writing-style

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Human writing standards to eliminate AI-generated text patterns. This skill should be used for any copywriting, marketing content, documentation, or professional writing to ensure output reads as genuinely human. Covers banned vocabulary, punctuation discipline, sentence variety, and tone guidelines.

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[Templates and Style Guides]

When & Why to Use This Skill

This Claude skill implements professional human writing standards designed to eliminate recognizable AI-generated text patterns. By enforcing strict guidelines on vocabulary, punctuation, and sentence structure, it ensures your content—ranging from marketing copy to technical documentation—reads with authenticity and authority, mirroring the high-quality communication style of industry leaders like Apple, Stripe, and Linear.

Use Cases

  • Marketing & Copywriting: Refining landing pages and advertisements to remove 'AI-isms' and build brand trust with a more persuasive, human voice.
  • Professional Documentation: Polishing technical guides, reports, or internal documentation to ensure a direct, confident, and clear professional tone.
  • Content Editing & Quality Assurance: Automatically scanning drafts for banned AI-overrepresented vocabulary (like 'delve' or 'leverage') and correcting repetitive sentence structures.
  • Brand Voice Alignment: Ensuring all outgoing communications adhere to a consistent, high-standard style guide that avoids robotic clichés and vague filler.
namewriting-style
descriptionHuman writing standards to eliminate AI-generated text patterns. This skill should be used for any copywriting, marketing content, documentation, or professional writing to ensure output reads as genuinely human. Covers banned vocabulary, punctuation discipline, sentence variety, and tone guidelines.

Human Writing Standards

Purpose

AI-generated text has recognizable patterns that erode trust and signal inauthenticity. This skill enforces rules for writing that reads as genuinely human—the standard used by Zed, Basecamp, Linear, Stripe, and Apple.

Workflow

To produce human-quality writing:

  1. Draft content normally
  2. Run the self-check (see Quick Self-Check below)
  3. Fix any violations using the reference material

Quick Self-Check

Before publishing any content, verify:

  1. Vocabulary scan: Search for banned words (delve, tapestry, landscape, leverage, robust, seamless, comprehensive, crucial, multifaceted, embark, journey, moreover, furthermore, utilize, foster, showcase)
  2. Em-dash count: More than 2 on the page? Rewrite.
  3. Opening check: Does it start with "In today's..." or "Whether you're..."? Rewrite.
  4. Colon check: Does the headline have a colon? Remove it.
  5. Vagueness check: Replace "helps you manage" with something specific.
  6. Read aloud: Does it sound like a person talking, or a press release?
  7. "The" count: Too many sentences starting with "The [product]..."? Vary it.
  8. Enthusiasm check: More than one exclamation point? Cut some.

Core Rules (Summary)

Rule Key Point
Banned Vocabulary Avoid AI-overrepresented words (delve, leverage, robust, seamless, etc.)
Em-Dash Discipline Max 1 per paragraph, 2 per page
Banned Phrases No "In today's...", "Whether you're...", "In conclusion..."
Punctuation Sparingly use semicolons, max 1 exclamation per page
Sentence Variety Mix short and long, vary paragraph length
Specificity Concrete details over vague benefits
Headers Short, scannable, no colons
Tone Direct, confident, personal ("we" and "you")
Filler Cut "very", "really", "in order to", etc.

Reference

For complete lists of banned words, replacement suggestions, and before/after examples, see:

  • references/writing-rules.md — Full vocabulary lists, punctuation rules, and examples