Email

Email Voice Skill

This skill drafts emails in YOUR voice — short, direct, human-sounding, not "professional generic." To work, it needs a real voice profile based on emails you've actually sent.

The template below is a starting point. You'll need to fill in your own voice profile and real sample emails before this skill is useful. Pattern-matching to your real emails is what makes it work — pattern-matching to a generic professional template is exactly what it's trying to avoid.

Setup tip: Before using this skill, fill in the placeholders in this file AND fill in references/samples.md with 3–5 real emails you've sent. The more honest the samples (no edits to "polish" them), the better the output.

Your voice profile (fill in once)

Greetings, by relationship

Most people use 2–3 different greetings depending on who they're writing to. Fill in yours:

• Professional / newer contact: [e.g. Hi [Name],]
• Close colleague or active back-and-forth: [e.g. [Name], (no greeting word)]
• You never use: [e.g. Hello,, Dear,, Greetings,, Hi there,]

Opening lines

Do you warm up before the substance, or go straight in?

• In short transactional replies: [e.g. "Straight to the point. No 'hope you're well.'"]
• In sales / first-contact / post-meeting follow-ups: [e.g. "One short warm opener like 'Thanks for reaching out!' is fine, then onto substance."]

Sign-offs

List the 2–3 sign-offs you actually use, and the contexts:

• Quick reply with a thank-you / ask: [e.g. Thanks! then your name]
• Pure transactional reply, no thanks needed: [e.g. just your name]
• Developed / sales / post-meeting: [e.g. Regards, then your name]
• You never use: [e.g. Best,, Kind regards,, Cheers,, Sincerely yours,, All the best,]

Sentence shape

• Do you write declaratively or hedge? [e.g. "Declarative. 'That works.' not 'That should hopefully work for me.'"]
• Do you use contractions? [e.g. "Yes throughout — I'll, won't, don't. Writing them out makes me sound stiff."]
• Do you drop the subject when natural? [e.g. "Yes — 'Don't need to worry about X.' / 'Only thing I need is Y.'"]

Paragraph shape

• [e.g. "One thought per paragraph. Blank line between each. Most emails are 2–4 paragraphs total."]
• [e.g. "Bullet lists only when content is genuinely list-shaped — not for two or three sentences that could be sentences."]

Confidence register

[e.g. "I write from a position of running my own show. Direct, not hedged. 'I think maybe we could possibly...' isn't me. Direct AND warm — those aren't in tension."]

Where humor shows up (if at all)

[e.g. "Mostly in newsletters and casual messages. Rarely in transactional client emails. When in doubt, leave it out — a too-formal email is recoverable; a forced-funny one isn't."]

The two registers

Most people write emails in two distinct registers depending on context. Picking the wrong one is the single biggest mistake to avoid. A draft that's correct in voice but wrong in register will still feel "off" — too cold for a sales inquiry, or too padded for a quick reply between collaborators.

Register A: Quick / transactional

For ongoing back-and-forth, scheduling, brief logistics, replies between people who already know each other and are actively in something together.

• 2–4 short paragraphs, 1–2 sentences each
• Greeting: short / familiar
• First line goes straight to substance, no warm-up
• No "Thanks for reaching out" — they're already in the conversation
• Almost no list formatting
• Direct, confident, very few hedges

Register B: Developed / business-development

For first contact or developing prospects, sales inquiries, proposals, post-meeting follow-ups, anything where the user is representing their business to someone newer.

• Longer paragraphs that actually explain things
• Greeting: full ("Hi [Name],")
• A short warm opener IS in voice here ("Thanks for reaching out!", "Great meeting you both!")
• Bulleted lists ARE used when content is genuinely list-shaped (login info, multiple resources, course/option comparisons)
• Closing line is open-door warm, not abrupt: ("Let me know if you have any other questions!" / "happy to answer any additional questions you have")
• Still confident and direct within the longer form — explains plainly, doesn't pad with fluff

How to pick

Default questions to ask before drafting:

• Is this an ongoing exchange where they already know what's being discussed? → Register A
• Did the recipient just reach out cold, or is this a first reply in a new business thread? → Register B
• Is this a follow-up after a meeting or call, with proposals/materials attached? → Register B
• Is this a pricing / availability / scope question from a prospect? → Register B
• Is this a one-line scheduling change or quick logistics check? → Register A

When genuinely unsure, ask the user rather than guessing.

Workflow when drafting

1. Read references/samples.md first. Don't skip this even if you've drafted in this voice before in the conversation — re-anchor each time.
2. Identify the relationship and situation. Is this a client, a collaborator they know well, someone new? Reply or fresh send? What's the actual ask or update?
3. Pick the right register (A or B, see above).
4. Draft once, then cut. First drafts are usually too long. Look at every sentence and ask whether it's pulling weight.
5. Run the AI-tells check. Skim references/avoid-ai-tells.md and look for any of those patterns in the draft. Strip them out.
6. Present the draft to the user. If there are real branching choices — like "soft pushback vs. firm pushback" — offer them as variants. Otherwise just give one draft to send.

Things to actively avoid

These are the things that make an email read as written-by-someone-else (the "AI generic professional" voice). The full reference is in references/avoid-ai-tells.md; the highest-frequency offenders are listed here.

Phrases that don't belong in most personal voices:

• "I hope this email finds you well" / "Hope you're having a great week"
• "Just wanted to circle back" / "Following up on my last email"
• "Thank you so much for your patience"
• "I'd be more than happy to..." (most people just say "happy to..." without the "I'd be")
• "Please don't hesitate to reach out"
• "Looking forward to hearing from you"
• "I hope that helps!"
• "Of course!" / "Certainly!" / "Absolutely!" as standalone openers
• "Thank you for your time and consideration"

Words that don't belong in personal-voice email: delve, leverage, navigate, ensure, robust, seamless, streamline, foster, cultivate, holistic, comprehensive, valuable insights, key takeaways, crucial, pivotal, underscore (as a verb), align with, showcase, highlight (as a verb)

Structural tells:

• Em dashes used in formulaic punched-up parallelisms ("It's not just X — it's Y")
• Negative parallelism ("This isn't about X, it's about Y") — almost always a tell
• Rule of three ("clear, concise, and actionable") — most people write specific singular things, not triplets
• Bulleted lists with bolded inline headers ("Background: Lorem ipsum...") — plain bullets for genuine list content are fine; the bold-header pattern is the tell
• "In summary," "In conclusion," or "Overall," at the end of an email — just stop writing
• Title Case Headings inside an email body
• Closing with an unneeded question in Register A — when the next move is already obvious, don't tack on "Does that work for you?"

Tone tells:

• Excessive enthusiasm where none is warranted ("Awesome!", "Fantastic!", "Wonderful!")
• Apologizing for things that don't need apology
• Restating what the recipient already said before responding to it ("So just to make sure I understand, you're asking about X...")
• Performative gratitude ("Thank you SO much for taking the time to...")

When in doubt

If a sentence in the draft sounds like it could appear in literally any other professional's email, rewrite it or cut it. Personal voice lives in specificity and brevity. A boring true sentence beats a polished generic one every time.