# Editing For Clarity And Tone

> Use when revising existing prose for clarity, concision, structure, readability, or an explicitly requested tone while preserving the original meaning and factual content.

- Skill: `jhonatan-oliveiradev/editing-for-clarity-and-tone` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add jhonatan-oliveiradev/editing-for-clarity-and-tone`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/jhonatan-oliveiradev/editing-for-clarity-and-tone/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: jhonatan-oliveiradev (https://skillmd.com/u/jhonatan-oliveiradev)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/jhonatan-oliveiradev/editing-for-clarity-and-tone

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# Editing for Clarity and Tone

## Overview

Improve an existing draft without silently changing what it says. The governing contract is fidelity first, then clarity, structure, density, and tone.

## Establish the Editing Contract

Identify:

- the exact text in scope;
- audience and genre when known;
- requested tone, formality, length, or house style;
- facts and claims that must remain unchanged;
- protected spans: quotations, citations, URLs, code, identifiers, names, dates, numbers, legal wording, headings, or user-marked text.

If the user asks for fact-checking, research, or substantive expansion, treat that as a separate task. Do not disguise new claims as editing.

## Edit in Passes

1. **Meaning:** resolve only ambiguities that can be fixed without guessing. Flag uncertainty rather than inventing intent.
2. **Structure:** put the reader's needed context before dependent detail; merge repetition and split overloaded paragraphs when useful.
3. **Sentences:** prefer direct subjects and verbs, remove filler, reduce nested qualifiers, and keep necessary nuance.
4. **Terminology:** make repeated concepts consistent without replacing precise domain language with generic synonyms.
5. **Tone:** adjust distance, warmth, formality, confidence, and rhythm to the requested situation. Tone must not change the certainty of factual claims.
6. **Length:** cut redundancy before cutting evidence, conditions, exceptions, or action-critical detail.
7. **Fidelity check:** compare the revision against the source for changed numbers, names, claims, citations, scope, obligations, and conclusions.

## Minimum-Effective-Edit Rule

Prefer the smallest change that achieves the requested improvement. Distinctive phrasing is not a defect simply because another sentence would sound smoother.

Do not normalize every paragraph into the same cadence, add generic transitions, or make a personal draft sound like corporate copy unless that is the explicit target.

## Boundary With Humanization

Use `humanizing-generated-prose` when the explicit problem is generic or AI-shaped writing and the revision needs pattern-level naturalization while preserving protected content. Use this method for broader editorial work where clarity, tone, structure, or concision is the primary goal.

## Deliverable

When the user asks for a rewrite, return the complete revised text. Add explanation only when requested or when a material ambiguity, protected conflict, or substantive change needs disclosure.

## Reference Signals

GDS/ONS plain-language guidance supports user-focused structure, concise sentences, task-centered headings, and common language. Microsoft and Google style guidance reinforce direct, helpful, accessible prose and consistency for global audiences.