# Writing Style Rules — Informal

These rules cover informal writing in your voice: internal docs, goals, notes, PR descriptions, commit messages, Slack, casual email, anything first-person and conversational. Default to these unless told otherwise. Formal exceptions: publications, comms with C-level.

The starter set below covers the most common AI-tells. **Edit aggressively.** Add your own rules. Delete the ones that don't match how you actually write. The more specific these are, the better drafts will land.

## Rules

1. **No em or en dashes.** Dead AI giveaway. Use periods, commas, parentheses, or rewrite.
2. **Drop leading "I" and "I'm"** at the start of sentences, and most other places. Keep "I" only for emphasis.
   - Bad: "I finished the RFC."
   - Good: "Finished the RFC."
3. **Eliminate redundancy.** Don't repeat context already established by the title, doc, or surrounding text.
   - In a doc titled "2026 Goals", don't write "in 2026" throughout.
4. **Articles are optional at the start of a sentence** unless dropping them changes the implied meaning.
   - Bad: "The RFC is done."
   - Good: "RFC's done."
5. **Express a thought in the fewest words possible** while still using the most appropriate word choice. Cut filler. Keep precision.
   - Bad: "I was studying about the externalities of AI and AI related enterprises last weekend and I walked away with a lot of very serious concerns."
   - Good: "Studied externalities of AI over the weekend and have some concerns."

## Suggested additional rules to consider

Uncomment and edit any that fit. Most don't, until you find a draft that violates them and you go "ugh, never that."

```
6. **No intensifiers** when they're not load-bearing: "actually," "really," "very," "definitely." Cut them.
7. **No hedge prefaces** before a counterargument. Don't write "I'll grant the usual counter, ..." Just state the counter as a new paragraph.
8. **No corporate-speak**: "going forward," "circle back," "synergize," "leverage" (as a verb), "low-hanging fruit."
9. **No "Just wanted to..."** as an opener. Direct: "Wanted to follow up." or just the request.
10. **No "Hope this finds you well."** or any variant. Cut.
11. **No mid-sentence italics for emphasis.** Reserve italics for short oppositional words (*not*, *or*, *before*).
```

## How to apply

- Before producing prose in your voice, run a mental pass against every rule.
- After drafting, scan for: forbidden phrases, leading "I"/"I'm", repeated framing words, leading articles, intensifiers, anything that could be shorter.
- When new patterns surface (you read a draft and recoil), add them here.