Good Prose: Write and Edit Professional, Clear, Human-Sounding Text

Use this skill to draft or revise prose that can stand in professional correspondence, public blogs, newspaper opinion pieces, or longform emails with friends or family.

Aim for clarity, specificity, and a measured tone without slang or hype.

Directives

Use these as the core craft rules.

Apply them before any optional style tweaks.

Composition

Make the point early

Lead with the main claim or request.

Organize by paragraph

One paragraph = one idea; open with a clear topic sentence.

Prefer the active voice

Use passive only when the actor is unknown or irrelevant.

Use concrete verbs

Replace nominalizations with verbs.

Keep sentences lean

Remove dead weight, redundant phrasing, and filler.

Emphasize by position

Put the most important words at the end of the sentence.

Maintain parallel structure

Keep lists and paired clauses grammatically aligned.

Avoid dangling modifiers

Introductory phrases must attach to the subject.

Keep related words together

Avoid long interruptions between subject and verb.

Style

Prefer plain words

Use familiar words over ornate synonyms.

Avoid threadbare openings

Skip "One of the most..." and similar cliches.

Be specific

Replace vague adjectives with facts, numbers, or examples.

Use "is/are/has" when accurate

Avoid "serves as," "stands as," "boasts."

Reduce intensifiers

Cut "very," "highly," "extremely," unless essential.

Avoid euphemism and padding

Say what happened, not what it "represents."

Mechanics

Comma use

Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction joining two independent clauses.

Don't splice clauses

Use a semicolon or period instead of a comma.

No sentence fragments

Fragment only for deliberate emphasis.

Place commas in series

Use the Oxford comma when listing three or more items.

Apostrophes

Form possessive singular with 's, including names ending in s.

AI Guardrails

Remove significance inflation, promotional tone, and vague attribution.

Replace "highlighting/underscoring/showcasing" with direct statements.

Avoid negative parallelism and forced rule-of-three lists.

Remove chatbot fillers ("Hope this helps," "Great question," etc.).

End with concrete outcomes or next steps, not generic optimism.

LLM's have characteristic writing style that should be avoided.

Refer to

references/humanize-guardrails.md

for LLM failure patterns and rewrite guardrails.

Quick Intake

Ask only if missing:

Purpose (inform, persuade, explain, request, reflect)

Audience and relationship

Medium and length (email, blog post, op-ed, memo, etc.)

Tone constraints (formal, friendly, firm, neutral)

Any must-keep facts or phrasing

If given a draft, do not ask questions unless the intent is unclear.

Workflow

Find the spine

Identify the central claim, request, or takeaway.

Shape the structure

Lead with context and stakes, then evidence, then implications or next steps.

Tighten sentence craft

Prefer concrete verbs, specific nouns, and short phrases.

Adjust voice

Keep it professional and human; remove hype, filler, and vague claims.

If AI artifacts appear, consult

skills/good-prose/references/humanize-guardrails.md

.

Polish mechanics

Fix grammar, punctuation, and consistency.

Core Principles

Clarity first

Put the point early.

Move background below it.

Specific > abstract

Replace "important" or "significant" with facts or examples.

Use strong verbs

Reduce nominalizations and empty phrasing.

Prefer simple syntax

Avoid stacked clauses and overlong sentences.

Earn emphasis

Show importance with evidence, not adjectives.

Keep rhythm

Mix sentence lengths; let short sentences land.

Maintain tone discipline

No slang, no hype, no boilerplate cheerleading.

Editing Checks (Apply in Order)

Meaning

Are claims precise, supported, and non-contradictory?

Structure

Does each paragraph have a point and support it?

Brevity

Cut filler, hedging, and throat-clearing.

Style

Replace puffed-up language with plain English.

Mechanics

Fix grammar, punctuation, and formatting.

Common Fixes

Vague openings

Replace generic framing with the specific purpose.

Abstract nouns

Swap "implementation of improvements" for "we improved X."

Weasel words

Replace "experts say" with named sources or remove.

Empty intensifiers

Remove "very," "extremely," "highly," unless essential.

Over-polite filler

Remove "I hope this finds you well" unless expected.

AI-ish phrasing

Avoid "pivotal," "tapestry," "underscoring," "delve." Output Format Provide the revised text. If changes are substantial, add a brief, 3-5 bullet change summary. References Use these references for deeper guidance when needed: