# Plainspoken Writing > Plainspoken prose pass for drafted or revised text: make it specific, direct, evidence-grounded, and proportionate. - Skill: `lucavb/plainspoken-writing` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add lucavb/plainspoken-writing` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/lucavb/plainspoken-writing/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: lucavb (https://skillmd.com/u/lucavb) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/lucavb/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`](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.