# Effective Writing

> Write, structure, revise, or critique nonfiction articles, essays, newsletters, technical explainers, and editorial case studies. Use for Minto Pyramid/MECE structure, clarity and voice, AI-sounding prose audits, natural US team English, German-to-English team rewrites, and locale typography. Commercial-choice copy belongs to effective-marketing; repository-derived technical documentation to effective-delivery. Do not infer AI authorship.

- Skill: `sebastian-software/effective-writing` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 35 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sebastian-software/effective-writing`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sebastian-software/effective-writing/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Marketing & Growth
- Author: sebastian-software (https://skillmd.com/u/sebastian-software)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sebastian-software/effective-writing

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# Effective Writing

Choose the route from the requested artifact and editing mode. Read only the
references needed for that task; use supplied material and an established brief
without repeating an intake interview.

Preserve supported facts, qualifications, source attribution, and intentional
voice. Ask for missing source material only when it blocks the requested work;
never invent statistics, quotations, testimonials, experience, or product facts.
Remove words that do no work without flattening cadence or meaning.

Return the requested artifact. An audit-only request ends with findings; when
the user also asks for revision, complete that revision. Report observable
patterns in prose without claiming or estimating AI authorship.

## Route by Intent

| User intent | Read |
| --- | --- |
| Set thesis and scope, run Minto Pyramid or MECE analysis, order an argument or narrative, fix leads, transitions, or endings | [Structure and Story](references/route-structure.md) |
| Improve clarity, clutter, syntax, verbs, rhythm, or voice; run a multi-pass line edit | [Prose and Revision](references/route-prose.md) |
| Make prose sound less generated, or report observable AI-writing patterns without an authorship guess | [Human Voice Editing](references/route-voice-audit.md) |
| Write thought leadership, content marketing, editorial case studies, objections, proof, or a call to action | [Persuasive Nonfiction](references/route-persuasion.md) |
| Write engineering blog posts, technical articles, explainers, or public technical project pages | [Technical Subject Matter](references/route-technical-prose.md) |
| Rewrite a Slack message, issue or PR comment, async update, or stiff or German team note into natural US team English | [Metro English](references/route-metro-english.md) |
| Fix quotation marks, punctuation spacing, dashes, apostrophes, numbers, dates, currency, or hyphenation for a locale | [Locale Typography](references/route-locale-typography.md) |

## Routing Boundaries

- `effective-marketing`: commercial-choice page, campaign, sales, email and
  social copy, consultant positioning, and market claims/proof. Editorial
  articles stay here even when they serve a commercial audience.
- `effective-delivery`: technical documentation whose correctness depends on
  repository behavior, interfaces, executable examples, migration contracts,
  documentation tooling, or a controlled-language standard. Technical articles
  and explainers stay here.
- `effective-web`: interface copy, page hierarchy, accessibility, localization
  UX, and browser implementation. Locale language conventions stay here.
- `effective-product`: discovery, strategy, and durable communication decisions
  recorded as ADRs.

Correct language without silently changing the underlying technical, legal,
product, or documentation contract. Use controlled language only when the
artifact contract calls for it.