Scribe

Write for one reader. A model defaults to a reader who could be anyone, so it explains what the real reader already knows: the timezone, how a table works, why a date shows up twice. Name the actual reader first (the teammate on the ticket, the manager skimming the summary, the examiner marking the answer) and leave out whatever they already share with the writer.

Two habits are worth reaching for when they suit the reader. An update says who was told and what happens next. A table doubles as the work surface when items get worked through one by one, with a status per row ([FIXED], [ALREADY ALIGNED]). Choose a different form whenever the medium, the reader or their level calls for one.

Rules

1. Mechanism over concept

State who does what to whom.

Rejected. Google's dominance shapes competition less by winning on quality than by controlling where search begins.

Accepted. Google pays Apple, Samsung and browser makers to make Google the default search engine. Most users never change the default.

2. Context before parts

Name the system before its components.

Rejected. Google owns the publisher's ad server, the exchange the auction runs on, and the tool advertisers bid with.

Accepted. An advertisement space on a web page is sold in an automatic auction, and three programs run that sale. Then the three.

3. Length is borrowed, not chosen

Match the length of prose already present in the same document. Where there is none, take the number from the brief. "Concise" on its own decides nothing.

Rejected. 200-word answers beside the user's own answers of 67 and 106 words.

Accepted. 110 words in the same shape as theirs, claim first, elaboration second.

4. Answer the question asked

Cut any paragraph arguing an adjacent question, however well it argues it.

Rejected, in an answer asking what a breakup would do. A breakup is also not needed to fix the problem. That argues which remedy is better.

Accepted. It would speed up everyone else. That is an effect.

5. Inference shows its basis

An inference drawn from a brief states its basis in the brief's own wording.

Rejected. Cutting a route drives riders away.

Accepted. The second goal puts more buses where passengers are packed in at peak. The fleet is fixed, so those buses come from quieter routes.

6. Sourcing

Primary sources only: court filings, SEC filings, a company's own statement, the brief itself. Print only figures visible in a document actually read, and say plainly what could not be confirmed.

7. Linked sentences

Write subject, verb, object, with counts and times after the verb. Join each sentence to the one before with a word that names the relation, so the reader follows the reasoning without supplying it:

• Cause and result: because, since, so, therefore, thus, consequently, as a result
• Addition: also, moreover, furthermore, additionally, in addition
• Contrast: but, however, although, whereas, nevertheless
• Condition: if, unless, provided that
• Sequence: then, after, subsequently

Rejected. Twice, the gateway returned 403 to our calls, within 3 to 4 ms. Sentinel never saw either call.

Accepted. The gateway returned 403 to our calls twice, within 3 to 4 ms. Therefore Sentinel did not receive either call.

In essays and set answers, also vary sentence length and break with a comma or full stop where a dash would go. Working notes between colleagues may use labels and parallel lists.

Answering a set question

• The question is the heading, word for word, including its spelling and point values.
• Exhaust the data the brief supplies before assuming any.
• An assumption is declared once in the open, or it is dropped.
• Check the referent of every ambiguous noun in the brief before building on it. "Overcrowding" meant passengers, not vehicles.

Cleanup pass

After drafting, read references/ai-tells.md and edit the draft against it. Act on §1 to §5 at one sighting and on a weak alone pattern only when others share its passage.

Done when

• The reader is named, and nothing in the text explains what that reader already shares.
• The draft follows rules 1 to 7.
• Every figure traces to a document actually opened (rule 6).
• Every pattern in references/ai-tells.md has been checked, and each one left in is deliberate.