oss-writing: Tell catalog
The lexicon that marks prose as machine-written. Each row names a pattern and what to write instead. The composition rules in SKILL.md handle the common case; this file is the lookup for a specific suspicion, so read the row that matches rather than running the whole table over every draft.
| Tell | Write instead |
|---|---|
Significance inflation: pivotal, testament to, underscores, marks a shift, and key or critical used as importance adjectives (a key improvement). The nouns are fine: cache key, API key, critical section |
State the fact and stop |
Tacked-on -ing clauses: ensuring reliability, enabling faster builds, allowing users to |
Split into a sentence, or cut |
Nominalized gerund chains: improving the handling of the processing of |
Name the action once, with a finite verb: the loader now retries |
Promotional adjectives: robust, powerful, seamless, elegant, comprehensive, rich |
Name the property: retries 3x, no config file |
Vague attribution: best practices suggest, it is widely believed, studies show |
Name the source, or drop the claim. Never invent one |
Copula avoidance: vague serves as, acts as, boasts, or features |
is, has, or a precise verb |
AI vocabulary, and any rare word where a common one is exact: leverage, utilize, delve, streamline, facilitate, holistic, obviate, predicated on, additionally, furthermore |
use, and, or nothing. Reserve a rare word for where it is more precise, never for where it is more impressive |
Empty contrast: not just X, but Y. Tailing negation: no guessing, no wasted motion |
State the positive claim unless the contrast changes the meaning |
| Manufactured list length | List what actually exists |
Elegant variation: calling one thing the handler, then the callback, then the routine |
One name per concept, every time, across the whole document. Match the identifier in the code and the string in the UI |
False ranges: from linting to deployment |
Name the two things |
Passive or subjectless: was refactored, no config needed |
Name the actor: the loader now caches, you do not need a config file |
Filler: in order to, due to the fact that, has the ability to, it is important to note that |
to, because, can, delete |
Hedging stacks: may potentially, could possibly |
Pick one modal or drop it |
Generic upbeat closer: this improves maintainability going forward |
Delete the sentence |
Signposting: let's dive in, here's what you need to know, this PR aims to, in this change, we |
Start with the content |
| Fragmented header: a heading followed by a line restating the heading | Delete the restatement |
Aphorism formulas: X is the Y of Z, X becomes a trap |
The concrete claim underneath |
Authority tropes: the real question is, at its core, fundamentally |
Just make the point |
| Manufactured drama: a run of short declarative fragments | One sentence, ordinary length |
| Mechanical hyphenation | Follow the repository’s dictionary and style guide; hyphenate compound modifiers only where grammar or clarity requires it |
Diff-anchored docs: this function was added to replace the old loop |
Docs describe what is, not what changed. Commits, changelogs, and migration guides are the exception: there, describing the change is the job |