majiayu000 Writing Clearly and Concisely
Overview
William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut ruthlessly.
NOTE: elements-of-style.md is now condensed to ~1,400 tokens while preserving all essential rules.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:
- Documentation, README files, technical explanations
- Commit messages, pull request descriptions
- Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
- Reports, summaries, or any explanation
- Editing to improve clarity
If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.
How to Use
Three reference levels depending on context:
- Ultra-fast lookup:
quick-reference.md(~300 tokens) - All rules on one page - Complete guide:
elements-of-style.md(~1,400 tokens) - Full examples and technical writing guidance - Test examples:
../../../examples/writing-examples.md- 100+ before/after examples
Choose based on available context and complexity of writing task.
All Rules
Section II: Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation)
- Form possessive singular by adding 's
- Use comma after each term in series except last
- Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
- Comma before conjunction introducing co-ordinate clause
- Don't join independent clauses by comma
- Don't break sentences in two
- Participial phrase at beginning refers to grammatical subject
Section III: Elementary Principles of Composition
- One paragraph per topic
- Begin paragraph with topic sentence
- Use active voice ⭐
- Put statements in positive form ⭐
- Use definite, specific, concrete language ⭐
- Omit needless words ⭐
- Avoid succession of loose sentences
- Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
- Keep related words together ⭐
- Keep to one tense in summaries
- Place emphatic words at end of sentence ⭐
⭐ = Most impactful for technical writing
Section V: Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
Alphabetical reference for usage questions
Bottom Line
Writing for humans? Read elements-of-style.md and apply the rules.