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happycapy-aihappycapy-ai/Happycapy-skills/skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/SKILL.md

writing-clearly-and-concisely

Skill137 starsChanged 6 months agoMITView on GitHub

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

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

10 rules. 9 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • 9

    Common

    Most of the 8 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 1

    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. Distinctive:

    Write with clarity and force.

    line 10
  2. Common:

    Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:

    line 14
  3. Common:

    Commit messages, pull request descriptions

    line 17
  4. Common:

    When context is tight:

    line 26
  5. Common:

    Write your draft using judgment

    line 28
  6. Common:

    Use comma after each term in series except last

    line 43
  7. Common:

    Don't join independent clauses by comma

    line 46
  8. Common:

    Don't break sentences in two

    line 47
  9. Common:

    Avoid succession of loose sentences

    line 58
  10. Common:

    Keep to one tense in summaries

    line 61

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 8 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

Write with clarity and force. This skill covers what to do (Strunk) and what not to do (AI patterns).

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

If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.

Limited Context Strategy

When context is tight:

  1. Write your draft using judgment
  2. Dispatch a subagent with your draft and the relevant section file
  3. Have the subagent copyedit and return the revision

Loading a single section (~1,000-4,500 tokens) instead of everything saves significant context.

Elements of Style

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

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

Reference Files

The rules above are summarized from Strunk's original text. For complete explanations with examples:

SectionFile~Tokens
Grammar, punctuation, comma rules02-elementary-rules-of-usage.md2,500
Paragraph structure, active voice, concision03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md4,500
Headings, quotations, formatting04-a-few-matters-of-form.md1,000
Word choice, common errors05-words-and-expressions-commonly-misused.md4,000

Most tasks need only 03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md — it covers active voice, positive form, concrete language, and omitting needless words.

AI Writing Patterns to Avoid

LLMs regress to statistical means, producing generic, puffy prose. Avoid:

  • Puffery: pivotal, crucial, vital, testament, enduring legacy
  • Empty "-ing" phrases: ensuring reliability, showcasing features, highlighting capabilities
  • Promotional adjectives: groundbreaking, seamless, robust, cutting-edge
  • Overused AI vocabulary: delve, leverage, multifaceted, foster, realm, tapestry
  • Formatting overuse: excessive bullets, emoji decorations, bold on every other word

Be specific, not grandiose. Say what it actually does.

For comprehensive research on why these patterns occur, see signs-of-ai-writing.md. Wikipedia editors developed this guide to detect AI-generated submissions — their patterns are well-documented and field-tested.

Bottom Line

Writing for humans? Load the relevant section from elements-of-style/ and apply the rules. For most tasks, 03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md covers what matters most.

Download now (ZIP)

Trending

Cooling: 1 new project took it in the last 4 weeks, 0.5× the 4 weeks before.thin data

Week of Aug 30: 1 new projectWeek of Sep 6: 0 new projectsWeek of Sep 13: 0 new projectsWeek of Sep 20: 1 new projectWeek of Sep 27: 0 new projectsWeek of Oct 4: 0 new projectsWeek of Oct 11: 1 new projectWeek of Oct 18: 0 new projects
Aug 2026Sep 2026Oct 2026
New projects taking a version of this file each week, over the 8 weeks our latest run read: only 3 in all, so this is a hint, not a trend.

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