ariaxhan Humanize AI Prose
A reusable, ordered editing system that turns model-generated prose into writing that reads like an actual person wrote it. It's two layers: seven mechanical transform passes (each tell is detectable and rewritable), then a taste checklist of judgment calls no find-and-replace can make.
Why ordering matters
The passes run truth → structure → paragraph → sentence → word → friction → ear, and the order is load-bearing. Inserting one real specific reshapes everything downstream (it forces you to delete the vague sentence that was standing in for it), so specifics come first. Word-level fixes come late, because there's no point polishing a sentence you're about to cut. Read-aloud is last, after the text has stopped changing. Run them in order; don't jump to the word pass because it feels productive.
The seven passes, in order
1. TRUTH: insert real specifics. AI prose names categories, never instances ("various campuses," "a meaningful experience," "a typical user"). Give every section at least one true, named, datable detail: a first name, a place, a month-and-year, a product, a number that isn't round. This is the highest-leverage move in the whole system. If you don't know the fact, do not invent it. Use the bracket rule below.
2. STRUCTURE: de-signpost, fix intro and ending. Delete sentences whose only job is pointing at other sentences ("Here's the part that surprised me," "In this article we will," "That's the whole flaw, stated cleanly"). Humans just say the thing. Rewrite the intro and conclusion completely rather than patching them: they're the most template-shaped parts of any draft. The ending should add something (an implication, an open question, a last concrete image), never re-list the points. Cap dramatic one-line closers ("mic drops") at two per piece; one is voice, five is a metronome.
3. PARAGRAPH: break the isomorphism. When every paragraph ends by extracting its lesson and tying it to the thesis, that uniform closure reads as machine even if each sentence is fine. Let at most a third of paragraphs end on a significance statement; let the rest end on a fact, an image, or nothing. Vary paragraph openers (scan the first word of each in a column: no grammatical shape twice in a row) and paragraph sizes (include at least one one-sentence paragraph and one 5+ sentence paragraph; open one with a question).
4. SENTENCE: restore burstiness in both directions. Human writing spikes in sentence length; AI flatlines, usually at 18–24 words, sometimes (post-editing) at a relentless punchy 6–12. Find any three consecutive sentences of similar length, cut one under 8 words, let another run 30–45 with subordinate clauses. Restore parenthetical asides (2–4 per page: they hold the spoken register flat prose lacks). Break decorative rule-of-three triads ("skill, compassion, and steadiness"): keep one item and make it concrete. Allow at most one negative parallelism ("it's not X, it's Y" / "that's not a glitch, it's...") per piece; rewrite the rest as direct statements that just say what it is.
5. WORD: lexicon and punctuation purge. Run this for human readers, not detectors (see below). Zero em-dashes: replace with a period, a comma, or parentheses, not a semicolon spree. Delete the abstract intensifier lexicon: profoundly, transformative, unwavering, invaluable, leverage, delve, harness, streamline, robust, seamless, nuanced, multifaceted, landscape, realm, tapestry, testament, crucial, pivotal, groundbreaking. Replace each with the plain word for the actual thing. Contract by default ("that's," "it's," "doesn't") and cap full-form "It is / That is / Here is" sentence-openers at two: surgical apostrophe-avoidance reads as machine. Delete cliché connectors (Furthermore, Moreover, Additionally, In conclusion, Ultimately); paragraph breaks do the connecting.
6. FRICTION: admit what was hard, boring, or wrong. AI prose is frictionless: nothing fails, drags, or stays unresolved. Readers flag that false omniscience faster than any word choice. Per piece, include at least: one thing that was boring or unglamorous, one limit or failure stated honestly, and one uncertainty left standing ("I'm not sure this scales past one case" beats fake confidence). Every admitted flaw must be true: invented friction is worse than none.
7. EAR: read it aloud. No transforms, just a final gate. Read it out loud (or subvocalize slowly). Any sentence you stumble on, or wouldn't say to a person across a table, gets rewritten in the words you'd actually use. Any sentence that exists only to sound good gets cut. Human looseness is allowed (a comma splice, a sentence a beat too long); typos and broken grammar are not.
Detectors vs. humans (the structural insight)
As of 2026, the strong detectors (GPTZero, Pangram, Binoculars-style) score statistical structure: sentence-length variance ("burstiness"), paragraph shape, token predictability, transition-word frequency, not vocabulary. So the structural passes (2–4) move detection scores 20–35 points; the word pass (5) moves them under 5. If you're trying to pass a detector, the structure work is what matters. The word pass is for the human reading it. Do both, but know which job each one is doing.
The dangerous tells are the second-generation ones, because the obvious lexical ones (em-dashes, "delve," triads) are already widely scrubbed: uniform punchiness, uncontracted "It is / That is" anaphora, frictionless confidence, and missing specifics. The single highest-leverage fix remains one true, named detail per section.
The taste checklist
After the passes, walk the judgment calls in reference/checklist.md. A "no" sends the piece back.
The three that matter most:
- Could only this author have written it? Swap the byline. Is there at least one detail, opinion, or aside that wouldn't survive the swap? Generic prose survives any swap.
- Does it take a side? A real position someone could disagree with, stated without hedging. Perfect argumentative balance is itself a tell.
- Is every admitted flaw true, and every added specific real? A fake-specific detail is the one failure mode this whole system can't recover from.
The bracket-placeholder rule: never invent facts
When a section needs a real specific (Pass 1) or an honest limit (Pass 6) and you don't have the fact, do not fabricate it. Insert a bracket placeholder that names exactly what's missing and hand it back to the author:
[BRACKET: need one real moment here: a name, a date, one thing that actually happened. A first name and one sentence beats a paragraph of reflection.]
The piece is not done while a bracket is open. This is the line between humanizing and lying: a humanized draft surfaces what only the author can supply; it never makes it up.