Writing Quality

Overview

Use this skill as the language-quality layer for the suite. It sharpens clarity, structure, persuasiveness, and narrative force across business-plan and proposal writing without changing the underlying commercial logic.

Use When

• Use when drafting, revising, or polishing business-plan prose.
• Use when the content is directionally correct but the writing is weak, bloated, or unconvincing.
• Use alongside section skills when language quality materially affects credibility.

Do Not Use When

• Do not use to invent missing evidence or strategy.
• Do not improve style in a way that softens necessary precision.
• Do not replace section-specific logic with generic polished wording.

Required Inputs

• Draft text to improve
• Audience and document context
• Any non-negotiable facts, figures, or terminology
• Adjacent sections where tone or phrasing must stay consistent

Workflow

1. Identify what the reader must understand and decide.
2. Tighten the prose around that purpose using the rules below.
3. Remove ambiguity, filler, and passive evasion.
4. Improve flow, emphasis, and narrative sequence without distorting meaning.
5. Reconcile language choices with the intended audience and document type.
6. For premium, investor-facing, sales-oriented, SEO, or client-facing deliverables, apply premium-commercial-writing before final polish.
7. For business-plan sections, marketing plans, blogs and articles, open the matching phrase-bank entry: confirm the section's purpose and reader register, apply the client's strategy_type emphasis, write the power paragraph first, fill slot-templates only with verified values, compare the draft against the before-and-after rewrites, and block release on any unfilled [slot].
8. Flag where the draft is weak because the underlying thinking is weak.

Quality Bar

• The writing is clearer, tighter, and more persuasive.
• Meaning stays intact while readability improves.
• The prose supports decision-making rather than sounding merely polished.
• Tone matches the document and audience.

Anti-Patterns

• Replacing precision with vague eloquence.
• Polishing unsupported claims instead of fixing them.
• Letting sentence craft overpower logic and structure.
• Applying one tone uniformly across all audiences.

Outputs

• Improved draft language with stronger clarity and persuasion
• Notes on structural or evidence issues the prose cannot solve
• A sharper language baseline for adjacent section work

Book-derived reader-craft overlay

Load Human-English five-pass standard before drafting or polishing. Apply the five passes—reader and purpose, genre and spine, meaning and evidence, sentence/paragraph craft, and proof/read-aloud. Use grammar and vocabulary references diagnostically; never replace a sound argument with ornament, and never simulate humanity with errors or slang.

Apply these principles to all business plan text. The goal: the reader forgets they are reading a document and simply finds themselves persuaded.

The Four Quality Dimensions

Plain English Rules (Hood)

1. Reversed triangle state the conclusion first, then the supporting detail. Never build up to the answer.
2. One idea per sentence if a sentence contains two ideas, split it.
3. Two-line rule if a sentence is longer than two printed lines, break it.
4. Active voice "The business generates UGX 24M/month" not "Revenue of UGX 24M/month is generated."
5. You and we address the reader directly. "You will see from the projections..." not "It can be observed..."
6. Jargon discipline use technical terms only when the reader knows them. Define on first use.
7. One idea per paragraph open with the main point, support it, close or link it. Usually keep it to five sentences or fewer, but let the thought—not a template—set the length.
8. Positive framing "Repayment begins in month 4" not "Repayment will not start before month 4."
9. Concrete over abstract "The mill processes 800kg per hour" not "The mill has significant capacity."
10. Cut the preamble delete the first sentence of any paragraph that merely announces what follows.

Avoid these phrases (replace with plain alternatives):

Argument Structure (Shiach)

Every paragraph in a business plan should follow this formula:

1. Key sentence     state the point directly (topic sentence)
2. Development      two to four sentences of evidence, example, or data as the thought requires
3. Link             one sentence drawing the conclusion or bridging to the next point

Introduction structure (executive summary, section openers):

1. Hook a specific, surprising, or urgent opening statement
2. Context one or two sentences orienting the reader
3. Thesis the main claim or argument in one sentence
4. Signpost briefly indicate what follows

Conclusion structure (executive summary close, funding request close):

1. Signal "This plan demonstrates that..." / "The evidence shows..."
2. Summary two or three sentences restating the strongest points
3. Rounding-off sentence one final sentence the reader will not forget

Transitions by function: choose the connector that expresses the actual relationship. Do not add one merely to make the prose look organised.

Business Writing Style (Geffner)

The Four Cs every document must be:

1. Complete all questions the reader will ask are answered
2. Accurate every figure, date, and claim is verifiable
3. Clear no ambiguity; the meaning cannot be misread
4. Concise nothing that does not earn its place

Document tone rules:

• Match formality to the reader: bank credit officer (formal), business partner (semi-formal), WhatsApp update (informal)
• Write in the positive: state what is, not what is not
• Use "you approach": write from the reader's perspective, not the writer's
• Avoid hedging unless genuinely uncertain: "The business will generate" not "The business should hopefully generate"

Strong verbs replace weak constructions:

Parallelism all items in a list must follow the same grammatical form:

The business will: expand operations, hiring new staff, and we will enter new markets. The business will: expand operations, hire new staff, and enter new markets.

Report structure:

1. Executive summary (conclusion first)
2. Introduction (scope and background)
3. Body (findings, analysis, evidence)
4. Conclusions
5. Recommendations
6. Appendices (supporting data)

Narrative and Storytelling (Rubie & Provost)

The Provost Paragraph the anatomy of a compelling story, applicable to any business narrative:

1. A character with a want (the founder, the customer, or the business itself)
2. A problem that stands in the way (conflict, gap, obstacle)
3. Struggle the attempts to overcome the problem
4. Deepening the stakes become clearer or higher
5. A moment of resolution or revelation
6. A changed world how things are now different
7. An emotional truth the reader takes away
8. A new question that propels the reader forward

Apply to: executive summary, founder narrative, case study, market problem section.

The high-concept hook open any document with one sentence that captures the entire proposition:

Formula: [What the business does] + [for whom] + [in a way no one else does] + [producing what result]

Uganda examples:

• "A solar financing company that turns smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda into energy asset owners without requiring collateral."
• "A Kampala cold chain operator that has cut post-harvest losses for 200 vegetable traders by 60% in 18 months."

Show, don't tell:

• "There is significant demand for this product."
• "During our pilot, 47 traders in Owino Market placed repeat orders within two weeks without being asked."

The origin story the founder narrative should answer:

1. What problem did you personally encounter?
2. What did you try first (and why did it not work)?
3. What did you learn that nobody else knows?
4. What does success look like for you and your community?

Anti-AI Checklist (apply before finalising any section)

Remove every instance of:

• "In today's fast-paced world" / "In today's competitive landscape"
• "It is worth noting that" / "It should be noted that"
• "Robust" / "Leverage" / "Synergy" / "Seamless" / "Game-changing" / "Innovative solution"
• "Unlock" / "Dive into" / "Navigate" / "Harness" / "Delve"
• Sentences that start with "Furthermore, it is important to..."
• Lists of five bullet points each beginning with "Ensure that..."
• Any paragraph that describes what the next paragraph will say instead of saying it

Replace passive-voice constructions. Replace hedging language. Replace abstract nouns with concrete ones. Add a specific number or named place to any claim that currently has neither.

References

• references/words-at-work-hood.md Plain English checklist, reversed triangle, document structure, common mistakes table, editing checklists (Hood, Words at Work)
• references/essay-writing-shiach.md Argument structure, introduction/conclusion formulas, transitions master list, waffle diagnosis test (Shiach, How to Write Essays)
• references/business-english-geffner.md Four Cs, parallelism rules, business document conventions, positive framing, expressions to avoid, report/proposal structure (Geffner, Business English)
• references/storytelling-rubie-provost.md Provost Paragraph, high-concept hook, scene-writing, conflict mechanics, book proposal structure applicable to business proposals (Rubie & Provost, How to Tell a Story)
• references/business-plan-phrase-bank.md Read before drafting any plan section: how to use the bank, register by reader (bank, investor, grant funder, board, partner), strategy_type field and emphasis table, evidence and hedging phrasing, verb and precision-word banks, release checklist.
• references/business-plan-phrase-bank-sections-01-08.md and references/business-plan-phrase-bank-sections-09-16.md Read while drafting a numbered section: purpose, keywords, slot-templates, tone rules, before-and-after rewrites, power paragraph and red-flag phrases for sections 01 to 16 (including 11b and 14).
• references/marketing-plan-phrase-bank.md Read while drafting a standalone marketing plan, section by section, including SMART objective rewrites.
• references/article-and-blog-phrase-guidance.md Read while drafting blogs, articles and thought-leadership posts.
• references/human-english-five-pass-standard.md Read before drafting or polishing any client-facing text: five passes, language decisions, register matrix by output type, release questions, and evidence record.
• ../premium-commercial-writing/SKILL.md Cross-cutting premium commercial writing layer for commercial purpose, differentiation, proof, SEO/AI-search visibility, investor polish, and premium-fee quality gates.

Inputs

Outputs

Evidence Produced

Capability Contract

Read or search access is required; editing or mutation is allowed only with authorised permission.

Critique defaults to read-only. Edit only when requested. Do not invent evidence, change approved numbers, alter legal or financial meaning, manufacture testimonials, or publish externally. Substantive claims remain owned by the relevant domain expert.

Degraded Mode

If sources, audience context, language review, or editing access is unavailable, return the narrowest useful critique, proposed wording, and unassessed checks. Do not polish an unsupported assertion into apparent fact.

Decision Rules

Workflow

1. Confirm audience, decision, purpose, genre, voice, source authority, and editing scope.
2. Identify the governing thesis and the action or conclusion the reader must reach.
3. Map each load-bearing claim to evidence, warrant, assumption, countercase, and implication; stop on fabricated or unverifiable support.
4. Reorder content around reader questions and decision logic before sentence editing.
5. Rewrite for plain English, precision, varied rhythm, concrete examples, and honest trade-offs.
6. Verify names, figures, quotations, citations, legal and financial meaning against source material.
7. Run language and anti-slop checks; recover by restoring useful authored detail or qualifying unresolved claims.
8. Release with material limitations and unresolved evidence visible.

Quality Standards

Every section must earn its place. The writing must help a named reader decide, retain the author's real point of view, and distinguish evidence from assumption without hype or filler.

Anti-Patterns

• Opening with generic economic importance. Fix: start with the decision, tension, evidence, or consequence.
• Adding a market number to sound specific. Fix: verify and cite it or remove it.
• Using long words where short ones are precise. Fix: choose the clearest accurate term.
• Making every paragraph the same length and shape. Fix: vary rhythm according to the argument.
• Removing all risk to sound convincing. Fix: state the material countercase and mitigation.
• Replacing a founder's specific phrasing with generic corporate prose. Fix: preserve authentic voice and edit only for clarity.

Worked Example

Replace The company is well positioned to capture this market with the supported logic: Three wholesalers have signed trial letters covering 1,200 units, but the plan still depends on the proposed line reaching the tested reject-rate ceiling. Commercial launch therefore follows the commissioning test, not the calendar date.

English collocation and lexical-precision overlay

Load english-collocations-and-lexical-precision-2026-09-02.md before final revision. Apply its reader-fit, collocation, register, grammar, idiom, calibrated-claim, and anti-slop checks.