Writing Quality

House-neutral rules for making drafted content read like a person wrote it. They apply to any prose surface. Layer project- or brand-specific voice guidance on top of them.

Core Rules

1. Kill the AI tells: em-dash overuse, "delve", "leverage", "it's not just X, it's Y", rule-of-three padding, and the rest of the patterns in references/ai-phrases-to-avoid.md.
2. Prefer plain English. Swap bloated or vague wording for the shorter, concrete alternative. references/plain-english-alternatives.md is the lookup table.
3. Front-load the point. Lead sentences, paragraphs, and sections with the conclusion, because readers scan.
4. Concrete over abstract. Show an example before stating a principle, and cut hedges like "just", "simply", "very", and "really".
5. Match the user's voice, not a default. When editing existing content, keep its register and conventions. These rules trim the noise; they don't impose a personality.

References

Review the reference files as well:

• references/ai-phrases-to-avoid.md: words, phrases, and punctuation patterns that mark text as AI-generated, with replacements. Load when drafting or editing any prose.
• references/plain-english-alternatives.md: plain-English swaps for corporate, padded, or vague wording. Load when drafting or editing any prose.