writing-clearly-and-concisely

SKILL.md

---
name: writing-clearly-and-concisely
description: Use when writing prose humans will read—documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, reports, or UI text. Applies Strunk's timeless rules for clearer, stronger, more professional writing.
---

# Writing Clearly and Concisely

## Overview

Write with clarity and force. This skill covers what to do (Strunk) and what not to do (AI patterns).

## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:

- Documentation, README files, technical explanations
- Commit messages, pull request descriptions
- Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
- Reports, summaries, or any explanation
- Editing to improve clarity

**If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.**

## Limited Context Strategy

When context is tight:

1. Write your draft using judgment
2. Dispatch a subagent with your draft and the relevant section file
3. Have the subagent copyedit and return the revision

Loading a single section (~1,000-4,500 tokens) instead of everything saves significant context.

## Elements of Style

William Strunk Jr.'s *The Elements of Style* (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut ruthlessly.

### Rules

**Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation)**:

1. Form possessive singular by adding 's
2. Use comma after each term in series except last
3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
4. Comma before conjunction introducing co-ordinate clause
5. Don't join independent clauses by comma
6. Don't break sentences in two
7. Participial phrase at beginning refers to grammatical subject

**Elementary Principles of Composition**:

8. One paragraph per topic
9. Begin paragraph with topic sentence
10. **Use active voice**
11. **Put statements in positive form**
12. **Use definite, specific, concrete language**
13. **Omit needless words**
14. Avoid succession of loose sentences
15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
16. **Keep related words together**
17. Keep to one tense in summaries
18. **Place emphatic words at end of sentence**

### Reference Files

The rules above are summarized from Strunk's original text. For complete explanations with examples:

| Section | File | ~Tokens |
|---------|------|---------|
| Grammar, punctuation, comma rules | `02-elementary-rules-of-usage.md` | 2,500 |
| Paragraph structure, active voice, concision | `03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md` | 4,500 |
| Headings, quotations, formatting | `04-a-few-matters-of-form.md` | 1,000 |
| Word choice, common errors | `05-words-and-expressions-commonly-misused.md` | 4,000 |

**Most tasks need only `03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md`** — it covers active voice, positive form, concrete language, and omitting needless words.

## AI Writing Patterns to Avoid

LLMs regress to statistical means, producing generic, puffy prose. Avoid:

- **Puffery:** pivotal, crucial, vital, testament, enduring legacy
- **Empty "-ing" phrases:** ensuring reliability, showcasing features, highlighting capabilities
- **Promotional adjectives:** groundbreaking, seamless, robust, cutting-edge
- **Overused AI vocabulary:** delve, leverage, multifaceted, foster, realm, tapestry
- **Formatting overuse:** excessive bullets, emoji decorations, bold on every other word

Be specific, not grandiose. Say what it actually does.

For comprehensive research on why these patterns occur, see `signs-of-ai-writing.md`. Wikipedia editors developed this guide to detect AI-generated submissions — their patterns are well-documented and field-tested.

## Bottom Line

Writing for humans? Load the relevant section from `elements-of-style/` and apply the rules. For most tasks, `03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md` covers what matters most.