Content Writer

Content Writer

Create a useful informational draft from a topic, brief, and evidence. Let the reader's needs determine the structure instead of forcing every piece into the same template.

Boundary

Use this skill to draft new general-purpose long-form content.

• For keyword selection, search intent, SEO/AEO optimization, and content-ledger work, use an SEO content workflow instead.
• This skill may honor a supplied style guide while owning the article brief, outline, evidence, and draft. When measured compliance with an existing voice profile is the primary task, use style-writer.
• For landing pages, sales emails, CTAs, and other conversion-oriented assets, use direct-response-copy.
• For revision of existing prose, use a rewriting workflow.
• For an evidence-backed critique rather than a draft, use an editorial-review workflow.

The skill must remain useful by itself. Other skills are optional next steps, not dependencies.

Inputs

Collect only what materially affects the draft:

1. Topic and intended outcome.
2. Audience and what they already know.
3. Format, channel, and approximate length.
4. Required claims, examples, sources, and terminology.
5. Constraints, exclusions, and desired action.
6. A supplied style or voice guide, when one should govern the draft.

Ask one concise batch of questions when critical inputs are missing. Do not block on preferences that can be handled with a stated assumption.

Choose the Mode

• Outline first: Use for complex, long, high-stakes, or weakly specified work.
• Direct draft: Use when the brief, evidence, and structure are already clear or when the user asks for a quick draft.
• Section delivery: Use when the user wants to review or publish the piece incrementally.

Approval before drafting is required only when the user requests it or unresolved choices would materially change the piece.

Workflow

1. Resolve the brief

State the working purpose in one sentence. Identify:

• the reader's central question
• the useful answer or governing idea
• what the reader should understand or do afterward
• scope and non-goals
• unresolved assumptions

If the topic is keyword-driven or requires search-opportunity selection, stop and route to the search-optimization workflow rather than silently omitting its research and audit steps.

2. Build an evidence inventory

Separate:

• supplied facts and sources
• facts that require current verification
• examples that illustrate but do not prove a claim
• claims that remain unsupported

Research current or contested claims when tools and permission allow. Otherwise qualify, omit, or flag them. Never invent statistics, quotations, citations, named examples, product behavior, or personal experience.

3. Design the outline

For each proposed section, record:

Use as many sections as the argument needs. Avoid generic Introduction and Conclusion headings when specific headings would help the reader more.

4. Draft for meaning

Write the complete argument before polishing individual sentences.

• Answer the reader's main question early.
• Give each section one clear job.
• Put evidence next to the claim it supports.
• Use examples, lists, and tables only when they improve understanding.
• Keep terminology stable.
• Explain necessary jargon on first use.
• Match paragraph and sentence length to the material rather than a fixed quota.
• Preserve nuance, attribution, and uncertainty.

Apply a supplied style guide as a constraint. When formal profile matching is required, the completed brief, evidence plan, or draft may be handed to style-writer for a separate compliance pass. Do not require that skill to produce a useful article, and do not invent a reusable voice from a short excerpt while drafting.

5. Revise for usefulness

Check the piece in this order:

1. Completeness: Does it answer the brief and reader questions?
2. Evidence: Is each factual claim supplied, verified, qualified, or flagged?
3. Structure: Does every section advance the argument without repetition?
4. Clarity: Are subjects, actions, terms, and consequences concrete?
5. Readability: Do headings, lists, tables, and examples help scanning?
6. Voice: Does the draft follow supplied guidance without manufactured personality?
7. Ending: Does it stop with the useful conclusion or next action?

Do not apply universal word, punctuation, title-length, section-count, sentence-length, or reading-grade bans. Use explicit project guidance and reader needs.

Output

Return:

1. The outline, when outline-first mode was used.
2. The complete draft or requested section.
3. Material assumptions and unresolved evidence gaps.
4. Sources or source notes when research informed the draft.
5. Optional next-step suggestions only when another workflow would add clear value.

Write files only when the user requested a path or the surrounding task already establishes one.

Quality Gate

The draft is ready when:

• it fulfills the brief for the stated audience
• the main answer appears before avoidable background
• each section has a distinct purpose
• factual claims are traceable or clearly qualified
• examples and formatting improve comprehension
• no invented evidence, experience, or authorship appears
• supplied voice, terminology, and constraints are preserved
• the draft does not depend on another installed skill