Writing Clearly And Concisely
Use when writing prose humans will read—documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, reports, or UI text. Applies Strunk's timeless rules for clearer, stronger, more professional writing.
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Writing Clearly and Concisely
Overview
Write with clarity and force. This skill covers what to do (Strunk) and what not to do (AI patterns).
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:
If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.
Limited Context Strategy
When context is tight:
Loading a single section (~1,000-4,500 tokens) instead of everything saves significant context.
Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr.'s *The Elements of Style* (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut ruthlessly.
Rules
Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation):
Elementary Principles of Composition:
Reference Files
The rules above are summarized from Strunk's original text. For complete explanations with examples:
| Section | File | ~Tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Grammar, punctuation, comma rules | 02-elementary-rules-of-usage.md | 2,500 |
| Paragraph structure, active voice, concision | 03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md | 4,500 |
| Headings, quotations, formatting | 04-a-few-matters-of-form.md | 1,000 |
| Word choice, common errors | 05-words-and-expressions-commonly-misused.md | 4,000 |
**Most tasks need only 03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md** — it covers active voice, positive form, concrete language, and omitting needless words.
AI Writing Patterns to Avoid
LLMs regress to statistical means, producing generic, puffy prose. Avoid:
Be specific, not grandiose. Say what it actually does.
For comprehensive research on why these patterns occur, see signs-of-ai-writing.md. Wikipedia editors developed this guide to detect AI-generated submissions — their patterns are well-documented and field-tested.
Bottom Line
Writing for humans? Load the relevant section from elements-of-style/ and apply the rules. For most tasks, 03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md covers what matters most.
How to Use & Getting Started
# Step 1: Initialize skill agent setup
npx skills add Writing Clearly And Concisely --install-production
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
codex plugin install Writing Clearly And Concisely@latest
export API_KEY=secret_token_key_here
Installation Runbook & Walkthrough Locked
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