Unslop

Edit text to remove AI patterns. Scan for the patterns below, then rewrite. Preserve meaning and match the intended tone.

Patterns to detect and fix

Rule numbers are stable ids that other skills cite. A removed rule leaves a gap.

Content

3. Superficial -ing phrases. "highlighting...", "ensuring...", "reflecting...", "showcasing...", "fostering...". Delete or expand with real sources.
4. Vague attributions. "Experts believe", "Industry reports suggest", "Some critics argue". Name the source or delete.

Language

7. AI vocabulary. Additionally, crucial, delve, enduring, enhance, fostering, garner, interplay, intricate, landscape (abstract), pivotal, showcase, tapestry (abstract), testament, underscore, vibrant. Replace with plain words.
8. Fancy ways to say "is". "serves as", "stands as", "boasts", "features". Say "is" or "has".
9. "Not just X, but Y." State the point directly instead.
10. Rule of three. Don't force ideas into groups of three. Use the natural number.
11. Synonym cycling. Protagonist, main character, central figure, hero all in one paragraph. Pick one, repeat it. In an analysis report, "customers", "users", "shoppers", and "buyers" may name four different populations. If they do not, pick one.
12. False ranges. "from X to Y" where X and Y aren't on a meaningful scale. List topics directly.

Style

13. Em dash overuse. Avoid em dashes entirely. Use periods or commas only (no parentheses, no en dashes, no hyphen-as-dash substitutes). If a thought needs separation, end the sentence or use a comma.
14. Colon overuse. Colons are fine before a list or example, not as mid-sentence connectors. A sentence like "If you come from a scheduled ETL world, instead of writing cron jobs, you describe conditions" adds nothing with the comparison framing. Rewrite it so the point stands alone. "Describing when the pipeline should run works best as plain English." Same meaning, no crutch punctuation.
15. Boldface overuse. Don't bold every proper noun or acronym.
16. Inline-header lists. The tell is a bold label that restates the line, such as "Performance. Performance improved over the last run." Convert those to prose. A bold lead-in that names the item and is followed by genuinely new detail ("Schema in Polars. Each table is a typed DataFrame.") is fine, not a tell.
17. Title case headings. Use sentence case.
18. Decorative emojis. Remove from headings and bullets.
19. Curly quotes. Use straight quotes.

Communication artifacts

20. Chatbot phrases. "I hope this helps!", "Let me know if...", "Of course!", "Certainly!", "Found the smoking gun!" Remove.
21. Sycophantic tone. "Great question! You're absolutely right!" Respond directly.

Filler

23. Filler phrases. "In order to" becomes "To". "Due to the fact that" becomes "Because". Delete "It is important to note that".
24. Excessive hedging. "could potentially possibly be argued that it might" becomes "may".
25. Generic conclusions. "The future looks bright." State specific plans or facts.

Jargon

26. Abstract metaphor nouns. Substrate (base), wedge, wedge in (add), vector (way, method), locus, vantage, nexus, primitive as a noun, harness as a metaphor, surface as in "API surface", bedrock, scaffolding as a metaphor, modality, paradigm, gold-plating (more than the job needs), ratchet as a metaphor (the mechanism's real name, or a limit that only tightens), evacuate for moving data or code (move out), endgame (the last phase), north star, flywheel, lake of truth, single pane. These read as technical but usually have a plainer concrete word. Pick the concrete word.

Plain speech

27. Say what it does, not how it feels. "the data stays close at hand", "SQL you can read", "types that follow your schema" name a feeling. The fix names the mechanism or a number: "lf.explain() returns the query plan Polars runs", "a column rename fails the type check". Ask what the sentence tells the reader to do or know, then write that. If you can't restate it as a concrete instruction, fact, or number, cut it. One more check: if the sentence could appear unchanged in another project's docs, it says nothing about this one. Cut it.
28. Shorten or split dense sentences. If the reader has to backtrack to parse a sentence, break it in two or drop clauses. One idea per sentence.
29. Active voice. Prefer it. Catch "is/are/was/were + past participle" and name the actor: "rows are dropped" becomes "the join drops rows", "the file is parsed by the loader" becomes "the loader parses the file". Passive is fine only when the actor is unknown or genuinely doesn't matter.
30. Cut adverbs, or use a stronger verb. "runs quickly" becomes "runs in 4 seconds", and "significantly improves" becomes the measured delta. An adverb propping up a weak verb means the verb is wrong.
31. Prefer the plain word. "utilize" and "leverage" become "use", "facilitate" becomes "help", "numerous" becomes "many", "in the event that" becomes "if". The fancier synonym is rarely clearer.
32. Mannered prose. Metaphor or flourish where a literal phrase exists: aphorisms ("wire it or delete it"), rhetorical fragments for effect, personified code ("the model knows the answer"), figurative verbs ("rides along", "stands on"), stock framing phrases. "A dial worth turning" becomes "a parameter worth varying". Say what you mean. Rule 26 covers the metaphor nouns.
33. Over-compression. Dropped articles, verbless fragments, symbol-speak, and abbreviations that make the reader decode instead of read. "Filter drops nulls, 0 rows, no error" becomes "The filter drops the null rows. It removes 0 rows and raises no error." Write whole sentences with their articles and verbs, and spell out arrows and abbreviations.