/writing-clearly-and-concisely
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.
The constructive companion to anti-slop. Where anti-slop tells you what not to do, this one tells you what to do — based on Strunk’s rules from The Elements of Style, which have aged better than 90% of writing advice from the last hundred years.
What it does
Applies a checklist of classic prose rules — omit needless words, prefer the active voice, use definite specific concrete language, place yourself in the background — to documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, and UI copy. Returns rewrites that are shorter, sharper, and easier to skim.
Who it’s for
- Late-start technical professionals translating dissertation prose into industry-readable English — academic writing has different conventions, and most of them lose to Strunk in industry contexts
- MS and PhD holders writing portfolios, README files, project documentation where the audience is non-academic
- Career switchers whose previous-career writing voice doesn’t translate cleanly into technical-team communication
- Anyone who edits AI drafts for shippable output
What to watch for
- The rules apply to expository prose. Marketing copy, fiction, and personal essays operate by different rules. Don’t strunkify a hook
- “Omit needless words” can be over-applied. Sometimes a beat of pacing is the point. Use judgment, especially for opening sentences
- The skill assumes English. If you’re writing for a translated context, the source-text rules matter more than the prose rules
Verdict
A foundational text-quality skill that pairs with anti-slop to cover both sides of the editing job. If you’re a scientist who has gradually realized your dense academic style isn’t landing in industry, this is the cheaper alternative to a year of journalism school.