Plainspoken Writing

Plainspoken writing

Use this pass for prose. The leading word is plainspoken: specific facts, direct syntax, proportionate emphasis, and evidence-based authority.

The warning signs below are diagnostic. Fix the underlying defect; retain a flagged word when the context gives it precise work.

Pass

1. Ground the content

For each factual or interpretive claim:

• Anchor every claim in known facts or supplied sources.
• Name the person, source, or group behind an opinion. Match the breadth of the attribution to the evidence; one critic is not "critics" or "observers."
• Separate a source's statement from your inference. Ground analysis in facts rather than declaring what a fact highlights, reflects, symbolizes, ensures, or contributes to.
• Describe the subject before assessing its importance. Include significance, influence, legacy, notability, and media attention only when concrete evidence makes them part of the subject.
• Replace generic claims about broader trends, debates, landscapes, cultural meaning, ecological importance, or ongoing efforts with the relevant fact.
• State uncertainty precisely. When information is missing, name the exact gap and omit speculation about privacy, scarcity, documentation, or likelihood.

Done when: every claim has a known basis, every opinion has an exact owner, and no sentence turns missing evidence into a story.

2. Make the prose direct

• Prefer is, are, and has when they carry the same meaning as serves as, stands as, marks, represents, boasts, features, or offers.
• Prefer the ordinary precise verb: wrote, used, moved, tried, or died when a grander synonym adds no meaning.
• Reuse the right term. Stable terminology beats synonym rotation.
• Let the facts set the tone. Replace promotional, travel-guide, press-release, and ceremonial language with concrete description.
• Use contrast for a real contrast. Flatten reflexive patterns such as "not only X but also Y," "not X but Y," and "X rather than Y" when they merely dramatize the point.
• Use the number of examples or modifiers the content requires. Break a forced rule of three.
• Keep sentence openings and endings functional. Replace trailing -ing clauses that append unsupported importance or impact.
• Match the requested register and variety of English. Preserve the author's established voice where one exists; keep human texture natural rather than manufactured.

Scan for clusters of stock diction, then rewrite the thought rather than thesaurus-swapping the token:

Additionally, align with, bolstered, crucial, deep dive, delve, emphasizing, enduring, enhance, fostering, garner, highlight, interplay, intricate, key, landscape, meticulous, pivotal, robust, showcase, tapestry, testament, underscore, valuable, vibrant, groundbreaking, renowned, rich, profound, nestled, in the heart of, commitment to, and diverse array.

Done when: the shortest accurate construction wins, repeated terms remain stable, and emphasis comes from facts rather than stock cadence or diction.

3. Give the content its natural shape

• Organize around the reader's questions instead of a generic article outline.
• Add a heading only when it helps navigation. Use sentence case, preserve heading levels, and give each section content of its own.
• Let the surrounding format supply the document title rather than repeating it as a first heading.
• Use paragraphs by default. Use lists for actual sets or sequences and tables for comparisons that become clearer in rows and columns.
• Use the target venue's markup and keep Markdown, raw formatting tokens, and unsupported syntax out of other output formats.
• Use bold sparingly for functional emphasis. Use emoji only when the requested medium calls for them.
• Use punctuation for syntax, not punch. Replace formulaic em dashes with a comma, colon, parentheses, or a new sentence as appropriate.
• Follow the venue's quote and apostrophe convention consistently. Curly quotes are not a defect by themselves.
• Keep decorative section dividers, empty parent headings, repetitive **Label:** explanation lists, and canned sections such as "Challenges and future prospects" or "Awards and recognition" only when the material genuinely requires them.
• End on the last substantive point. A generic summary, optimistic outlook, balanced "despite these challenges" paragraph, or claim about future relevance needs concrete content to earn a place.

Done when: every structural and formatting choice carries information or improves navigation.

4. Remove chatbot residue

• Deliver the requested prose directly: greetings, praise, "of course," "here is," "I hope this helps," offers to do more, and operator instructions belong outside the reader-facing text.
• Let the text demonstrate neutrality, completeness, sourcing, compliance, clarity, or improvement rather than asserting those qualities.
• Replace knowledge-cutoff disclaimers and references to available search results with a precise limitation that matters to the reader, if one does.
• Resolve every template token, placeholder, dummy date, example URL, bracketed instruction, and drafting note before delivery.
• Keep headings and summaries proportional to the message. A short answer earns a miniature report structure only when the content needs it.

Done when: the output contains only reader-facing content and no trace of the conversation, prompt, drafting scaffold, or self-certification.

5. Audit sources

When the prose uses citations, load CITATIONS.md and complete its source audit.

Done when: the citation audit's completion criterion in CITATIONS.md is true.

6. Cross-check

Read the result once for content and once for presentation. For every applicable rule above, confirm satisfaction or record the content-based reason a retained pattern is legitimate. Repair the underlying sentence or structure; preserve natural prose rather than adding awkwardness to evade detection.

Done when: every applicable rule has been checked, no unsupported claim or placeholder remains, and any retained warning-sign pattern has a content-based reason to stay.