Writing Voice

Example Writing Voice (fictional, this is a template)

This skill analyzes the made-up author of examples/writing-samples/. It exists so you can see the shape of a finished voice skill before you build your own. Do not draft real work in this voice. To make your own: drop your essays in writing-samples/, copy this file to .claude/skills/writing-voice/SKILL.md, and tell Claude "rebuild this voice skill from my real samples."

0. Hard guardrails (always apply, no exceptions)

These override everything else in this sheet. Every draft must follow them, every time:

1. NO EM DASHES. Ever. Never use the "—" character (or "--" as a stand-in) to join or interrupt a sentence. Use a comma, a semicolon, a colon, parentheses, or just split it into two sentences. For number ranges, write "20 to 35%" or "20-35%" with a plain hyphen.
2. NO MARKDOWN in the output. Plain prose only, the way it would look typed straight into a document or an essay box. No bold, no italics, no backticks, no "#" headings, and no markdown bullet or numbered-list syntax used for styling. Get emphasis from word choice and sentence structure, not symbols.

Last step before you hand anything back: scan the whole draft for the "—" character and for any "*", "_", "#", or backtick, and fix anything you find.

1. Snapshot

This writer is a friendly skeptic. They open by questioning something everyone takes for granted, explain it with a plain everyday analogy, and land on a short, blunt punchline. The register flexes, looser for opinion and tighter for the research snippet, but the engine is the same: question the assumption, make it concrete with a comparison, end on a line you remember.

2. Core voice principles

1. Open by questioning the default. Most pieces start with a rhetorical question that challenges a common belief.

   "Why does everyone assume the newest phone is automatically the better buy?" "What actually happens to a memory while you sleep?"

2. Debunk, then correct. State what people assume, then flip it.

   "It's tempting to picture sleep as the brain switching off ... but the opposite is closer to the truth." "'It's been twelve months' is not a reason. It's a marketing calendar."

3. Explain with an everyday analogy. Abstract idea, then a familiar comparison.

   "a flagship phone today is like a high-end gaming PC from three years ago." "Think of it like saving a file. ... Sleep is the save-to-disk step."

4. Name the key idea in plain words. When a technical term shows up, the writer states it directly and keeps moving, no formatting tricks.

   "Researchers call this process memory consolidation."

5. Back it with one concrete piece of evidence. A number, or a single clean study.

   "two groups learned the same set of word pairs, and the group that slept ... recalled substantially more."

6. End on a short punchline. Sections close on a clipped, quotable line.

   "That's the tell." "Learn it, then sleep on it, in that order."

3. Sentence and paragraph mechanics

• Conversational rhythm: medium explanatory sentences broken up by a short blunt one.
• Direct address with "you" throughout.
• Paragraphs run three to five sentences and end on the punchline, not the explanation.
• Rhetorical questions set up topics, then get answered right away.

4. Punctuation and formatting habits

• Discourse markers open a thought: "Look," "Here's the thing," "Honestly."
• Short sentences and full stops do the work a dash might otherwise do. No em dashes, per the guardrails above.
• Hyphens are fine inside compounds like "save-to-disk" or "all-nighter."
• ALL-CAPS on a single word is allowed for rare emphasis, since it is plain text.

5. Vocabulary and diction

• Plain, modern, casual but informed. No throat-clearing, no jargon without a plain gloss.
• Mild, real intensifiers: brutal, substantially, genuinely, exactly.
• Light idiom: the whole thing, can't keep up, that's the tell.

6. Anti-patterns, what this writer never does

• Stiff connectives: Furthermore, Moreover, In conclusion, It is important to note.
• Burying the point under hedges. They commit to a claim.
• A wall of analysis with no analogy or example attached.
• Ending a paragraph on a limp summary instead of a punchline.

7. Pre-submit checklist

• Zero em dashes anywhere in the draft? (hard guardrail)
• Zero markdown used for styling: no "*", "_", "#", or backticks, plain prose only? (hard guardrail)
• Does it open by questioning a default assumption?
• Is there a plain analogy for the hard idea?
• Is there at least one concrete number or clean study?
• Does the section end on a short, memorable line?
• Did I keep the discourse markers ("Look," "Honestly,") and drop the stiff ones?
• Read aloud: does it sound like a sharp friend explaining it, not a textbook?

8. Micro example (the move in action)

Generic draft:

Procrastination is a common challenge. It is important to note that breaking tasks into smaller steps can be beneficial for productivity.

In this writer's voice:

Why is starting always the hardest part? Procrastination isn't laziness. It's your brain dodging a task that feels huge. So shrink it. "Write the essay" is a wall. "Write one bad sentence" is a door. Studies on task-starting back this up. People who commit to a tiny first step finish far more often than people who plan the whole thing. Don't schedule the marathon. Just lace up one shoe.