sum up," or "To summarize." Just end. The last line should land, not announce itself.